Wash. Town Milks Twilight Connection for Tourist Bucks

Author Stephenie Meyer had never even been to Forks, Wash., when she chose it, with a little help from Google, as the setting for her wildly popular Twilight books. But that hasn’t stopped fans of the series and the movies it has spawned from flocking to the town, population 3,120, in droves and spawning a cottage industry of tours and Twilight -theme motel rooms that have boosted tourism threefold, the New York Times reports.

Still, that’s not actually Bella’s truck or Edward’s house you'll see on one tour, but homes that resemble what Meyer dreamed up—“We’re trying to walk them through the book as we perceive it,” one entrepreneur says. “You used to say you were from Forks and people would stare,” says the director of the town’s Chamber of Commerce of the pre-Twilight” years. “Now when they hear where you’re from, they’re breathless.” (More Stephenie Meyer stories.)