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 Nicholas Sparks
 Bio
Fast Facts
Trivia
Author's Summer Reading List
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Nicholas Sparks has captivated audiences with his romantic novels since the 1996 publication of The Notebook. Four more bestsellers followed --- Message in a Bottle, A Walk to Remember, A Bend in the Road and The Rescue, making Sparks one of the most popular authors in contemporary fiction.
This month Warner Books will publish Sparks' sixth novel, Nights in Rodanthe. To celebrate, AuthorsOnTheWeb has selected Nicholas Sparks as the September Author of The Month and presents trivia questions, fast facts, and biographical information, as well as links to book reviews, reading guides, and more.
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Fast Facts
- Staying in shape is very important to Nicholas; he runs every day, lifts weights on a regular basis, and competes in Tae Kwon Do. He was actually named the “sexiest writer” by People Magazine.
- Even though he published his first novel at the young age of twenty-eight, he actually had written two novels previously that remain unpublished. In fact, he wrote his first novel when he was only twenty years old.
- Nicholas is a major contributor to the Creative Writing Department of Notre Dame University, where he provides scholarships, internships, and fellowships annually.
- Nicholas named the main character of The Rescue after the producer of the two film adaptations of his novels: A Walk to Remember and Message in a Bottle.
- Nicholas takes the advice of his agent, Theresa Park, very seriously. He named a character after her in Message in a Bottle and used her suggested title for The Notebook.
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Bio
Nicholas Charles Sparks was born in Omaha, Nebraska on December 31, 1965, the second son of Patrick Michael and Jill Emma Marie Sparks. His siblings are Michael Earl Sparks, and Danielle Sparks. As a child, he lived in Minnesota, Los Angeles, and Grand Island, Nebraska, finally settling in Fair Oaks, California at the age of eight. His father was a professor, his mother a homemaker, then optometrist's assistant. He lived in Fair Oaks through high school, graduated valedictorian in 1984, and received a full track scholarship to the University of Notre Dame.
After breaking the Notre Dame school record as part of a relay team in 1985 as a freshman (a record which still stands), he was injured and spent the summer recovering. During that summer, he wrote his first novel, though it was never published. He majored in Business Finance and graduated with high honors in 1988.
He and his wife Catherine, who met on spring break in 1988, were married in July, 1989. While living in Sacramento, he wrote his second novel that same year, though again, it wasn't published. He worked a variety of jobs over the next three years, including real estate appraisal, waiting tables, selling dental products by phone, and started his own small manufacturing business which struggled from the beginning. In 1990, he collaborated on a book with Billy Mills, the Olympic Gold Medallist and it was published by Feather Publishing before later being picked up by Random House. (It was recently re-issued by Hay House Books.) Though it received scant publicity, sales topped 50,000 copies in the first year of release.
He began selling pharmaceuticals and moved from Sacramento, California to North Carolina in 1992. In 1994, at the age of 28, he wrote The Notebook over a period of six months. In October, 1995, rights to The Notebook were sold to Warner Books. It was published in October, 1996, and he followed that with Message in a Bottle (1998), A Walk to Remember (1999), The Rescue (2000), and A Bend in the Road (2001), all with Warner Books. All were domestic and international best sellers and were translated into more than 35 languages. The movie version of Message in a Bottle was released in 1999, and A Walk to Remember was released in January, 2002. Film rights for The Notebook and A Bend in the Road have been sold as well. The Rescue is being adapted into a television series, with Nicholas Sparks serving as one of the executive producers.
He now has five children: Miles, Ryan, Landon, Lexie, and Savannah. He lives in North Carolina with his wife and children.
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