Stephenie Meyer credits the creation of Edward, Bella, Jacob and co to a dream she had one night.

"I woke up on  June 2nd from a very vivid dream. In my dream, two people were having an intense conversation in a meadow in the woods. One of these people was just your average girl. The other person was fantastically beautiful, sparkly, and a vampire.

"They were discussing the difficulties inherent in the facts that A) they were falling in love with each other while B) the vampire was particularly attracted to the scent of her blood, and was having a difficult time restraining himself from killing her immediately.

"For what is essentially a transcript of my dream, please see Chapter 13 ("Confessions") of the book.

"Though I had a million things to do, I stayed in bed, thinking about the dream. I was so intrigued by the nameless couple's story that I hated the idea of forgetting it; it was the kind of dream that makes you want to call your friend and bore her with a detailed description."

Instead, she decided to bo… er, entertain the whole world with a detailed book series.