Children's author and illustrator Cece Bell still feels the occasional sting of rejection.

Her most recent book, "Bee-Wigged," tells the story of Jerry Bee, an enormous insect who scares everyone away until a small wig transforms him and helps him gain acceptance as a thoughtful and generous friend.

On the book's jacket, Bell writes: "Jerry's story is very much my own story -- in school, I hoped that if I wowed people with kindness, they would see beyond my weirdness and befriend me. It worked!"

Having published five other children's books is no guarantee that everything Bell writes will find its way to bookstores. She said that some of her story ideas still are passed over. She still plays the waiting game. Her publisher is currently considering three potential books.

"You really have to prove yourself with each story," she said. "Submitting things is easier, but you still have to wait and you still get rejected."

Bell is married to Roanoke Times columnist and freelance writer Tom Angleberger. The couple live with their two sons, Charlie, 5, and Oscar, 3, and four dogs in a renovated church in Ironto.

A recent home addition provides Bell a quiet space to work.

"I have a studio now," she said, laughing, "It's wonderful. No boys allowed."

Bell said her books should not be overanalyzed. With no formal training in children's literature (she has a bachelor's degree in fine arts and a master's degree in graphic design), she writes and illustrates purely from inspiration, intending only to tell a sweet story that children will enjoy.

Bell is the author of a trio of books based on the imaginary exploits of her beloved toy Sock Monkey.

She also has published two picture books, "Food Friends" and "Busy Buddies."

Inspiration, Bell said, can come from almost anywhere.

"It just sort of falls out of the air," she said. "Whenever I go out walking with a dog or something, that's usually when I get my ideas. Then I go home and write them down on a little piece of paper. And I have a drawer full of little pieces of paper."

"Bee-Wigged," she said, was the product of the drawer of inspiration.

When Bell's friend Kelli Huffman, a preschool teacher, told Bell that her grandmother wore a small hairpiece called a wiglet, Bell said that while she was amused by the word she insisted her friend had made it up.

When she found it in the dictionary, she knew that she would use it in a story one day. Into the inspiration drawer went the word "wiglet."

One day on a walk, from nowhere in particular, Bell said the idea of a bee and the tucked-away word "wiglet" just came together.

Her next book will be released in June. This book finds its inspiration in Bell's love of pooches.

"It's called 'Itty Bitty,' and it's about a very, very small dog that finds an enormous bone, and he chews out the middle of it and turns it into a home," Bell said. This book, aimed at 2- to 6-year-olds, will be a departure from her previous works, which she described as "goofy and funny and a little bit splashy."

The story of Itty Bitty, she said, is more quiet and sweet and "funny in a very mild way."