Babysitting 101: Don’t turn your back on a Newbie. Especially on Day One. I rounded a corner and found her, kneeling in front of the burial tomb of a legendary voodoo queen. She stared at the stone slab as if it belonged to her; she was running her fingers through a fresh pile of Mardi Gras beads left by pilgrims seeking favors from the dead, a puzzled...

I’ve been challenged by two friends, Marcus Goodyear and L.L. Barkat, to bring voice to the National Month of Poetry. It feels like an eternity since I’ve written a poem, but I decided to try again. I’m starting a new book, so I used this as an exercise to get to know my main character better. Below, I’ve cast an icy sculpture of how my main character...

Whoops. I’ve been so busy I forgot to wax poetic about my upcoming novel. I finished the edits recently, now waiting for the copy edit cycle to begin. Not sure everything that will happen after that. I know my editor, Diana Gill, told me, but it’s all still a blur. But I can tell you the name of the book. Afterlife. I love the title. And I’m looking...

Listening to Van Helsing soundtrack and writing about vampires. Feel like I should be in a castle in the Carpathian Mountains, overlooking a rain-drenched landscape. Imagining that forest of staked corpses that lined the River Danube—handiwork of Vlad Dracula. Thinking about Lord Byron and how his twisted romantic liaisons forever changed the way we perceive...

I used to want to be the next Dean Koontz or Stephen King. I struggled for so long to try and fit my shoes into their footprints. Not anymore. Now I want to be the best Merrie Destefano I can be. I want my stories to be as fresh and unique as possible, and I seek to always maintain my own voice. That said, I know that over time, my voice will evolve, as it...

Trying to remember why I thought it would be a good idea to give up caffeine. Something to do with the fact that it was eating my stomach lining and giving me an ulcer. Something completely random and unfounded. Meanwhile, two weeks after Black Friday—the day I spent in Urgent Care, giving a doctor access to parts of my body that nobody else has—my stomach...