Marti Noxon is not a vampire. But she sure seems to know how they think.

As a writer for television, Noxon got her break working for Joss Whedon’s classic Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series, getting inside the heads of vamps and the women who kill them (and sometimes fall in love with them). Now she’s returned to those supernatural roots with Fright Night, coming out in August. It’s a reboot of the 1985 movie by the same name. But in between, Noxon has also written for mainstream hits—Private Practice and Mad Men among them. She’s even working for the upcoming third season of Glee.

So how does she put herself in all those different worlds? Noxon explains the tricks of the trade to Adam Rogers in a dark and lonely hallway during San Diego Comic Con—where they’re briefly visited by the spirit of a much bigger podcast. (Hint: It’s Chris Hardwick.) Noxon and Rogers talk vampires, Buffy, women in genre writing and the lure of Don Draper. It’s a podcast worth sinking your teeth into.