The big, honking bus turns right onto Lincoln Highway from Normal Road.

The bus just came from dropping off and picking up students on their way to their futures. The driver, a middle-aged woman peppered with brown – brown shades, brown hair, brown boots – is happy right where she’s at. She hauls around college kids to make money, but when she gets off work at 2 p.m. each day, she gets to do what she loves.

“When I was young, I was known as the artist,” said Lorelei Bell, a Huskie Bus driver and author of “Spell of the Black Unicorn,” an adult-fantasy novel published in 2008. “I just have a lot of fun writing.”

Bell, 54, of DeKalb, has been at her passion since the 1970s. In high school, she took the same creative writing class twice. She’s been trying to get published for years, but recently found a way to do it herself. She signed with Infinity Publishing, a self-publishing company that prints books as they are bought. Bell had to format the book herself and even drew the cover. But all the work she put in was fine with her – not to mention her number one fan: her husband, Dennis.

“He especially likes chapter 24,” she said, hinting that it may be the book’s “adult” themes that particularly intrigue him.

Bell’s book isn’t a Harry Potter rip-off. She said the cut-off age for reading it ‑ the funniest parts are “sexually-oriented,” she said ‑ should be 17.

“I started reading the Harry Potter books. I wondered if there was somebody out there writing these types of books for adults,” Bell said.

Her novel centers around Zofia Trickenblood, a sorceress from another planet who’s hiding on Earth from the evil wizard, Vesselvod Blood, while, at the same time, trying to the keep the Stone of Irdisi away from him.

“I created this whole thing. I just went with it,” Bell said, clearly excited. “Her husband, who is actually a lizard, turned into a vampire…”

Bell patterned Zofia after herself, one reason that Zofia, who’s clumsy and loves chocolate, is her husband’s favorite character.

Bell, who’s writing a vampire novel, drives down Annie Glidden Road toward the Holmes Student Center. She looks comfortable in the tall seat of the Route 2 Huskie Bus. Her husband drives the Route 1 bus. But her first love is, of course, what she gets to do after driving.

“I don’t write for publishers. I don’t write for critics,” Bell said. “The most wonderful praise I’ve gotten is, ‘When is your next book coming out?'”