Ms. Banks has penned over 30 novels and 11 novellas in a wide range of genres and is the recipient of the 2008 Essence Magazine Storyteller of the Year Award. A native of Philadelphia, Banks is a graduate of The University of Pennsylvania Wharton undergraduate program, and alumnae of Temple University’s Master of Fine Arts in filmmaking program. Ms. Banks began her career in corporate marketing for several Fortune 100 firms and worked as an executive for over a decade at Xerox, Hewlett Packard, and Digital Equipment Corporation. She then subsequently evolved her veteran marketing experience into a solid entrepreneurial career as a marketing consultant within the economic development and community-based organization environment.
In 1992, Banks added another facet to her career, entering the publishing industry. She writes under the pseudonyms; L.A. Banks, Leslie Esdaile, Leslie E. Banks, Leslie Banks, and Leslie Esdaile Banks. She has won several business as well as literary awards, and writes in genres as diverse as romance, women’s fiction, crime suspense, and paranormal. She has contributed to magazines, newspaper columns, and has written commercial fiction for a variety of major publishers: St. Martin’s Press (NYC), Simon and Schuster (NYC), Kensington Publishing (NYC), BET/Arabesque (NYC), Genesis Press (MS), Parker Publishing, Harper, and Tor. Her non-fiction work includes the riveting and motivational story of Bank's life journey in her contribution to the Chicken Soup for the African American Soul anthology.
Banks’ writing career took a new twist in 2000 when she won the coveted contract with Paramount/Showtime in collaboration with Simon & Schuster/Pocketbooks to write a book series for the popular cable network television series, Soul Food. Banks also won the coveted Universal Studios/Dark Horse Press contract for the novelization of the movie, Scarface, which takes a look at the main character Tony Montana's life two years before he emigrated from Cuba to American in 1978. Banks also penned a four book crime thriller for Kensington/Dafina, beginning with Betrayal of the Trust, under her alternate pseudonym, Leslie Esdaile Banks. From there, Banks transitioned into another hot genre—the world of paranormal fiction, where she is currently penning a 12 book Vampire Huntress Legend series under the pen name, L.A. Banks, for St. Martin’s Press, as well as a hot new werewolf series, Crimson Moon Novels debuting spring 2008.
Currently Banks writes full-time, always working on multiple projects and anthologies simultaneously, and she resides in Philadelphia with her teenage daughter and her black Labrador Retriever. L.A. Banks started out writing romance novels in the early 90s and has continued on to succeed in the publishing world; crossing genres and building a growing fan base. Lesile has a monthly newsletter that's published monthly, a blog, a yahoogroup completely devoted to her Vampire Huntress Legend Series (VHL), which is a 12 book series that she writes for St Martin Press, as well as a forum, dedicated to the VHL and her new Crimson Moon Werewolf Series.
Current Websites related to this author:
http://www.leslieesdailebanks.com/index.phphttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/LeslieEsdaileBanksFanClub/http://vampirehuntress.com/
