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Nicholas Sparks

Nicholas Sparks
Nicholas-Sparks-Autograph-1-4-06.jpg
Sparks signing autographs in 2006
Born Nicholas Charles Sparks
(1965-12-31) December 31, 1965 (age 51)
Omaha, Nebraska, United States
Occupation Novelist
Screenwriter
Producer
Alma mater University of Notre Dame
Genre Romantic fiction
Romantic drama
Spouse Cathy Cote (m. 1989; div. 2015)
Children 5
Website
www.nicholassparks.com

Nicholas Charles Sparks (born December 31, 1965) is an American novelist, screenwriter and producer. He has published eighteen novels and two non-fiction books. Several of his novels have become international bestsellers, and eleven of his romantic-drama novels have been adapted to film with multimillion-dollar box office grosses.

Sparks was born on December 31, 1965, in Omaha, Nebraska, to Patrick Michael Sparks, a professor of business, and Jill Emma Marie Sparks (née Thoene), a homemaker and an optometrist's assistant. He was the middle of three children, with an older brother, Michael Earl "Micah" Sparks (1964–present), and a younger sister, Danielle "Dana" Sparks (1966–2000), who died at the age of 33 from a brain tumor. Sparks has said that she was the inspiration for the main character in his novel A Walk to Remember.

He was raised Roman Catholic, and is of German, Czech, English, and Irish ancestry. He and his ex-wife are Catholics and are raising their children in the Catholic faith.

His father pursued graduate studies at University of Minnesota and University of Southern California, and the family thus moved a great deal. By the time he was eight, he had lived in Watertown, Minnesota, Inglewood, California, Playa Del Rey, California, and Grand Island, Nebraska which was his mother's hometown during his parents' one year separation. In 1974 his father became a professor of business at California State University, Sacramento, and the family settled in Fair Oaks, California, and remained there through Nicholas's high school days. He graduated in 1984 as valedictorian from Bella Vista High School, then enrolling at the University of Notre Dame, having received a full track and field scholarship. He majored in business finance and graduated with honors in 1988. He also met his future wife that year, Cathy Cote from New Hampshire, while they were both on spring break. They married on July 22, 1989 and moved to New Bern, North Carolina.


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