Prolific Novelist & Essence Storyteller of the Year L.A. Banks to Talk About Writing at July 30 Athena Isle Writers Meeting

L. A. Banks, author of the popular Vampire Huntress^TM series of novels and recipient of the 2008 Essence Storyteller of the Year award, will be the guest speaker at the Athena Isle Writers meeting on Wednesday, July 30, at 12 noon SLT (Pacific time), at Story Mountain Center for Writers in Second Life.

Banks, who graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton undergraduate program, and received a Master's in Fine Arts from Temple University, has written more than 30 novels and contributed to 10 novellas, thus far, in multiple genres under various pseudonyms.

As a writer, she mysteriously shape-shifts between the genres of romance, women's fiction, crime/suspense thrillers, and of course, paranormal lore. One never knows how or when this enigma will appear . . . her forms are many, her secrets of crossing genres vast, and she does this with her teenaged daughter and her black Lab from some remote, undisclosed lair in Philadelphia.

Her Vampire Huntress series has become so popular among young adults that a Teacher's Curriculum Guide for the first two books has been created. The Office of Accelerated Learning, School District of Philadelphia, developed the guide as a result of numerous requests from educators nationwide who wanted to know how to harness the fantastic positive energy young people had as avid fans of the series. Given that the major themes in the Vampire Huntress legend were in alignment with the themes that many educators wanted to promote, these educators said they were also looking for ways to standardize a teaching methodology around the body of literature.

She also writes crime/suspense novels as Leslie Esdaile Banks, of which the most recent is No Trust; the Soul Food TV series novels as Leslie E. Banks; and women's fiction, romance (most recently Better Than), and motivational non-fiction as Leslie Esdaile.

L.A. Banks' newest book is Bite the Bullet, a Crimson Moon Novel, to be released in October 2008 by St. Martin's Press/Griffin.

Come meet L.A. Banks and learn more about her successful writing career next Wednesday, July 30, at 12 noon SLT at the Story Mountain Center for Writers on Athena Isle.

The meeting is free and open, and all SL residents are invited to attend.