Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Leslie Esdaile Banks 1959-2011


Why? Why in the world is Leslie gone? If you don't know who Leslie Esdaile Banks (aka L.A. Banks) is, please check out her website. She was a talented and prolific novelist, who wrote romance and fantasy novels. Most people know her for the Vampire Huntress Series. Actually, "prolific" is not the word. A "Book Cranking Machine" is more like it. Leslie was seemingly always under a deadline. It was hard to catch up with her because that was a working sister.

Leslie died today from adrenal cancer.

I met her because of Rom. He found her email address somehow simply to say, "I love your work." When I went public as a professional intuitive, Rom took it upon himself to tell Leslie about me. The subject line of his email, as the story was told to me, was something like, "Check Out My Wife."

Okay...so if you see an email from a man you don't know with a subject line like that, would you open it? You're thinking "porno," right?

That's what Leslie thought!

But she opened it anyway, ready to reply back to Rom with a terse "delete my email address from your brain, brother."



But what she saw was a sweet email about my Angel readings. She wrote Rom back and said she would love a reading. She made a point of meeting us the next time she was in town. Leslie treated us like we'd been friends forever. And that's what everyone has said about her. She was friendly, gregarious, honest, and oh-so hilarious. She reminded me of E. Lynn Harris. They had the same joyous energy. You just wanted to be around them.

Leslie and I stayed in touch. I even got a shout-out in The Bitten, the fourth book in the Vampire Huntress Series. The last time I saw her was two years ago on my birthday. The last time we spoke was around Christmas 2010.

And this morning....I just knew. I saw her phone number in my address book and I heard, "It's too late. She's gone." I dismissed it because I didn't want to believe it. How could such a larger-than-life personality be gone? But it was true. Another loss. I'll miss her for the rest of my life.



It was my honor to have known you.
Rest in Power, Leslie.
Mother. Daughter. Spiritual. Lovely. Giving. Talented. Touched by the Divine.


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3 comments:

Mindy said...

Oh, I'm so sorry for your loss, Althea. Maybe you'll hear her still somehow, if you can tune in with your intuitive gifts. Blessing and Prayers, Mindy

Althea said...

Thanks Mindy. I appreciate you.

TheWriterStuff said...

OMG, she just did a wonderful workshop at this year's MWA Writers' Conference. I'm so glad I had the opportunity to meet her and experience her beautiful energy. She will be missed by many.

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