New novel, movies in the works

       So many projects, so much success.That's the theme of the life of novelist Nicholas Sparks, whose latest novel,The Last Song ,(Hachette Book Group) was released in US bookstores earlier this month. If the title sounds familiar, that's because Sparks wrote the screenplay first after Miley Cyrus specifically said she wanted him to pen a movie for her.She's been filming the movie by the same name in Georgia.
       That movie and at least one more, maybe two,based on Sparks' books will be released in 2010.The movie version of Dear John is scheduled for a February 2010 release, and The Lucky One could be on the big screen by next year, although filming hasn't started.
       His personal life is going well, too, with a private school he started near top capacity for and the high school track team he has coached winning championships. He's moving back into a new, larger home that he built on the site of his previous home outside New Bern on the Trent River, some 180km southeast of Raleigh.
       So, can he just humour the rest of us and give us a crumb about what's going wrong in his life?As it turns out, not really.
       "All of these things are not straight-line-tosuccess things," he said in a phone interview."You have all the downs that it takes to get there.There are frustrations and struggles with the track team, frustrations and struggles with the school, and frustrations and struggles with the house. We just keep trying and trying and do our best."
       Although The Last Song began as a screenplay,
       Author Nicholas Sparks attends the 'Nights In Rodanthe' world premiere at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York.