Meet Anna Banks

Truth be told, I never considered myself a writer. It wasn’t an aspiration of mine. Not to say that I wasn’t good at it—I’d write papers for my classmates for money in high school. I’d cater to their voice and the expectations of their teacher and made the prose as realistic to each individual as I could. I just always thought my classmates were lazy. It never occurred to me that they might not have the ability to write, that it didn’t come naturally to them like it came to me.

It wasn’t until my late twenties that I decided to write a book. I had just read the Twilight series, and thought to myself, “If this girl can get published, I get can published.” Yes, I know that sounds like a jerk-face thing to say (and, yes, she will probably punch me in the face one day) but actually it’s a compliment to Stephenie Meyer. She made me believe that easy reading is easy writing. Oh, naive little me. Any good author will tell you, easy reading is freaking difficult writing. And trying to get published is a hard-knock life. But once I started writing, I couldn’t stop. And I’m glad I did, because if not, Galen Forza (the hot guy from my Syrena Legacy series) would never have existed.

Fast-forward to today. As of writing this sentence, I’ve published five books. My newest one is called Joyride. If I had to describe it, I’d say it’s Bonnie and Clyde meets a Latina Pretty in Pink. You should check it out. For reals. It was fun (but not easy!) to write, and hopefully it will be fun to read.

Speaking of fun, have I ever told you about that one time when Emmy Laybourne and I wrote a Sasquatch romance? No? Here, sit back, relax, and have some popcorn while I regale you with the story:

One day, while I was minding my own business (←a lie), Emmy Laybourne calls and says, “Hey, Peaches, how are you doing?”

ME “Hey! Fine. You?” (←or something just as generic)

EMM “Well, I kind of entered us in this Twitter contest thingy to write a Sasquatch romance. And they kind of picked us. So here’s how I thought we could do it—”

ME “&%#@!” (←use your imagination)

I was under deadline with a manuscript at the time and was insanely busy. But as with all things concerning Emmy, I couldn’t refuse her. We decided that we would each take on bits of the story, and tweet it one after the other during our hour-slot time. Writing with another author, and especially Emmy, is the best kind of challenge, because you strive to be the best version of yourself so you don’t let your partner down.

Writing “Monster Crush” was so satisfying, too, because my original idea for a YA novel was actually a Sasquatch romance—but I didn’t think the market was ready for that quite yet. In the midst of searching for something else to write about, I was watching this documentary on the giant squid. Before 2005, scientists thought the giant squid was just a myth, fishermen’s lore. We’ve all seen those drawings where an old ship is being hauled underwater by enormous tentacles, right? But in 2005, a dead one washed up on shore and everyone had to say, “Just joking! Giant squids are real!” I thought to myself What else could be out there? Mermaids?

And so I set out to prove mermaids could exist; Of Poseidon was born months later. People ask me all the time if I really think mermaids or bigfoot could really exist. My answer? Remember the giant squid, my friend. Remember the giant squid.