A Night with Nicholas Sparks: The Lucky One

In spite of the million dollar advances he receives for his novels and the movie rights to his books, Nicholas Sparks is a very down to earth guy.

“How many of you even knew I had been to Indianapolis before?” he asked the audience at North Central High School.

He talked mostly about his college days at Notre Dame where he attended on a full scholarship for track and where he broke the record for the 4 X 800 meter relay (that record still stands, he boasted). Sidelined by an injury he became depressed.

“Don’t mope,” his mother chided, “Do something.”

“Like what?” he asked.

“Write a book.”

So he wrote a book (he vows it will never be published).

He spoke for an hour, answering, he said, all the questions he’d been asked before—how did he get started, how did he get published (“I went to Barnes and Noble,” he said, “and bought a book called ‘How to Write a Novel and Get It Published’ and I followed the instructions.’”). He spoke about his wife and his kids and his day job as a high school track coach. He spoke about the high school that he and his wife founded. He spoke of his son’s autism (the inspiration for his novel The Rescue). His son did not speak for the first four years of his life. Shortly after Sparks’s first novel, The Notebook, was published he sent his wife on a vacation to Hawaii. She told him on the phone that she worried for their child, that he would never have a normal life, that she would never even hear him say, “I love you.” Sparks worked for two days trying to get his son to say the word “apple.” After six hours, he finally did. The next day, Sparks spent another six hours teaching his son to speak. When his wife called that night, Sparks told her that their son had something to say to her. He held the phone up for his son, and his son said, “I wuv you.”

After answering a few questions, Sparks was given the 3rd Annual Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Literature Award from the Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library. Shortly after the presentation of the award, Sparks sat for nearly two hours graciously signing books for his devoted readers.

I admit I have not read Sparks’s novels. I'm am English scholar, so I'm a bit of a snob when it comes to literature. I started The Notebook once and tossed it on the floor. “They paid a million dollars for this?” I have seen the movie, however. I bought a copy of The Rescue (I have worked with autistic kids myself, so I’m kind of interested) which Sparks signed. I admired his lack of pretention and sense of humor (he called the film adaptations, “Ninety minute commercials for my books”). And I’m actually looking forward to reading The Rescue when I get the chance.