Wearing T-shirts that say "Bite me" and "Vampires are forever" and "Soul Sisters," they came by the hundreds to meet their favorite author. Carrying armloads of books, they patiently waited their turn in line to meet and greet their heroine.

With friends and compatriots who share their interest (some even admit to an obsession), they couldn't think of a person they'd rather be with on a Saturday afternoon than novelist Stephenie Meyer.

The popular author of the "Twilight" series, which deal with vampires and werewolves, and a new novel, "The Host," which features an alien invasion, Meyer met with fans at Highland High School during a book signing sponsored by The King's English Bookshop.

"We were limited by the publisher to a thousand tickets," said store manager Anne Holman. "They were pretty much gone the first day."

Which was no surprise to anyone familiar with Meyer and her books.

"She's such a genuine person," says Holman. "And you feel you could put yourself in the places she has created. Plus, she's getting people to read who are not readers. That's wildly important."

But Meyer, a BYU graduate and mother of three who now lives in Arizona, has not only created some of the best-selling fantasy novels of recent years, she's also created a social phenomenon.

Web sites, chatrooms, social clubs and more have sprung up all over the country, and many of their founders and members were at the signing.

Lisa Hansen, who started www.twilightmoms.com so she could talk to other adults about Meyer's young adult novels, was there. "I thought maybe I'd find four or five people who shared my enthusiasm. We now have 6,100 members worldwide."

Hansen was pushed into reading her first Meyer book by girls in her neighborhood. "They kept telling me I had to read it. Finally I did just so I could see what they were into." Her life has not been the same since. "I was never much of a reader, but here came books that I couldn't put down," said the Springville resident.

Lori Joffs, co-founder of www.twilightlexicon.com, came from Tennessee for the event. Her Web site "is the oldest one related to Stephenie. We formed it back when her fan base was not like this," so they have been able to see the whole thing grow.

Danylle Utley is president of the Salt Lake Twighlighters Anonymous. "Message boards weren't good enough for me," she said. "I needed face-to-face interaction. I needed to giggle; you can't do that online." She invited anyone who wanted to to meet her for lunch — "at a public place, so they wouldn't think it was one of those Internet weirdos."