On June 2, 2003, a 29-year-old mom woke up from a vivid dream about an "average" girl falling in love with a "beautiful, sparkly" vampire who had to fight his bloodlust to sit near her in a secluded meadow.
This eventually became Chapter 13 of Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight," which was published Oct. 5, 2005.
The first-time author unwittingly hit the gas on an international bestselling four-book franchise, which was adapted into films that released in breakneck succession from 2008 to 2012 and raked in $3.4 billion at the box office.
Twenty years after landing on bookshelves, the "Twilight" franchise remains nothing short of a cultural phenomenon.
"If one person had liked this book ... that would've been more than I expected. Now, 20 years (later), I should be totally forgotten. The books should be totally forgotten," Meyer told fans gathered at a September Q&A during the annual Forever Twilight in Forks festival in Northwest Washington.
