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This episode features our conversation with Michelle McGill-Vargas, which was live-streamed on May 2, 2026.

Michelle McGill-Vargas writes speculative historical fiction, short stories, and flash fiction. Her work has appeared in Splickety Magazine, The Copperfield Review, and Typehouse Literary. She is a board member of the Midwest Writers Workshop and Historical Novel Society-North America. Michelle is also a writing coach for Writing Day Workshops. She currently resides in the Midwest with her family and furbabies.

During this episode, we chatted about Michelle’s debut novel, American Ghoul (Blackstone Publishing, 2024).

"You can't kill someone who's already dead."

That's what Lavinia keeps telling her jailer after--allegedly--killing her mistress, Simone Arceneau. But how could Simone be dead when she was taking callers just a few minutes before? And why was her house always so dark?

Lavinia, a recently freed slave, met Simone, a recently undead vampire, by chance on a plantation in post-Civil War Georgia. With nothing remaining for either woman in the South, the two form a fast friendship and head north. However, Lavinia quickly learns that teaming up with this white woman may be more than she bargained for.

Simone is reckless and impulsive--which would've been bad enough on its own, but when combined with her particular diet, Lavinia finds herself in way over her head. As she is forced to repeatedly compromise her morals and struggles to make lasting human connections, Lavinia begins to wonder, is she truly free or has she merely exchanged one form of enslavement for another? As bodies start to pile up in the small Indiana town they've settled in, people start to take a second look at the two newcomers, and Simone and Lavinia's relationship is stretched to its breaking point.

A wildly entertaining debut from Michelle McGill-Vargas, American Ghoul deftly combines horror and social commentary—with a dash of buddy comedy—in an innovative twist on the vampire genre.

To learn more about Michelle and to purchase your copy of American Ghoul, please visit: michellemcgillvargas.com.

Find Michelle on Instagram: @a_s_k_delta8

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