[NPInfo] A good looking PA moves next door and

[David Mittman]

A cool book appears. Anyone read ³THE CHOICE²?
http://www.nicholassparks.com/

Nicholas Sparks Publishes 12th Novel
By MARTHA WAGGONER ­ 8 hours ago
TRENT WOODS, N.C. (AP) ‹ Ask Nicholas Sparks how many novels he's written,
and the prolific writer counts on his fingers, listing the titles under his
breath.
One finger: "The Notebook." Two fingers: "Message in a Bottle." Three
fingers: "A Walk to Remember." And so forth, until he starts over with the
first hand to reach the latest, number 12: "The Choice."
It is, he says, in many ways like the other 11: set in eastern North
Carolina, with likable characters in realistic situations. And it's likely
to be similar in another way: So far, all the novels have been best sellers
for Sparks, who has sold about 60 million books worldwide and had three
novels made into movies. A fourth, "Nights in Rodanthe," is to be released
next year.
In "The Choice," Travis Parker is a fun-loving veterinarian. Gabby Holland,
a physician's assistant, moves next door, and their meeting puts Gabby at a
crossroads.
The story line of "The Choice" comes from two thoughts: Sparks' desire to
return to the structure of his first book, "The Notebook," in which
characters face consequences later in life from events that happened
earlier, and his time coaching track at New Bern High School the past two
years.
"I find myself on a daily basis with these young men saying, 'Go to school'
or, 'Do your homework and don't talk back to your teachers and make sure you
do what your parents ask you,'" says Sparks, who still holds the record at
the University of Notre Dame for the 4x800 relay. "I always follow with the
thought that because what you do today has consequences for the future. The
choices you make today lead to the outcome that your life will be."
His life lessons are making a difference: Five of his six seniors from the
last team are going to college this year on track scholarships; the sixth
got an academic scholarship.
"Track and field changed my life," says Sparks in a recent interview at his
7,000-square-foot home on the Trent River, some 110 miles southeast of
Raleigh.
"It taught me more about discipline and perseverance and character than any
class I've ever taken, because to be good, you need to show up every day,
rain or shine. And for me, I was talented, but I was not supremely talented.
To get where I was, I had to outwork people, and it taught me to do that."
He lives with his wife, Catherine, and five children ages 6-16, and writes
about four days a week, up to five hours a day and produces 2,000 words each
time.
Of the 140,000 or so words he puts together in about six months of writing,
Sparks culls about 80,000 for a book.
"I don't really struggle with writer's block for extended periods," he says
while sitting at a kitchen table that bears the stains of his children's
color markers. "There are times I struggle with which way I want to take the
story, and those can get aggravating. But it passes, and something comes."
Still, writing doesn't come that easily for him, says his literary agent,
Theresa Park.
"It's not like he sits over his typewriter and he hums as he writes," Park
says. "He really, really agonizes over every word."
Sparks says the love story is the hardest type of novel to write, pointing
to how few people succeed in that genre while many more succeed in
mysteries, legal thrillers and the like. He lists "Bridges of Madison
County" and "The Horse Whisperer" as among the few recent love stories to
find a popular market.
Park was an assistant at a literary agency when she read "The Notebook," not
only Sparks' first novel but also the first one she ever sold.
"Once people find out I represent Nick Sparks, everybody in the world who
has written a love story pretty much sends it to me," she says. "I haven't
found another novel that I feel has a chance to be as successful as a Nick
Sparks' novel in that genre."
Park, who describes herself as an "unromantic" who got married at city hall
and celebrates her wedding anniversary at McDonald's, recalls reading "The
Notebook" while in bed with her husband. She started crying.
"I thought, if it's doing this to me, what's it going to do to the rest of
America," she says.
Since "The Notebook" was published in October 1996, Sparks has averaged
writing about a book a year and reads more than 100 a year. And Sparks,
named "sexiest author" by People magazine in 2000, also lifts weights and
jogs, careful not to reinjure the Achilles tendon and plantar fasciitis that
forced him to abandon track and field while still in college.
When he's not writing, he's involved in philanthropy. He and his wife have
donated more than $700,000 to build the high school track and established a
$1.5 million program in creative writing at Notre Dame, where Sparks
graduated in 1988 with a degree in finance. They also opened a private
Catholic school in New Bern.
But he protects his privacy. The family lives in a gated house that you get
to by crossing a bridge that spans a koi pond. A "Beware of Dog" sign on the
fence warns of a German shepherd named Rex, a trained protection dog that
answers commands in both German and English. Then there's the small, but
not-so-subtle sign advising that Nicholas and Catherine Sparks won't see
uninvited guests.
The 32-year-old house will be torn down in a couple of months and a new one
constructed with a first floor master bedroom and protection on the patios
from the sun so the sports-loving family can spend more time outside.
While the setting for where he composes his stories will change, Sparks is
adamant that he won't venture from love stories to another genre, such as
mystery, legal thriller or horror stories.
"I don't know I could do a horror story any better than Stephen King," he
says.
But could anyone do a love story better than Nicholas Sparks?
He pauses and smiles.
"I suppose that's more of a reader's decision. I will say that no one sells
as many. How's that?"