MOBILE, Ala. — Nicholas Sparks certainly hasn’t been hiding under a rock, but it has been a while since he last visited our area. The author of 14 New York Times bestsellers issued his latest offering from Grand Central Publishing (formerly Warner Books) on Tuesday, and he will visit Mobile next week to promote it.

The well-known family man will read from and sign The Lucky One on Thursday, Oct. 9, from 6:30 until 8:30 p.m., at the Saenger Theatre, 6 S. Joachim St. The event is being presented by Page & Palette Bookstore of Fairhope.

An earlier romantic work, Nights in Rodanthe, was the basis for a motion picture released Sept. 23 starring Richard Gere and Diane Lane. Other Sparks books previously adapted for the big screen are The Notebook, A Walk to Remember and Message in a Bottle.

And as if he didn’t already have enough screen credits, the 44-year-old writer recently sold the film rights for Dear John to New Line Cinema.

Sparks is now simultaneously writing a book and screenplay for Disney that is expected to be produced as a starring vehicle for teen actress and singer Miley Cyrus.

Asked on Wednesday about his rigorous book tour, and how he manages to fit in anything else, Sparks said, “It’s usually a pretty tight schedule, but I know what to expect in most places I go.”

Women (and men, too) know what to expect from Sparks as well. Many of the books he has penned thus far have drawn deep from the pool of basic emotions, and are weaved together in such a way to keep his audience enthralled.

“This is a novel,” Sparks said, referring to The Lucky One. “Sometimes I write dramatic fiction, but in a love story, you want to keep the reader guessing about what happens at the end. You’ve got to get the character’s voice in. You’ve got to tell an interesting story that keeps the pages turning.”

The romantic tale begins in Kuwait when U.S. Marine Logan Thibault finds a photograph of an attractive young woman half buried in the dirt while preparing for his third tour of duty in Iraq. He considers throwing it away, but instead brings it back to the base, where someone might claim it.

When no one does, he begins carrying the photo in his pocket. A series of lucky events, including several winning poker hands and his surviving a combat attack that kills two of his closest friends, prompts him to accept his best friend’s explanation that the photo is his lucky charm.

The young man returns home to Colorado, but can’t shake his thoughts of the photo and the smiling woman. Thibault journeys across the country to find her, but doesn’t expect the strong and attractive, yet vulnerable, divorced mother of a young son he meets in Hampton, N.C. to be the woman of his dreams.

“It’s manufactured fate,” Sparks said. “He uses logic, and there’s no time limit in his search. He executed his plan.”

The plot takes an unsettling turn, however, just as he and Elizabeth are falling in love, when the secret he is keeping about the photo and his luck unravels, threatening their budding relationship.

“I wrote it in limited third-person perspective,” Sparks said. “Each chapter has a character telling the story. It helps the reader get close to the characters.”

The twists and turns in his latest story are all by design. Sparks said, “I try to write the best novels I can, and there’s more external conflict in this novel. I don’t know if it has any more conflict than The Guardian or A Bend in the Road,” books first published in 2003 and 2001 respectively.

Sparks was born in Omaha, Neb., and as a child moved around the Midwest and finally to California. He now resides in North Carolina.

He wrote his first book, albeit unpublished, while a student at Notre Dame University, where he majored in business finance. He wrote a second unpublished novel while living in Sacramento, Calif.

Regular readers of Sparks’ books have known for some time he favors the East Coast near his home as a primary setting for his stories. That’s no fluke.

“Atmosphere is very important and familiarity is very important. If I need a setting, I know what it’s like in the morning versus the afternoon,” he said. “Some of my novels are set on the coast, and some in the coastal lowlands. It depends on the scene I want to do.”

Writing what you know best makes sense, but Sparks also reads voraciously and researches thoroughly when preparing to write a story.

To guarantee authenticity in The Lucky One, Sparks learned as much as he could about the current war in Iraq by studying various accounts.

He said he wanted to place Thibault in the proper unit, and didn’t choose one from Camp Lejeune although close to his home because the timing of their deployments and location of the units didn’t fit the storyline.

Sparks didn’t want a unit that faced little conflict, nor did he want one that suffered mostly similar forms of casualties. He also wanted a unit that had deployed to Iraq at least three times, and found the First Fifth met those criteria.

When asked whether he wrote the book with a movie deal in mind, Sparks said, “I don’t think of that when I write a novel, but I think many of them would make a great screenplay. I don’t sell them all. You don’t want too many out (in film release) at the same time.”

Sparks noted the late Paul Newman had a role in “Message in a Bottle.” He said, “I’m very happy with the casting of the movies. I’ve had a very good Hollywood run.”

The unassuming author has done well in every aspect of his career. Seven of Sparks’ books have reached No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list, and more than 50 million copies are in print worldwide.

Sparks and Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling are the only contemporary authors to have a novel spend more than a year on both the New York Times hardcover and paperback bestseller lists.

He said CliffsNotes is publishing companion educational guides for The Notebook and A Walk to Remember, also a rare achievement for an author in modern times.

“Success as a writer is reaching an audience and moving them, and of course the ability to have a novel last forever,” Sparks said.

In a poll of Entertainment Weekly readers, Sparks was selected as their favorite author and was chosen by People magazine as the “Sexiest Author.”

He earned a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, and still holds a track and field record he set in 1985 while a college freshman.

VIP tickets for the upcoming Nicholas Sparks event are $25 for seating in the first six rows, and general admission tickets are $15. With each ticket purchased, a $5 credit will go toward the purchase of The Lucky One from Page & Palette. Books will be available for purchase at the bookstore and at the event.

To purchase tickets, or for more information, contact Page & Palette at (251) 928-5295, or visit online at www.pageandpalette.com.

Due to the author's popularity, this event is expected to be a sellout. Sparks will exclusively

sign all books purchased from Page & Palette following the speaking event.