Please join me in welcoming the lovely Rebecca Maizel here today to Dark Faerie Tales. The first book in her Vampire Queen series, Infinite Days, will hit shelves on August 3, 2010. You can read an excerpt here. I absolutely loved this book. You can read my review here. Team Rhode? Team Vicken? Team Justin? Hell if I know…
One lucky commenter has a chance to win an autographed copy of Infinite Days. Details are listed at the end of the post.
Intentions
by Rebecca Maizel
Empty glasses. The clink of ice in frosted glasses – late night taxis. I used to watch the clock…six…seven…one am…two… That was my life as a New York City bartender. I lived nocturnally, watching the world in the white cast of the moonlight. New York City moonlight, that is. I learned about side long glances and the nuances of a smile. I watched…and watched…I learned about people.
When I was asked to write a blog about intention and how it relates to my novel, Infinite Days, I thought a lot about my life as a bartender. I thought about how people treated me. Some thought I was taking them for every dollar they were worth. Some confessed their souls to me. Some people wanted me to entertain them, tell them about my life and often asked “when I would get a real job?”
So, how, I bet you are asking, is a post on bartending going to lead to a blog about “intention?” Well, when I thought about all those nights I spent working behind the bar, I thought about one of my characters, Rhode, Lenah’s vampire sire in Infinite Days. (Sidebar: Is it sad I wrote an entire vampire novel and did not know the phrase “vampire sire” until it was published? I digress…)
So I thought about Rhode and how he fully believes that it is the intention that matters. “No matter, what,” he says, “it’s the intent.” So why did a NYC bartender decide to write a vampire story where one of the core themes is intention? Because I worked, never knowing if I’d ever be published. I worked knowing that I probably wouldn’t ever see a book on a shelf but I believed in the craft enough that I kept bartending so I could keep telling stories. Because even though I wrote crappy manuscript after crappy manuscript, I kept making drinks because I believed in the intention of my hard work.
You can call it karma. You can call it obsession, you can also call it dedication to the craft.
I knew my intentions were good. I wanted to write, I wanted to work so it didn’t matter how long it took. I watched people mingle and drink, eat their meals and spend their free time. I met thousands of strangers over the years, some have become friends, some have passed away, some have come in and out of my life in the sheer time it takes to drink a glass of wine. Yet, for me, I knew this, writing fiction is what I wanted to do.
So when I wrote, Infinite Days, I wanted to explore intention. I asked, thematically, does it matter the outcome of an event if your intention is good? Lenah, my main character, comes from a place of complete selfishness. She is that – through most of the book. She’s selfish and through the power of her new humanity is forced to come to terms with the whole history of her intentions. Most of her past is marred in the ill treatment of others, even down to blood and bone. The real question of Infinite Days is, can she stay this way?
I’ll finish this post with a quote from Lenah. When talking about the ritual used to make her human, Lenah says,
“The magic of the ritual lies within the vampire. It’s the intent. If your intentions aren’t pure, the ritual will fail and you both die.”
So, intentions within Infinite Days really matter. Despite the outcome, both Rhode and Lenah believe it is the intention hopefully, that’s all that matters of your actions that decipher whether you will live or die. I don’t have something as dramatic as a ritual to compare my story to Lenah’s but I think the essence is the same. Whether you are a 500 year old vampire or a 20 something bartender, if you believe what you are doing is right…then maybe.
Now, I’ll ask you…do you believe it’s the intention or the outcome?
Author Bio:
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.
You can visit Rebecca around the web here: Website | Blog | Twitter | Facebook
GIVEAWAY GUIDELINES:
One lucky commenter will have a chance to win a copy of Infinite Days.
To enter, leave a comment below answering the following question:
Is it the intentions that matter or the outcome?
1. +1 entry for answering the question (required).
2. +2 entries for becoming a follower of this blog and Dark Faerie Tales on Twitter.
3. +3 entries for tweeting about this contest, blogging about it, linking via your sidebar etc…(please tell me where!).
4. Giveaway is open to everyone.
5. Please include your email address in your comment.
6. Giveaway ends Monday, August 23rd at 11:59 PM EST.
7. The winner will be picked with the help of Random.org.
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