Best-selling author finds time for reading, writing, family

Published: 2004-05-18

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Nicholas Sparks set some track and field records at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, and, if he keeps it up, he could be setting some records in the book-selling field. Three of his nine novels have been adapted for the big screen: "A Walk to Remember," "Message in a Bottle," and the upcoming "The Notebook." Sparks' latest book and first nonfiction effort, "Three Weeks With My Brother," written with his brother, Micah, is now making the rounds of the best-seller lists. And through it all the Catholic author finds time to be with his wife and their five children, write every day, go to Mass every Sunday and read about 150 books a year. Sparks, in a telephone interview with Catholic News Service from New Bern, N.C., where he makes his home, said he would probably not be considered a "Catholic novelist" as Flannery O'Conner was regarded in her lifetime. "My characters are not perfect Catholics," he said. "They may engage in activities that go against Catholic doctrine." Nor are his characters identified as Catholics, Sparks added, although "they may be Christians" and hold "a very religious worldview."

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