 Doubleday Book Club - Nicholas Sparks
Doubleday Book Club Authors
About Nicholas SparksNicolas Sparks was born December 31st, 1965 in Omaha Nebraska. His family included his father Patrick, his mother Jill, Emma Marie, Micah (his older brother) and Danielle, his youngest sister. His father worked as a bartender and a student, trying to get into a master's program at the University of Minnesota. Nicolas Sparks spent the first three years of his life in Nebraska before the family picked up and moved to Los Angeles during summer, 1969. While his father went to the University of Southern California to get his PhD, the family spent the next four years in Los Angeles. It was then that Nicolas went back to Nebraska with his mother and his siblings for one year so that his father could finish his thesis. The family was reunited on December 1st, 1974 in Fair Oaks, CA, where Nicolas Sparks spent the rest of his early years until he received an offer for a full scholarship for track to Notre Dame. After an injury breaking the record for the 4x800 relay, Sparks was injured for the remainder of the year and was discouraged when he got home for summer break. It was during this time that he wrote his first novel, which has never been published. Nicolas met his future wife Cathy on spring break in the state of Florida, and he knew that they would be married someday. And of course they were – they got married in July 1989. Two years later they welcomed Miles Andrew and then two years after Andrew they welcomed Ryan Cody. His second novel was written in 1989, but it was rejected by a lot of publishers, so that prompted him to look elsewhere for a career. Nicolas Sparks tried different types of work, such as real estate sales, flipping houses, waiting tables, selling dental products, and finally he began his very own business. He struggled like most other small business owners, and he sold it eventually. In 1990, he received his first writing break when he co-wrote a book with Billy Mills – Wokini: A Lakota Journey to Happiness and Understanding, which was published by three publishers and the book sold about 50K copies during the first year after it was released. In time he went into pharmaceuticals and in 1993 he got transferred to North Carolina to the town of New Bern, where he lives now. During his spare time, Nicolas wrote yet another novel, which was finally accepted by an agent two years later by the name of Theresa Park. She was able to secure a $1 million advance for The Notebook from the Time Warner Book Group. This book was published in October of 1996 and was put on the NY Times bestseller list during the first after its release. Nicolas Sparks then went on to write more bestsellers, four of which were made into films. Anyone who has either seen his movies or read his books can attest to the fact that they are brilliant pieces of literature and it's no surprise that they are bestsellers. Visit the Nicholas Sparks Website for more. |
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