Leslie Esdaile Banks

Back in action… HOLLA!

Folks, thanks soooo much for being patient with me and for all the mad-crazy LOVE you showed in responding to the December blog that was posted at the top of the month! I missed you all, for real, for real.

First let me say, I love you right on back BIG SMILE! Yep, no doubt, you all keep me going and I read every single response, so I’m gonna try to get it all in here… but lemme tell you where I’ve been.

I’ve been in serious hiding, in the writing cave. After I finished with Carlos and Damali — (Yes, book 9, The Cursed, is written and turned in and ready to go for July 2007, just like The Wicked, book 8, is good ta go for February 2007), I had to mentally shift gears and go werewolf, LOL That’s right, you heard me—go all wolf.

Now, this process took a little time, because I’d tried my hand at developing the creatures in Vegas Bites, and in a short story I did in Voices From The Other Side. Then I did a couple of werewolf-based short stories for paranormal erotica anthologies for Harlequin slated for next year, 2007 (Creepin’ and On The Line) to get the feel of this creature, just to warm up my chops. I had to make sure I could write the guys super sexy and the females off the chain before I could commit to a series. That’s why I went underground.

I was working on this female lead, and she had to be all that—but NOT Damali. Plus, I had to give this series its own unique spices and flava (chuckle), and after Carlos and Damali, dang, my mind was fried, ha ha ha! Created this male… cross between Native American, French Haitian, and coming out of Canada – but as you know, I had to give him some supernatural powers based on werewolf research that you all haven’t seen before.

Can I tell you that I was up at nights, walking the floors, scratching my head! LOL! OY!

So, with this self-imposed challenge, I had this six-foot four, two hundred and twenty pound, Haitian semi-sweet dark chocolate thunder of a male wolf on my desk with a cascade of black velvet, Native American hair, and needed to make him smooth… sexy, hot as hell… with some moves that would have made Mr. Rivera nod with approval.

See, the tricky part was, those of you who have read the Vampire Huntress Legends series have also seen my were-humans. Kamal and his crew from Bahrain have their own style, too, that I didn’t want to copy. Frankly, I was stumped. The heroine was easier, since I had military, Black Ops infrastructure already to draw from… then had to get the genetics straight—that who’s your Daddy stuff when you begin a sci-fi project is critical, because readers want your science to be tight and have every right to expect that.

That’s why I was gone, MIA, for three weeks. I was talking to brothers in the military (Thank you, Derrick!) who really flew into Area 51, did Black Ops, martial arts, were SEALS or knew guys in Delta Force, and could “spit the lingo.”

You oughta know me by now, how anal I can be on research and history woven into story-line. If I’m going to start a new legend, the science has to be tight. I was surfing all sorts of Native American myths, legends, and beliefs on the wolf, doing werewolf research, finding tribal locations—whew! Oh, yeah, and let’s not forget about stem-cell research and genetics/DNA stuff. Again, my hard drive, (and the cookies thereon), look very, very suspicious—but I assure you it’s all in the name of good, clean fiction.

Stumped, consuming too many cups of coffee, mind on fire, trying to bring the heat level up in the love scenes, and the love as well, to at least simmer close to that of a Carlos & Damali level boil… I’m on the sofa (had given up trying to really go to sleep in the bed while working out this mental Rubik’s cube)—was taking a doze while previously channel surfing cable, staring at the ceiling in the dark—mind zinging all over the place, and a car drove by the window.

Eureka!

I watched shadows dance. Hot damn, shadow wolves!

That’s all I can tell ya… this is a Black Ops series coming down the pike, and if I tell ya, might hafta kill ya (LOL!) But this new series will be called “A Crimson Moon Novel” and we should have a title for you after the holidays.

That’s where I was… I’m shaking my head. So, for those of you who asked about the writing process, sometimes its coyote ugly (ha ha ha!)

Sometimes you have to stretch yourself, push yourself. It’s so easy to rely on what you’ve done before, but that’s not fair to the readers. I’m a reader, too, and can tell when that’s what someone did. What’s the old saying about doing unto others…? Yeah. I don’t want to do to you guys what I don’t want done to me. Plus, each time you go into something new and stretch your skills as an artist to go a little further, you improve and grow.

Now, it very well may be that I’ve gone too far, LOL! We all have heard albums and CDs written by music icons that have departed from the norm, and we were like… Ooookaaaay. (Not that I’m an icon, but you know what I mean—laughing!) Usually when I hear something like that or read it, I say, all right—the person was stretching out and feeling where the edge of their envelope might lie. That’s where I just was, trying to see if I could stretch out a little and try something new. I hope like hell it worked and won’t know till y’all read it and tell me (chuckle.) But whatever the feedback, I won’t be abandoning Damali and Carlos. Like in families, we’re not supposed to have favorites… but… (Smile)

As far as movies, I FEEL YOU on those comments. D & C in the VHL series are my babies. If Hollywood messes them up, somebody bring a sistah some smellin’ salts. Right now the series is under option. My fingers are crossed that serious budget happens so it can be done at a high-quality level (“Underworld” style, not Dollar Store fangs… and no knock on the Dollar Stores, I shop there all the time, but the FX gotta be tight.)

There’s a part of me that wonders if cable TV as a series would be better, almost like a racier version of the show 24 – on like HBO or something (God, are You listening?), because then all the nuances and characters could be kept. The problem with a movie is you only get 120 pages of script. One page = one screen minute, and that’s why sooo much gets cut. And if we’re talking a series, DANG. Each book in the VHL series is like 500 manuscript pages boiled down into what you buy on the shelf (some are almost 600+ pages) X 8 books available now = 4,000 pages of raw action, hot sex, heart-wrenching love, thrills, chills, and spills.

Just on the web alone, there’s over 400 pages, I think, of original content on the website in Between The Books, Inside the Mind of A Vampire, and Damali’s Journal—all of which is integrated into the story lines… and I haven’t even discussed the Guardian back stories you can find in Stroke of Midnight and Love At First Bite, or in that little red sampler that came out last December. WILD. How do you do that in 120 pages? I’m scared, frankly. Like they say, “Be afraid, be very afraid.’ As the author who is on the sidelines, I am. Trust me, I am, for real.

But, I digress. Right now, we still have the books, and that’s my domain, my turf. So, if I can keep my flow going and if I do my job of research, imagination, and listening to what YOU tell me you want… then, it’s all good. That’s the beauty of a series—I have time to incorporate in what you say you want, what triangles you want resolved, and can add in my own two cents, too. Makes for good literary gumbo, can get everything in the pot without limitations. (Wink) That’s why books will always be better, (personal opinion), there’s just more canvass to paint on.

After the holidays, once I get my head screwed back on right, LOL… I’ll do some writing technique blogs, too, for those who are aspiring writers. A couple of people asked about how you get into sci-fi, and I guess my response is, you have to create a world with believable characters—that means your science is important. I ask myself questions when world-building like… how do they make their money (how does this society function in terms of trade/commerce)?

That’s important, as it tells you the evolution of the civilization. How do they eat, how do they procreate, what special powers do they have, what special vulnerabilities do they have, etc.? The best model for getting all the building-block questions is by watching The Nature Channel or Animal Planet. Ever see a National Geographic special? Listen to the narrator (laughing)… “The lion is the king of the jungle. He sleeps all day, while his food drinks at the watering hole…” Narrator’s voice drops… “But when hunger finally rouses him, he is on the scent trail, moving with the winds…”
You get the idea. You know how the creature eats, sleeps, hunts, kills, what it’s natural enemies are, how it mates, rears its young, blah, blah, blah. Whenever I start a new thing, I watch a show like that to remind me to ask all those questions. And let me assure you, everything in the new series about wolves is dead accurate—yes, they an run at a 5 mph trot over about 25 miles a day, or do up to 45 mph in a flat out run. (I’m such an info geek, my apologies, ha ha ha, but this is the stuff texture and layers are made of in sci-fi.)

Anyway, folks, that’s where I’ve been and the update on what’s taken me so long to get back. I’m gonna “try” to get another BTB out to you before the New Year, if brain cells catch fire and cooperate… it’s like rubbing two sticks together at this point—two very bent, exhausted sticks… in fact, I may only have one left (HUGE GRIN)! And for those who asked where do the steamy, erotic scenes come from… LAUGHING… ah… I really would have to kill ya… and yes, I have a photographic memory life’s been good to this old girl!

Everybody have a safe, joyous, love-filled, prosperous, HAPPY New Year and I’ll catch y’all in 2007! BIG PHILLY HUG, Leslie!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 20th, 2006 at 4:06 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.