Author Interview: Rebecca Maizel (Infinite Days)

Please welcome Rebecca Maizel, author of Infinite Days. I appreciate you taking the time out to do this interview with me. Infinite Days was a good start to an exciting vampire series, read my review here. I look forward to the next installments! If you haven't read it yet, make sure you pick it up.

______________________________

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.

For more info on Rebecca, visit her site(s):
-Blog
-Facebook
-GoodReads

Coming Soon:
-Stolen Nights (Vampire Queen #2) - March 15, 2011
______________________________

Infinite Days (Vampire Queen, Book #1) by Rebecca Maizel
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
Release Date: Available Now
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Pages: 336

Summary: When Lenah Beaudonte, a 500-year-old vampire queen, wakes up a human teenager at an ultra-cliquey prep school, she must choose between embracing the humanity she’s always craved and saving her new friends from her vicious coven. The first in a sizzling new YA series. 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?

Book Trailer:

______________________________

Author Interview:

1) When did you first consider yourself a writer?

RM: I’ve been writing since I was a little girl. When I was a kid most people were playing with Barbies, I was using my sister’s video camera to make movies starring my Barbies. I guess I was thinking in a narrative format even when I was really little!

2) What inspired you to write Infinite Days?

RM: 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!

3) If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in Infinite Days?

RM: Absolutely not.

4) If you had to describe your book in one word, what would it be?

RM: That’s a really hard question. I’ll pick a bunch of words: exciting, unexpected, sexy, scary, supernatural…

5) How does it feel being a debut author?

RM: I was a bartender for 11 years so this experience has changed my life. Being a writer is who I am and I know it seems like a stock answer but I’m extremely grateful to get up every day and do what I love.

6) What can we expect from this YA vampire series?

RM: In this series, expect that nothing is at it seems. Trust Lenah but don't trust everyone you meet. Again, I hope everyone enjoys the series as much as I've enjoyed writing it.

7) What do you like to do when you're not writing?

RM: Kickboxing. I love it! I also like to sit on the sea wall in Narragansett RI and watch the ocean. I lived in NYC for a long time so watching the ocean never gets boring for me. My dog, King Louie is a great companion, he’s a Bichon but thinks he’s a pit bull. I’m learning to speak French. I also can quote any 1980’s family movie: Goonies, Vacation, Ferris Buller, etc.

8) What book are you currently reading?

RM: I’m reading a lot. I’m pursuing a second masters at Vermont College in a program for Writing For Young Adults so we are supposed to read 10 books a month. Recently I read and LOVED:

Lauren Kate’s – Fallen. That book kept me up until 3 in the morning.
A.M. Jenkins – Repossessed.
Gennifer Choldenko – Notes From a Liar and Her Dog.
Kristin Cashore’s – Graceling and Fire. Those books were unreal. I am a crazy Cashore fan right now. If I saw her I would ask for her autograph and beg her to tell me all her writing secrets.

9) Do you have anything to say to all your present future readers?

RM: I hope you love this book. I hope I’ve written something that you can’t put down!

10) What's the most craziest thing you've ever done that you wouldn't dare share with others (besides us ;P)?

RM: Oh, that’s hard. Getting a tattoo was pretty crazy. My mom always tells me when I was little, and had to go to the doctor, I would tense up, stiff as a board when it was time to get a shot. So it’s weird that I walked willingly into a tattoo parlor to get a tattoo. I was 28 when I got it so I waited a long time to decide if I wanted a tattoo and if it was right for me. The rest of the stuff I’ll have to tell you when you meet me sometime!