At a time when most of her classmates were mastering the fine art of the three-point turn, Shayne Leighton was writing her first book.

She didn’t know where it was all headed back then, 16 and a junior at the Dreyfoos School of the Arts studying musical theater. She just knew that something called to her about the characters she was creating in a fantastical world of vampires and fairies and magical powers for an epic series she would title “Of Light and Darkness.”

But in the six short years since those days, writing and acting and creating have become Leighton’s version of college and grad school. Just 22, Leighton, of Boynton Beach, is already a published author, has directed, produced and starred in regional indie films, and has Hollywood names attached to a movie based on the first of her books, “The Vampire’s Daughter.”

Oh, and did she mention hers is a seven-book series? Leighton dreams big — but she also plans big.

“I hope to be doing this for a decade,” she said.

Her friends always noticed a rare energy from Leighton, whose hazel-green eyes and flame of red hair helped catch the attention of television commercial directors, who cast her as young as 5 in a First Union commercial.

She was raised in Boynton Beach, the only child of her mother, Jayne Leighton, who only fanned her daughter’s interests in singing, dancing and writing. Shayne Leighton remembers her home decorated with fairies and princesses, crystals and whimsical mis-matching furniture and candles.

“Our house was very eclectic,” she said. “I loved it.”

Her mother was also the one who gave in to her daughter’s dreams and drove her to and from bookings and auditions in Miami during rush hour.

“She was my biggest supporter, never a stage mom,” Shayne Leighton said. “She was always a believer in everything I wanted to do.”

At Bak Middle School of the Arts, she was drawn to the Wicked Witch of the West character, Elphaba, in the musical “Wicked,” which she performed for all school projects.

In high school, when the “Twilight” book series came out, Leighton instead discovered Anne Rice, author of “Interview With The Vampire.” It was a mythology she bought fully for Rice’s ability to create detailed and intricate worlds, like a Melville of the macabre.

“I want to meet her! I want to see her, I want to touch her so a little of her talent will rub off on me,” she says laughing.

A red, leather-bound tome of Rice’s “The Vampire Chronicles” rests on a shelf above her writing desk in the Pompano Beach condo on the Intracoastal she she owns with her husband, Frank Mach, 31. It is more than their first home together — the result of his years of working construction and saving, and her side-work as a videographer and editor. It’s her writing lair, her creative space where her stories seem to come off the page to decorate.

Even her apartment is like a nod to an older soul. It’s decorated in sleek, retro ’80s impressionism, with a white leather couch over a blood-red shag throw rug and accented with black and glass table tops. She seems a prop on the set, her red hair a shock against her white blouse, snake-skin pattern black leggings and heels.

While writing her first book, she was asked by a friend who was an independent filmmaker to work on a screenplay, which she titled, “The Incubus.” It took her away from her book, but helped develop her creativity as she wrote it and acted in the film, which made the film festival circuit, was released in 17 South Florida theaters and is now on DVD. It’s also where she met her husband, Mach, who played the movie’s lead.

Last year, she published “The Vampire’s Daughter,” the first of her “Of Light and Darkness” series, which she has mapped out over seven books. It features a strong-willed woman, Charlotte Ruzikova, raised since infancy by one of the last vampires of Eastern Europe, who finds herself drawn into their wars.

“This one is like my Sistine Chapel — I obsess over it,” Leighton said. “I’d wake up at 3 a.m. with an idea and I’d have to write it down.”

The second book, “The Vampire’s Reflection,” is open on her iMac computer, with final editor markings, and is due out by February. And she has already signed on with her publisher, Decadent Publishing, to write a third. That one is open in a Word document behind the edits.

“Like I said, I obsess,” she says, laughing. “It’s a huge part of my life.”

And her series is catching fire.

The actor Michael Welch, who played a smaller role in the “Twilight” saga and the television series “Joan of Arcadia,” has singed on to play the antagonist in the film version of “The Vampire’s Daughter.”

Parkland’s own actress Cassie Scerbo, who has a regular role in the in the hit show “Hot in Cleveland” with Betty White, used to perform alongside Leighton in a dance troupe and has also agreed to play a leading role.

“I read the book and fell in love with it,” Scerbo said on the phone from California. “I became a loyal fan… I was always a big believer in her.”

Scerbo called Leighton’s creation “relevant,” on the heels of the “Twilight” saga, and shows such as “True Blood.”

“It’s ‘Harry Potter’ meets ‘Twilight,’ ” Scerbo said.

A movie poster with Welch swinging a broadsword hangs in her writing cove, and on her computer, she is cutting the final edits for a film trailer that will be part of a package her Los Angeles-based agent will present to potential financiers. Archstone Distribution, which works on many indie films, has signed on to package the film. Leighton sees herself playing the lead in the film.

“I couldn’t see anybody else doing it,” she said.

For the vampiress of Boynton Beach, things are coming together like a haunted dream.