Published for the Yavapai Regional Medical Center Family

Vol. 24, No. 28

December 3, 2004

 

 

A post-apocalyptic event, a third world war, a fallout shelter, a family trying to survive, and a horse. These are the themes and characters of a newly published book by one of our own. Nance Sparks, Lead PC Tech in the IS Department, is eagerly awaiting the release on December 11 of her first novel. Always interested in writing, Nance has files full of short stories and articles she's written over the years, but when "A Choice to Survive" was finished she decided to take the chance and send it to a publisher. To her surprise and delight, they bought it.

 

Nance says the idea for the premise of the book is anchored in current events and research she did on nuclear energy in her senior year at DeVry Institute of Technology. "With terrorism and nuclear proliferation constantly in the news, the topic seemed to jump out at me," she said "and I already had a lot of the research done." Since she's an avid horsewoman, it was inevitable that a horse be a central focus for the story. People always tell you to write about what you know and in this case I very loosely modeled the family on my own and, of course, had to have a horse as a central character."

 

Writing has been a longtime interest for Nance. For fun in high school she and a group of her friends combined their ideas and wrote a story of corporate conflicts, espionage, power and corruption. More recently, she has also written on a wide variety of topics including the story of a spill on a bicycle fashioned on an event in her own life, the Appalachian Trail, and an argumentative paper written for the National Forest Service on preservation versus profit.

 

In writing, Nance says she doesn't take a lot of time coming up with a plot and characters. "The story just seems to unfold in my head and I then work to set up the background, scenery and dialogue. Sometimes I'm at work and an idea starts noodling around in my head. I try to put down a few key words so I won't forget them and write them down when I get home."

 

Available now at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, PublishAmerica and other booksellers, "A Choice to Survive" is written as a cliffhanger and Nance says she's already halfway through the sequel that she hopes also to publish. 

 

 

Chino Valley Review- Meet Your Neighbor

 

Computer tech. turns writer
By Diane DeHamer
Chino Valley Review

 

“I took my information for my book from what is going on in the world today,” said newly published author Nance Sparks of Paulden.

Nance, a PC Technician for Yavapai Regional Medical Center for the past seven years, said she stays busy raising her 13 year old son Matthew and working as a ranch hand at a Paulden ranch, besides finding the time to write books..
 


 

N. J. Sparks with her milk cow... Cookie


“My book, ‘A Choice to Survive,’ is a little modern western, and pre-world war III It’s about a family’s drive to survive,” she said. “Also, the story takes place here in Walker. It was a blast to write this book, current events in our society and the world are what drove me to write it.”

Born in Flint, Michigan, Nance moved to Arizona in 1987 and lived in Prescott Valley. She later moved to the Chino Valley/Paulden area so she could have horses and now owns five.

“Horses are very predominant characters in my books,” Nance said. “Although I’ve only been a horse owner for about two years, I’ve dreamt of them all my life,” she smiled.

Nance shared that she has always loved to write and worked on her high school newspaper before attending Ball State University Journalism Works in Indiana.

Whether writing her books or riding her horses, both have the same effect on Nance.

“When I’m writing, I forget all about bills, work, chores and all the stuff in life. And when I’m riding my Arab, it does the same thing to me. They are great stress relievers,” explained Nance.

Nance said her first book took her about one year to write. She is now working on the second book called “Nuclear Winter.” Her first book is a cliffhanger, and the second is the sequel.

The process by which Nance got her book published should give hope to all the “wanna-be” writers in the community.

“I wrote this book but never dreamed of getting it published. As a fluke I sent it into only one publisher. I expected to get a letter saying ‘don’t quit your day job’,” she grinned. “But, two weeks later I got an e-mail asking if they could publish my book. It was unbelievable!”

Nance’s book can be purchased on-line at any of the major booksellers.