Can't save text into an attribute within epiceditor?

[Vish-Ram]

Im trying to save text typed within epiceditor into an attribute called body, but when i call on body later, it returns nil rather than any text. Is there something that I'm missing? Also I can't seem to size the editor no matter what rows and cols I pass into the text area. Thank you!

<div id = 'box_4'>
        <div id="epiceditor">
          <%= f.label :body %>
          <%= f.text_area :body, id: 'my-edit-area', :rows => 50, :cols => 100 %>
        </div>  
</div>