Author Nicholas Sparks entertains Bradenton crowd

There was a touching story about his in-laws, an aging couple who had been together since they were young. The woman had Alzheimer’s disease, and every day, her husband would tell her all about their courtship. By the next day she had forgotten it all, and he would lovingly repeat it for her.

And the story about his father, who fell into a profound grief after the sudden death of his young wife but found a new love years later, only to die in a car crash two days after he announced his engagement.

And the one about his misfit younger sister, whose only dream in life was to be married. She contracted leukemia and didn’t have long to live. Her boyfriend proposed anyway. She died soon after they married.

On Tuesday, Nicholas Sparks, one of the best-selling authors of all time, told a crowd at the Neel Performing Arts Center at the State College of Florida, all those real-life stories of his family. And he told how he turned them into his first three novels, “The Notebook,” “Message in a Bottle” and “A Walk to Remember.”

In a 75-minute talk, Sparks paced around the Neel stage, entertaining the crowd with tales of his life and his early career, including the story of success that came so quickly it caught him off-guard.

“The Notebook” was the third novel he wrote, but the first he thought worthy of showing to the outside world. He bought a book titled “How to Find a Literary Agent.” Within three days he had an agent. He sent her the book. A few days after that, the agent called him.

“Warner Books would like to offer you $1 million,” she said. “What do you think?”

Just a few more days passed. He called his agent from a pay phone just a few feet off a busy highway. She told him that she had an offer for the movie rights of “The Notebook.”

Sparks’ talk was the third in a series that brings major authors to Bradenton in benefit appearances for the Library Foundation and the Manatee County Library’s literacy programs. Stephen King was the first author in the series, speaking to a capacity crowd at the Manatee Performing Arts Center. King returned last year with his author friend, John Grisham, and the two had an informal conversation on the Neel stage.

Sparks’ speech — one of only four he’ll deliver this year, he said — wasn’t nearly as popular. The Neel was only about half-full. Maybe 85 percent of the people in the audience were women.

The crowd may have been smaller, but it was no less enthusiastic than the previous years’ crowds had been.

When Sparks took questions from the audience, a woman stood up and introduced herself as Rebecca.

“Hi, Rebecca,” Sparks said.

“Oh my God, you said my name!” the woman said.

Another woman said she had traveled to Bradenton from Louisiana for the talk, and that Sparks was her “50th birthday present.”

Sparks was a lively and entertaining speaker, much more of a performer on stage than King or Grisham. He often bragged (mostly about his track and field prowess as a youngster, when he set University of Notre Dame records that still stand, and his phenomenally long runs on the New York Times Best Seller list) but more often delivered self-effacing humor.

He pointed out that his first novel, “The Notebook,” had spent more than a year on the best-seller list. But it never made it to the top of the list, or even to the second or third spots.

“Therefore,” he said, “The Notebook’ is the most successful debut hardcover novel in history that sucked,” he said.

This story was originally published February 7, 2017 at 10:44 PM with the headline "Author Nicholas Sparks entertains Bradenton crowd."