Although Caledon author Jeanne Bannon has had great success with her numerous novels and book series, she said it was her first book that made her mark in the publishing world.
“My first novel Invisible has been my greatest success to date,” said Bannon. “I am proud to say that it made the USA Today best seller list (November 5, 2017) and was optioned to be a film or a TV series. It almost made it to the big screen, but unfortunately the production company that optioned the book went bankrupt before that happened.”
Bannon said Invisible is about a teenage girl named Lola who feels that she doesn’t fit in. She struggles with being overweight and other issues. She wishes she could disappear and one day, she does.
“The story involves magical realism and superpowers when Lola discovers she can make herself disappear,” Bannon said. “For Lola, this is scary, and initially she finds a dark side to her powers. But then learns to use her powers for the better.”
Bannon wrote stories and poetry as a young girl. It’s something that’s just in her, she said. Even though she has worked in the publishing industry as a professional editor and writer, she didn’t publish her first book until she was in her early 40s. She writes in the genres of Romantic Suspense, Contemporary Romance and Young Adult.
“The genre I am known for is romantic thrillers with an element of the paranormal,” she said. “I love to write about romantic relationships and the paranormal. I am fascinated with the paranormal. My readers really like the romantic part and are intrigued by the paranormal elements.”
Why the interest in the paranormal? Is it based on personal experience?
“Yes, I have had so many paranormal experiences in my life that I’ve lost count,” she said. “One that really stands out happened when I was in my early 30s. I was pregnant and was upstairs sleeping when suddenly someone whispered in my ear, ‘So and so (a name I can’t remember) is here.’ I sat up and saw a torso of a woman wearing a polka dot blouse, and she was holding something in her arms. Then she just drifted through a solid wall and part of the window and was gone. A few days later I had a miscarriage. I’m not sure if it was a figure of doom or an angel warning me of what was to come.”
At one point Bannon was writing a book a year. She’s written two series of three books apiece, The Pet Set Collection-A Collection of Sweet Romances and Beautiful Monster which Bannon describes as “a vampire series”. She then followed with two stand-alone thrillers called Nowhere to Run and Dead End Girl.
“I drew on some of my childhood experiences in Dead End Girl which is set in northern Ontario where I spent a lot of time with my cousins,” she said. “A lot of my novels are set in northern Ontario. I often visualize special places I have been and mention them in my novels, such as the Riverside Grill in Bolton where my family and I used to go all the time.”
Bannon names renowned Canadian author Nico Ricci as her mentor.
“At one point we would talk a couple times a week and I would run my ideas past him, such as my ideas for my book Of Flesh and Blood,” she said. “It has a lot of paranormal elements and I really enjoyed writing it. It had more of me in it than any of my other books. However, I think I went overboard with the paranormal aspects and some of those ideas went over people’s heads. I truly believe in other dimensions, but I learned with Of Flesh and Blood that you can go too deep.”
The author is currently working on a new book called Love Struck: A Second Chance Romance, which is expected to be released in 2025.
“It’s about a second chance love story that’s a romantic thriller set in Muskoka,” said Bannon.
A woman (a movie star) leaves her abusive husband and hides out in a cottage in Muskoka. She finds herself rather intrigued by the handsome property manager. Meanwhile, the private detective who is supposed to be watching the movie star’s abusive husband discovers that the troublesome husband has disappeared. Has he discovered where his wife is hiding?
Thankfully, Bannon has never struggled with the dreaded ‘writer’s block’.
“I’m lucky in that way—ideas come easy to me, usually just before I fall asleep,” she said. “I keep a notebook beside my bed to write everything down. I am also a planner not a ‘pantster’ (someone who writes by the seat of their pants and makes it up as they go along). I plan everything out. I find the theme, figure out the characters, create an outline, and then flesh out my notes. I try to make my characters as real as possible and often visualize someone for the role. I visualized Julia Roberts for the movie star wife in Love Struck.”
So then who is Bannon visualizing for the character of the dreamy property manager? Fans can hope it’s someone like Richard Gere or Chris Hemsworth.