Author Interview: Rebecca Maizel

Today I'm excited to be featuring an interview with Rebecca Maizel, author of the debut novel Infinite Days.

Rebecca Maizel graduated from Boston University and the Rhode Island College master’s program. She teaches community college in Rhode Island and is studying to receive her MFA from Vermont College.

Find Rebecca Maizel Online: Website/Blog

See my review of Infinite Days!
Vampires are popular in YA Fiction, but Infinite Days presents a very unique take on the subject. How did you come up with the idea to write about a vampire who turns human?

I connected to my main character, Lenah’s voice. It was so strong; and sinister and tragic. I wanted to tap into that sorrow and darkness. I wanted to bring this person, whoever she was back out to light. It turned out that she was a vampire and thematically, it worked. Every person out there has done something they aren’t proud of. And whatever that thing is, they have to live with it - forever. That’s Lenah but times about a million! I just started writing one day and there she was with a motive, a purpose, and some really scary enemies.

Do you find you are similar to any of the characters in Infinite Days? Do they reflect how you were as a teen?

Sometimes, I look at the world like I’m standing on the outside looking in. I think a lot of writers feel this way. This is what connects me most to Lenah, my main character. I also think I have a mischievous streak like Tony. :)

When I was a teen, I wore my heart on my sleeve all the time. I was a real romantic and I completely believed in finding that storybook romance. I would have loved Infinite Days as a teen because I wanted to believe in that never ending love and that it was possible for me to find in my high school!

When you're not writing, what kinds of books do you read?

I am pursuing a second masters in Writing for Young Adults right now. So right now I read oodles of YA. Right now I am reading:

Damage - AM Jenkins
Torment - Lauren Kate
Delirium - Lauren Oliver

Can you share with us anything about the sequel to Infinite Days, Stolen Nights? Is there going to be any books after Stolen Nights?

Infinite Days was sold as a trilogy so after Stolen Nights there is one more! I can't reveal too much about the sequel but I will say...EVERYTHING absolutely everything at Wickham is about to go to hell.

When did you decide you wanted to become a writer?

My sister is older than me so when I was a kid in 1991, she got her first video camera. Most of my friends were playing with Barbies, I was making movies of my Barbies! I think I was a creative kid but my creativity was harnessed in a narrative way. I was always writing, creating.

Infinite Days is your first published book, but did you write other books before that were less-than-best, that never got published?

Of course! I call it my zombie novel because it won't die! I keep coming back to revise it again and again. I stole that phrase from the wonderful Janet Fox who wrote Faithful. She was in a workshop with me and referred to one of her works in progress as a zombie novel.

Do you have a certain place or time of day that you write?

My writing process is a bit snarky and I drive myself nuts. There’s a lot of whining. I tend to fill up notebooks with handwritten musings, and then I try to piece them together in a word document. I always try to sludge through one full draft on the computer. Then, I print out the word document and write allllll over it, edit the living hell out of it. Then I go back to the word document, implement my edits and start again…and again…and again…

I also improv my characters. Seriously! I try to do this when no one is home but I improvise scenes as a character. That way, I am acting the scene through that character’s eyes and my behavior, my reaction, my word choice is inevitably indicative of that character. Anyone with an acting background might want to try this out.

A couple of questions just for fun- If you could spend a day in any place at any time in the past, where would you go and why?

I would go to the Globe Theatre in London during its prime (16th century, I believe). Could you imagine seeing Shakespeare's plays in the original globe theatre? SWOON.

What are some of your favorite movies or TV shows?

I really don't watch much TV, I have to admit. I loved Roswell when it was on and of course, My So Called Life. But more contemporary? I like Modern Family and The Middle. Some of my favorite movies?
Oh boy. Back to the Future, Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet, Platoon, Meet Joe Black, Sense and Sensibility.

Thanks so much to Rebecca for stopping by my blog! I enjoyed your responses!

Be sure to enter my giveaway for a copy of Infinite Days, too, which I will be posting shortly!

Book Review: Infinite Days by Rebecca Maizel

Title: Infinite Days

Author: Rebecca Maizel

Series: Vampire Queen #1

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Release Date: August 3 2010

My Source: Borrowed

My Rating: 4/5

Goodreads Summary:

Lenah Beaudonte is, in many ways, your average teen: the new girl at Wickham Boarding School, she struggles to fit in enough to survive and stand out enough to catch the eye of the golden-boy lacrosse captain. But Lenah also just happens to be a recovering five-hundred-year-old vampire queen. After centuries of terrorizing Europe, Lenah is able to realize the dream all vampires have -- to be human again. After performing a dangerous ritual to restore her humanity, Lenah entered a century-long hibernation, leaving behind the wicked coven she ruled over and the eternal love who has helped grant her deep-seated wish.

Until, that is, Lenah draws her first natural breath in centuries at Wickham and rediscovers a human life that bears little resemblance to the one she had known. As if suddenly becoming a teenager weren’t stressful enough, each passing hour brings Lenah closer to the moment when her abandoned coven will open the crypt where she should be sleeping and find her gone. As her borrowed days slip by, Lenah resolves to live her newfound life as fully as she can. But, to do so, she must answer ominous questions: Can an ex-vampire survive in an alien time and place? What can Lenah do to protect her new friends from the bloodthirsty menace about to descend upon them? And how is she ever going to pass her biology midterm?

My Review:

A fresh, new take on vampires can be hard to find. Ever since Twilight came out, YA literature is packed with vampire stories that can start to sound repetitive. I hadn't heard much about Infinite Days before I read it, so my expectations were only for an average vampire story.

I am so glad I was wrong. Infinite Days is about 500-year-old vampire Lenah, who goes through a ritual that turns her human again. She becomes a sixteen-year-old girl and has to attempt to blend in at her new boarding school. The idea is a bit cliche, I've seen a new girl having to blend in at school before. I've seen girls deal with the balance between a paranormal war and say, their biology midterm. So I wasn't too into this book at first.

But once I got into this book, I saw it was a cut above other similar fantasy stories. The most unique aspect of the book was that vampires were vicious, evil killers. That's it. And our main character was one of them. Lenah was an evil killer without a heart. And she becomes human. It was like reading about a serial killer who had a change of heart. We see her struggling with this and who she is the whole book. Lenah struggled to restrain her vampire instincts as she was becoming human. The balance of vicious vampireness and human feelings was always waging war, and over time I saw how she really changed. It was written very well and was so believable. I loved this aspect of the book. Lenah was such a great and unique character.

Unfortunately, the romance fell a little flat for me. Justin, the very human lacrosse star, is attracted to Lenah at the beginning simply because of her almost ethereal beauty. Lenah is attracted to him because of her desire to be human. Justin, being the drop dead gorgeous athlete that he is, was someone I was immediately liked, but after reading about him for awhile, I found he was a bit boring and predictable. Lenah never was, so maybe that's why I didn't like the pairing too much. Though this bothered me, it didn't drag the book down much. Too much other great stuff was happening, and Justin wasn't that bad. I think a lot of people will still love the Lenah-Justin relationship, so don't let this turn you away from reading the book.

The ending- oh my gosh. I have such mixed feelings about the ending. I hated it and loved it. Infinite Days ended with an intense plot drive, where something was happening and the reader just HAD to know what would happen to Lenah. It wasn't predictable, which I loved. I hated that I was confused some of the time, and the book started feeling muddled, just a bit. Some of what Lenah was doing seemed unneccesary and I didn't understand her motivations. I can't go into detail because, well, it was the ending and I don't want to give anything away! Then a serious cliffhanger ending. Which, in this case, I was okay with, but I thought there could be a little more conclusion but still leave it open ended. But it left me dying for the next book. I can't wait to read Stolen Nights.

I give Infinite Days a strong 4/5 stars, close to 4.5 but not quite there. Many YA romance and fantasy lovers will devour this one. It had some small problems, but kept me reading to the end. I had a lot of fun reading this one and I'm looking forward to the next one!

*caution: small amount of vague mature content that might not be appropriate to some readers

Buy From Amazon:


Author Info: Website/Blog