L.A. Banks Books

Description /Buy link takes you to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate I earn money from qualifying purchases.

L. A. Banks was an African America author that wrote within a variety of genres. The people who knew her described Banks as a perpetually active individual, always experimenting and progressing. Whether she was pursuing a career in business or producing fiction, Banks wasn’t afraid to try new things, to escape her comfort zone in favor of pushing the boundaries.

Her death in 2011 was met with sadness from the literary community. People were aware that she had been diagnosed with adrenal cancer. That was in 2011 as well. Even with a thriving literary career, the author could not afford to cover the costs associated with her medical care.

So her family reached out to her friends and colleagues. They opened a charitable fund and asked people to make donations, Authors like Charlaine Harris and P.N. Elrod rose to the challenge, participating in auctions and offering books and services in the hopes of raising money that could be funneled into the fund.

L.A. Banks ultimately passed away in August of 2011, leaving behind a daughter. The author was born Leslie Ann Peterson in 1959 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. For the longest time, people knew her as Leslie Esdaile. The name can be attributed to her marriage to Michael Esdaile. It was from their coupling that Banks’ daughter, Helena Esdaile, was born.

Their marriage eventually ended, with Banks going on to marry Al Banks in 2000, hence the change in name. The author has written fiction under numerous pen names, including Leslie E. Banks and Leslie Esdaile Banks. She was a chameleon that could seemingly produce fiction in any genre that piqued her interest.

A lot of people know her for writing dark fantasy. But she also wrote women’s fiction, crime suspense, and African American literature.

Before joining the field of publishing, L.A. Banks worked in marketing. She went through the Wharton undergraduate program (University of Pennsylvania). She also attended Temple University from where she acquired her Master of Fine Arts (Film making program).

Her resume includes stints at Xerox, Digital Equipment Corporation, and Hewlett Packard. She also had the opportunity to work at numerous Fortune 100 companies as an executive. Having accumulated a significant amount of knowledge and experience in the field, Banks eventually branched out on her own, becoming a marketing consultant.

She finally entered the publishing industry in 1992, producing dozens of novels and novellas in a wide variety of genres. Some people will remember the content she contributed to magazines and newspapers during those years, not to mention all the commercial fiction she produced for the likes of Simon and Schuster, St. Martin’s Press, and Kensington Publishing.

If Banks was to identify one defining aspect of her career, it would probably be the day Paramount/Showtime gave her the contract to write a series of books based on the ‘Soul Food’ TV show. Though, for many of her fans, L.A. Banks was at her best when she was writing vampire fiction.

L.A. Banks Awards

Banks received the Essence Literary Award in 2008.

Best L.A. Banks Books

Before her death, Banks was lauded for her feverish commitment to her community, with some of the best books in her bibliography including:

Minion: To the world, Damali Richards is just another spoken word artist; perhaps the best artist ‘Warriors of Light’ Records has to offer, but just another human all the same. And Damali is happy to maintain that facade during the day. But at night, everything changes.

At night, Damali and her team hunt the things that lurk in the shadows. They know that vampires are real and they have made it their business to keep innocent humans safe from their blood lust.

When rogue vampires start killing artists, Damali leaps into action to stop them. But something else is wreaking havoc in the club drug-trafficking network, a creature so brutal that it mutilates its victims beyond recognition. Damali must find this powerful vampire before it finds her.

Awakening: Some people think that Damali is just another spoken word artist. Others think that she’s just a vampire huntress. But the vampire world knows who she really is. Damali is the millennium Neteru and the creatures of the night will fight tooth and nail to sink their claws into her.

One such creature is Fallon Nuit, a vampire that has gone so far as to join a deadly cabal of demons in his attempts to possess her.

When Does The Next L.A. Banks book come out?

L.A. Banks doesn't seem to have an upcoming book. Their newest book is Conquer the Dark and was released on September, 27th 2011. It is the newest book in the The Dark Series.

Home » Author » L.A. Banks

BookSeries.org