“Everyone makes mistakes,” they’d said, and though he’d nodded as if he believed them, he knew they would never understand what he was going through. He supposed his friends had said it to make him feel better, to reassure him that no one was perfect, that he shouldn’t be so hard on himself. His friends sometimes admitted their failures in this particular area, and Travis figured that the same could be said about any couple he’d ever met. It meant that a conscience was at work, values were held in high esteem, and reasons to feel guilty were best avoided whenever possible. It went without saying that he felt guilty about what had happened, but married friends had assured him that guilt was the cornerstone of any good marriage. He was under no illusions that the flowers would make things better between them, but he wasn’t sure what else to do. The last time he and his wife had spoken, they’d had an argument, and more than anything he wanted to take back his words and make amends. He was forty-three now, and as he parked his car in the parking lot of Carteret General Hospital, where his wife had worked for the past ten years, he thought again about the words he’d always said to his father.Īfter stepping out of the car, he reached for the flowers he’d brought. To Travis, those days seemed like the innocent vestiges of another era. Yet no matter how frightened the stories had made him, he would inevitably ask, “What happened next?” He focused on hair-raising chase scenes through the sandy lowlands, giving Travis nightmares about crazed polar bears on Shackleford Banks until he was well into middle school. his dad wasn’t a stickler for reality when it came to a bear’s natural habitat. Grizzly bears, brown bears, Kodiak bears. There was always adventure and danger and excitement and journeys that took place in and around the small coastal town of Beaufort, North Carolina, the place Travis Parker grew up in and still called home. He’d put his arm around Travis and in a pitch-perfect voice would launch into a story that often kept Travis awake long after his dad had turned out the lights. Usually, his dad would sit quietly for a few moments, and then his eyes would light up. “The best one ever,” Travis would answer. “What kind of story do you want?” his dad would ask. Travis remembered the way his dad would sit on the bed beside him, his mouth curling into a smile as Travis begged for a story. At least, that’s what Travis Parker recalled his dad telling him when he was a child. Read on to learn more about each of Nicholas Sparks' novels.Stories are as unique as the people who tell them, and the best stories are those in which the ending is a surprise. Now, Nicholas Sparks has written over 20 books, including "A Walk to Remember" (1999), "Dear John" (2006), and "The Choice" (2016), all of which have been adapted for the big screen. Published in October 1996, "The Notebook" rocketed to the top of The New York Times Best Seller list and remained there for a year. The publisher clearly liked what they read-they gave Sparks a $1 million advance. He secured a literary agent in 1995, and "The Notebook" was quickly picked up by Time Warner Book Group. It was during this period that he was inspired to write his first novel, "The Notebook." It was completed in just six weeks. Sparks' first book, published in 1990, was a nonfiction book co-written with Billy Mills called "Wokini: A Lakota Journey to Happiness and Self-Understanding." Sales were modest though, and Sparks continued to support himself by working as a pharmaceutical salesman in the early '90s. Neither was ever published, however, and Sparks worked a number of different jobs in his first years after graduating from Notre Dame. He began writing in college, during which time he produced two novels. He is a native of Nebraska, though he has lived most of his adult life in North Carolina, where his books are set. He's sold more than 105 million books worldwide, and 11 of his novels have been turned into films. Sparks has written over 20 novels in his career, all of which have been best-sellers. If you're a reader who loves uplifting romance novels, you've probably read a few Nicholas Sparks books.