SIOUX CITY -- Hungry to take a bite out of the market that gobbled up "Twilight," Elizabeth Sterling has staked her claim on the premise that while vampires may -- um -- suck, writing about them most assuredly does not.

In fact, the East High School sophomore is set to publish "The Flight of the Humabirs," her third in the vamp-friendly "Anya" series of Gothic novels, on Nov. 30.

"I had just finished reading 'Twilight' when I decided I wanted to write my own vampire story," Sterling recalled. "Once I realized I had enough material for a book, friends encouraged me to go online and find a company that would print it for me."

Raleigh, N.C. -- based self-publisher Lulu was that company.

"Dating Destiny" introduced the characters of Essie, the tomboyish teen Sterling said was modeled after herself, and Darren Walsh, Essie's pallid penpal-slash-soulless soulmate, modeled after a former boyfriend.

"Essie was a normal girl who lived in the shadow of her more glamorous twin sister, Issie," Sterling said. "One day, Essie received a letter from Darren, who claimed to be in love with her even though they had never met."

The first book took Sterling 13 months to write. Her second, "Black Roses," a prequel to "Dating Destiny," was dashed off in less than six months.

"I wasn't going to write another fantasy book until my mom encouraged me to create a mythology that tied all of the characters together through time and different locations," she said with a shrug.

Although "Dating Destiny" takes place in the present and in locations very familiar to Sterling (Iowa as well as her former home in Washington state), "Black Roses" is set in 1801 on an island based on Malta, a country the author said she visited many years ago.

The second book revolves around the self-absorbed Clara, her demanding father and a neck-nuzzling Nosferatu-wannabee lover named Darren.

Yup, this is the same Darren who is vamping things up in "Dating Destiny," and Clara is, indeed, an earlier incarnation of Essie. According to Sterling, "The Flight of the Humabirs" moves the story forward -- to the year 2013, to be exact -- takes the characters to New York and Philadelphia and introduces the concept of people who can turn themselves in birds (half human-half bird, or humabirs, get it?)

"The third book only took me a month to complete," she said, "so I'm becoming a much faster writer."

Speed is definitely something the ambitious writer will need if she sticks with her plan to complete seven more books by the time she graduates from high school in 2012. That's a book every three months.

Her mom, Laura Sterling, can't help but smile when she hears about the plans of her prolific progeny.

"Elizabeth has always been a reader, so it makes sense that she'd want to write," Laura said. "And she's been doing it consistently since she was in the third grade"

Laura Sterling, a certified biofeedback specialist, said she and her husband, John, a computer diagnosis technician, have always encouraged their daughter to follow her literary dreams.

So, what does Mom think about her daughter's fascination with fantasy?

"It must run in the family," she said with a laugh. "We're all big fans of the 'Harry Potter' books, and I've read the 'Twilight' series at least twice."