Nicholas Sparks can’t always remember the way a book idea comes to him, but for the best-selling author’s newest novel, “Counting Miracles,” Sparks knows exactly how it happened. “Not all my books are so clear,” Sparks says by phone from his home in New Bern, N.C.
recently. “But the original inspiration for this one is I got this image in my head of this old guy, hurt and injured in a forest with no one around him, and his dog standing guard over him. SEE ALSO : Bestsellers, authors, books and more can be found in the Books section “I can’t tell you the second idea or the third idea, which led to the rest of the story, but the original inspiration I just couldn’t get that picture out of my head,” he says.
“And you start asking yourself questions, and little by little, a story comes together.” In “Counting Miracles,” which brings Sparks to Huntington Beach for an event on Thursday, Oct. 3 , the old man stranded in the Uwharrie National Forest near Asheboro, N.
C. is Jasper, an almost hermit-like figure who retreated from most contact with the public after a family tragedy years earlier. Then there’s Tanner, a former Army Ranger, who most recently has worked for United States aid efforts in Africa, comes to Asheboro in search of his father.
He meets Caitlin, a divorced doctor and mother of two. A romance begins as the town is captivated by reports of a sighting of a rare white deer in the forest. In an interview edited for length and clarity, Spar.