Voracious reader loves the process of creative writing

Mark Spragg doesn't act like a novelist. He is down-to-earth and unpretentious. Yet he has written two highly acclaimed books ("Where Rivers Change Direction" and "The Fruit of Stone"). And he just completed a third, "An Unfinished Life." A movie based on the book is scheduled for release in December. Many novelists write books that are optioned to be movies, but it often takes years for them to hit the screen and just as often the movie project dies.

Spragg wrote the book and the screenplay simultaneously — with his wife collaborating on the screenplay — and they submitted the screenplay before he finished the book. "It was a writing exercise," said Spragg during an interview from his Wyoming home. "And Virginia, my wife, is a remarkably talented woman. Although I spent five years writing the book, the screenplay was complete in eight months."

Originally, Robert Altman was set to direct the film with Paul Newman starring — but all that has changed. Now the director is Lasse Hallstrom ("My Life as a Dog," "Chocolat" and "What's Eating Gilbert Grape") and Robert Redford, Morgan Freeman and Jennifer Lopez star. "Redford brought a vitality and sense of power to the role that is extraordinary. I think it's the performance of a lifetime," said Spragg.

Spragg, 52, described his central character, Einar Gilkyson, as an embittered, 70-ish man who spends most of his time caring for a war buddy, Mitch — portrayed in the film by Morgan Freeman — who was badly injured by a bear. Gilkyson is bitter because he believes his son, Griffin, who died in an auto accident, would be alive had his daughter-in-law, Jean (played by J. Lo), not been driving the car. When Jean returns to the Gilkyson ranch after a horrible experience with a brutal boyfriend, she has her 10-year-old daughter, Griffin, with her.

"Originally, this old guy kept appearing in my mind and my dreams, lonely, surrounded by cats — then I started to ask why was he embittered. That process helped define the book," said Spragg. "I'm enamored with the elderly. I was raised in a bunkhouse with older cowboys who were pivotal in my life. Old men raised me, and they embodied a lot of wisdom and taught me ethics. They valued hard work, and they cared for me."

Spragg was born in Pittsburg and spent a few months in an incubator before his family moved to Shoshone, Wyo., to run a dude ranch. He attended a one-room school, graduated from Cody High School and the University of Wyoming. He recalls his mother asking him when he was only 8 what he wanted to do when he grew up, and he quickly said, "novelist."