In a few short years, Brigham Young University grad Stephenie Meyer has gone from a relatively obscure life as a stay-at-home mother of three to near super-stardom as the author of the "Twilight" series of young adult novels.

Not that the paparazzi are showing up at her house in Phoenix, but she's going on a 15-city tour to promote "Eclipse," the third and latest installment in the series, which was released Tuesday. She's also working on Book 4 in the series and preparing to release an adult sci-fi novel called "The Host" in spring 2008. She's so busy, in fact, that she's not taking calls from the media.

The series' publisher, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, announced a remarkable first print run of 1 million copies of the book in the U.S. It's the largest first print run the publisher has ever done for a young adult author.

By way of comparison, the third book in the Harry Potter series, "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," had a first U.S. print run of 500,000, still quite a respectable number for an author's third book. (The final book in the Harry Potter series was released last month with a first print run of 12 million copies, a record that puts the series in a class of its own.)

According to her agent, Meyer hates comparisons to Harry Potter and his creator, author J.K. Rowling, but they're almost unavoidable. Both series are aimed at a young audience (but attract a variety of readers), have obsessive fans and involve intricate and imaginative fantasy worlds.

But apparently the world in the "Twilight" series isn't as instantly familiar as the world of wizards and magic yet. The series is a love story about vampires -- long-living, never-sleeping, blood-sucking vampires.

"When you say to someone that it's a book about vampires, they kind of cringe, and look at you funny," said Lori Joffs, a 33-year-old mother in Nashville, Tenn., who is Meyer's editorial assistant. "And that's usually followed by, 'No, but they're different.' "

Different as in no fangs, no wooden stakes and garlic, no sleeping in coffins or fear of daylight. These vampires are like an advanced race of perfected humans who are nearly indestructible and drink blood to survive. They're not supposed to scare people -- in fact, there's talk of the series' main human character, Bella, becoming a vampire in "Eclipse."

Still, Meyer's Web site says she is often asked, "What's a good Mormon girl like you doing writing about vampiresfi"

Apparently that's just how it came to her. Meyer awoke one morning in June 2003 from a vivid dream involving a vampire and his human love interest conversing in a meadow. The two became Edward and Bella, the ill-fated teenage couple.

"She didn't set out to write about vampires," Joffs said. "It was just something that came into her head and she had to write it because she couldn't leave it alone."

In between household chores and caring for her three young children that morning, Meyer wrote the scene she had dreamed, which eventually became chapter 13 of "Twilight." In the next three months, Meyer wrote a bit more of the story every day, usually at night after the kids were in bed. When it was finally finished, she wrote epilogue after epilogue, and realized there would have to be a sequel.

Meyer's older sister, Emily Rasmussen, didn't hear from her for a few weeks, and wondered what was wrong.

"She had been writing for most of the summer and kind of dropped off the face of the earth," Rasmussen said. "So I called and asked, 'What is going onfi' and she said, 'I'm writing a book.' "

After reading some chapters of the book that Meyer sent her, Rasmussen was the first to suggest that she try to publish the book. Meyer queried the interest of a few publishing companies without really believing it would be published.

One query made it to an assistant of Jodi Reamer, a literary agent who decided to represent Meyer and the book. Reamer said her assistant read the manuscript and told her she had to read it, too.

"I took it home that night because I usually don't read at the office," Reamer said. "I read half that night, until about 3 a.m. I spent the whole next day at work thinking about the manuscript and wishing the day was over so I could go home and read it. That's when I knew I was going to be able to sell it."

She said what attracted her most to the book was its strong characters.

"It's difficult to put your finger on what makes the books so great," Reamer said. "I think engaging characters are the key. You need unforgettable characters that just seep into your brain and make you want to follow them everywhere. Stephenie's characters are just so realistic, even the minor characters stayed with me."

So when Little, Brown and Company first approached Reamer about a book deal, she turned them down and asked for more money. Meyer, who was already losing sleep with excitement at the prospect of being published, says she thought it was a joke.

"By the end of the day," Meyer wrote on her Web site, "I was trying to process the information that not only was my book going to be published by one of the biggest young adult publishers in the country, but that they were going to pay me for it."

"Twilight" was published in 2005, and the series has already attracted legions of fans, including some outside the target audience. Kameron Borland, a 26-year-old BYU student from Provo, said he isn't embarrassed to say he likes the books.

"I usually try to defend the right to like the books with pretty good vigor because I really love the series," Borland said. "I know it's pretty much for that demographic (young girls), but I love it. I guess I'm kind of a weird guy, but I think if most guys gave it a shot they'd pretty much like it."

Borland and other fans share their interest online. Joffs became Meyer's editorial assistant after starting a fan site, www.twilightlexicon.com, to compile information about the characters in the books. Through various personal correspondences with Meyer, Joffs learned and posted many more details about the storyline and background of the characters.

The site quickly became popular, and twice exceeded its bandwidth limitations and had to expand. Now it gets an average of 500,000 page views a week and typically has more than 70 users on the forums at any time from "every place but Antarctica."

As for Book 4, it's tentatively scheduled for release in fall of 2008. After that, there could be a movie or more books, but that remains to be seen.

"All of these characters could have some more stories," Reamer said, "but if Stephenie wants to take a break or whatever, we'll see."

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page B1.