Teen sinks teeth into vampires

• Reprints

Kayla Deacon, 14, of Mokena, pictured with her dog Sampson, has her book “How to Reverse Vampirism” for sale, thanks in part to the BookBrewer website (shown on the laptop). | Ginger Brashinger~For Sun-Times Media

Updated: November 11, 2011 1:31PM

Vampires sell. Ask almost any teenage girl about her favorite novel topic and, chances are, vampires will top the list.

Lincoln-Way West freshman Kayla Deacon, 14, is pretty much that typical teenage girl, but she’s not just reading about vampires, she’s writing about them, and she plans to make money doing it.

Deacon’s passion for writing, her inquisitive mind and an entrepreneurial spirit combined to propel her into the world of publishing — all because of a question no other author was answering.

“I noticed some characters didn’t like being vampires,” Deacon said. “I thought, ‘What if there was a way to reverse it?’ ”

Her question became the prologue for her novel, “How to Reverse Vampirism.”

“For me, it’s just as simple as having something to write my thoughts down about, and then I build on that,” the young author said.

Writing hasn’t always come easily to Deacon.

She struggled with reading as a young student and needed tutoring and special classes. But her natural “can do” attitude — she has played piano since age 5 and is on the high school swim team despite having juvenile rheumatoid arthritis — kept her moving forward.

By the time she was in sixth grade at Oster-Oakview Middle School, her “inspirational” teacher, Dennis Gladiuex, was telling Deacon’s mom to “find her some kind of writer’s camp.”

Deacon searched the Internet and found Quizilla (www.quizilla.com), a site which allowed writers to have their works read, rated and commented on by others.

“I did get encouragement from Quizilla,” Deacon said. “People from all over the world were reading my work. I was just overwhelmed that people would open my stories and read them.”

Deacon said one of her “fan fiction” pieces had 175 hits, more than enough encouragement for her to work on a novel.

The process began a year ago and Deacon continued to work for six months, finishing her longest piece of fiction in early 2011.

Her hard work wasn’t lost on her parents, Mokena residents Laura and Larry Deacon, who decided to give their daughter a special Christmas gift, a writer’s package called “BookBrewer” which Laura Deacon found on a Borders website.

Kayla Deacon worked with the program, and by the spring of 2011, Deacons’ E-book was ready for purchase on the Amazon, Borders, and Barnes and Noble websites.

“I had a choice of letting people read it for free, but I really want to make money off it,” Deacon said.

She said she thinks she’s giving her readers their money’s worth. She has a unique angle to make the novel appealing to vampire novel-lovers everywhere through her main character, Sintary Sacuna, who deals with the dilemma of being an unwilling vampire.

Deacon said her heroine is “actually very quiet and very caring, but she’s also very bold.”

Although she won’t give too much of the story away, Deacon does reveal that “you would need a crafty scientist on your side to reverse this.”

Now Deacon is waiting to see if people are willing to pay for it. She said her friends already have told her they will spend the $9.99 it costs to download her book.

“By the end of September I should see my first quarter sales report,” Deacon said. Although she doesn’t expect a check until January, this young author and businesswoman hopes she is just at the beginning of a long and lucrative career doing what she loves.

“I eventually want to get a degree in journalism … and I want to create more novels for teens and adults,” Deacon said.

Her advice for any other aspiring young writers who may be as unsure of themselves as she used to be is to do exactly what worked for her.

“I think they should bring their ideas to someone they feel comfortable with,” Deacon said. “They should talk to someone who will help build their confidence.”