FORKS — Forks residents are throwing themselves into playing the parts of characters populating the hometown of a teen vampire novel, Twilight for tourists eager to see the setting of the popular book.
The first Forks Chamber of Commerce Twilight Tour, which shows visitors places mentioned in Stephenie Meyer’s novel and sequels, was a hit on Saturday, said Mike Gurling, Visitor Center manger.
The next two tours — on June 14 and June 28 — are fully booked, with this Saturday’s tour drawing visitors from as far away as Ireland and New Zealand.
Last Saturday’s inaugural tour took a fully-loaded 13-passenger van — filled with people from Ohio, Arkansas, Alabama, Oklahoma, Colorado and Arizona — to most of the locations highlighted in the books.
And the people at most of the tour stops played along.
“We were so excited and thankful to the homeowners who let all of us crazy fans get out and take pictures of their homes,” said Amy Kiedrowski, 34, of Surprise, Ariz.
Tour leader Gurling said he led the tour as if the book’s characters actually lived there.
“The whole time I was leading the tours, I was talking about the events and people as if they were real,” Gurling said.
“We had to keep reminding ourselves that it was fiction, that those things didn’t really happen.”
The tours highlight the favorite spots of Edward Cullen and Bella Swan, the main characters in Meyer’s best-selling book and its sequels.
Meyer’s novel details the love story between Bella and Edward, a vampire, after Bella moves to rainy Forks to live with her dad, Charlie, the city police chief.
