Is nicholas sparks as romantic as his novels? | members only

Nicholas Sparks, 58, famous for hugely popular romantic novels like his 1996 debut _The Notebook_, is back with a new book, _Counting Miracles_. It’s the story of Tanner Hughes, a

40-something Army Ranger who was raised by his grandparents after his mom passed away during his birth. The identity of his father has been a mystery until his grandmother gives him a clue

on her deathbed, with the instruction to “find where you belong,” leading him to Asheboro, North Carolina, and — it’s probably not a spoiler to say — love. We talked to Sparks, who lives in

North Carolina (his favorite novel setting), about the book, his career, romance (he and wife Cathy split in 2015) and how much he _doesn’t_ love to write.  _This interview was edited for

length and clarity._ WE LOVE HOW YOU SO OFTEN FOCUS ON OLDER CHARACTERS. WHAT MOTIVATES YOU TO DO SO? That is one element of my novels that I tend to be fairly conscious about. I try to vary

the age group of the primary characters. So if I write something like _A Walk to Remember_ with teenagers, I’ll follow it up with _The Rescue_, with characters in their 20s or 30s, and then

a couple books later, I have _Nights in Rodanthe,_ with characters in their 50s. So I have really tried to vary the ages throughout the course of my career, because my readers range in age

from teenagers to people in their 90s. OUR MEMBERS CAN NOW READ YOUR 2013 BOOK, _THE LONGEST RIDE_, ABOUT A BULL RIDER IN NORTH CAROLINA, ON OUR SITE. ARE COWBOYS REALLY A THING IN NORTH

CAROLINA? It was interesting because that was one of my questions as I was writing: Is anyone going to believe a bull rider from North Carolina? And it just so happens that the year the book

was published, the professional bull-riding world champion was a cowboy from North Carolina [J.B. Mauney].   DO YOU ENJOY WRITING BOOKS? I don’t necessarily enjoy the process. It’s

challenging, and it’s frustrating, and it’s filled with false starts and lots and lots of deletions and changes, and feeling at various times like you’re spinning your wheels and not knowing

what to do next. All of those are very uncomfortable feelings. But because of the challenge, there’s nothing quite like the satisfaction I feel when I’m finally done with it.