I wasn’t aware that this best-selling author is Catholic — but he’s making no secret of it, and discusses his faith, and how he’s using his success to give something back, with the Arkansas Catholic newspaper:

Catholic novelist Nicholas Sparks will speak at the Embassy Suites in Rogers Saturday, Oct. 11 as part of A Breakfast Book Talk, a fundraiser for the Rogers Public Library.

The event is in conjunction with a book signing for his latest novel, “The Lucky One.”

Sparks has found phenomenal success with his novels as well as his memoir, “Three Weeks with My Brother.” Four of his novels have been made into films: “The Notebook,” “Message in a Bottle,” “A Walk to Remember,” and now “Nights in Rodanthe.”

As a Catholic, Sparks’ faith is reflected in his novels.

“As a general rule my characters tend to have faith,” he said during a telephone interview with Arkansas Catholic. “It is an important part of their lives. I would never use profanity. I would never write about adultery. But I do write about flawed characters. They are not perfect.”

An important factor in the popularity of his novels is that his stories are generational. His first bestseller, “The Notebook” is a story centered around the memories of an elderly couple’s marriage. The recently released film based on his novel, “Nights in Rodanthe,” looks at the relationship of a 40-something couple. “The Lucky One” tells the story of a young Marine, returning from Iraq on a personal mission.

“My faith informs the characters and the general values that they have,” Sparks said.

“That is virtually every character that I created. And there is certainly a number of characters, depending on the novel, where faith has played a more important role in the overall context of the story. Sometimes it is less influential or less integral to the story,” he said.

In addition to being an author with seven #1 books on the New York Times bestsellers list, Sparks and his wife Cathy have five children — three sons, ages 17, 14 and 8, and twin girls, age 7.

“I just like being a dad. I like to watch them grow up. I enjoy watching them learn about the world,” he said.

His faith also resonates in his relationship with his children.

“You have to go to church every Sunday,” the 43-year-old said. “You have to keep them active in youth groups. You have them say their prayers. You teach them there is more to life than just themselves and their immediate needs and wants.”

One son’s developmental issues presented many challenges to Sparks and his family. In fact, it was the subject of his novel, “The Rescue.” Because of this, he and his wife have been actively involved in the pursuit of educational opportunities.

In their hometown of New Bern, N.C., they have helped to establish the Epiphany School, a Christian school that serves students in sixth to 12th grades. Its mission is based on the premise that all students are gifted and that the school’s responsibility is to help them develop these gifts.

As chairman of the school board, Sparks said he would like to teach there when his schedule allows him the time. But it wouldn’t be creative writing. Instead he said, “In the spring, I would like to teach macroeconomics. Economics is a hobby of mine, and it is something that I study all the time. I think it is important to learn the interconnectedness of the world. The school is ideally designed to be a global-type school where students travel around the world.”

Because sports has played such an important role in Sparks’ own education in high school and college, he has developed a track and field program in New Bern.

“Coaching fills another area of my life that I enjoy,” he said. “Many of the kids I coach are underprivileged, and it is a joy to get them into college. In the last few years between the high school and the track program, there are 27 or 28 athletes we have gotten scholarships to various universities across the country. For most of those people they are the first in their families to go to college.”

It was at the University of Notre Dame that Sparks set records as a track and field competitor. As a tribute to his alma mater in South Bend, Ill., Sparks has developed a three-part series of scholarships, internships and a prize for the creative writing master’s program.

Sparks stresses that writing is an art, but publishing is a business. Now that the new film, “Nights in Rodanthe” is released and his latest book, “The Lucky One” is published, Sparks will start to work on a Disney project for Miley Cyrus. The project is a combination novel and screenplay to be written simultaneously with a publication date in 2009.