JOPLIN, Mo. — I love stories about people -- or animals -- overcoming every obstacle to finally triumph in the end.

Laura Hillenbrand wrote one of those tales about 10 years ago: “Seabiscuit,” the story of a racehorse. The book soared to best-seller heights and was made into a popular movie.

When I read the book and saw the flick, loving both, I had no idea that the author was overcoming her own obstacles in putting words on the page. Hillenbrand suffers from chronic fatigue syndrome and has for 25 years.

According to a National Public Radio interview in 2009, “Her symptoms, including pain and vertigo, have been so severe that she’s only left her house twice in the last two years.” Sometimes she’s too ill to write and yet she perseveres, although not always quickly.

It’s taken almost a decade but she’ll have a new book out Nov. 16. Called “Unbroken,” it’s the story of a man this time, not a horse.

Louis Zamperini ran in the 1936 Olympics, but the war interrupted his athletic career and he became an airman. When his plane was downed over the Pacific, he was set adrift on a raft and there followed a tale of sacrifice and heroism.

In a press release, Hillenbrand says: “While studying a newspaper clipping about the racehorse, I happened to turn to the back of the page, where an article on Zamperini caught my eye,” Hillenbrand said in a press release. “I began to read, and was immediately enthralled. I jotted Zamperini’s name down in my ‘Seabiscuit’ papers.

“After finishing my book, I wrote Louie a letter. He wrote back to tell me of his youthful days as a runner, holding the inspiring image of Seabiscuit in his mind as he ran. With every exchange, I was drawn more deeply into his story and its phenomenally abundant narrative possibilities.”

“Unbroken” was written with the full participation of Zamperini, who is now 93--though he told his own story with help of a co-writer in 2003’s “Devil at My Heels.”

Hillenbrand said that the theme running through this book is of “extraordinary hardship and the will to overcome it. That is the fundamental struggle of my life, trying to get over this devastating physical condition.”

Nancy Drew still ‘alive,’ kickin’

Detective Nancy Drew has been around since the 1930s and she apparently still has a “platform,” which translates in publishing terms to a public eager to support her. Among her avowed fans: former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former First Lady Laura Bush -- none of whom, I would guess, will jump on the new “Nancy Drew Cookbook.”

I have to wonder who will. Do girls still read the Nancy Drew books? I hope they do because the stories are about a smart girl who figures out the mystery before the old folks can mess it up.

Among the recipes: Bess’ Secret Chocolate Waffles for choco-holic breakfast, Vanishing Nut Bread, and Dancing Puppet Parfait.

The only food I remember from the books is cups of hot chocolate, which threw me for a loop. I figured that could only be made by melting chocolate bars which would make it kind of thick to drink. Never associated it with cocoa, which is what I drank out of a cup but then, I was young.

Got to admit, though, that I didn’t get overly involved with the Nancy Drew books. My favorite reading back then: the Tarzan books by Edgar Rice Burroughs, with an even longer publishing history than old Nancy’s. Since Tarzan ate things such as bugs, grubs and miscellaneous dead critters, a Tarzan cookbook would be superfluous in the extreme.

Publishing trend tires Franzen

Jonathan Franzen’s new novel “Freedom” has led him to create an author video that questions why an author would ever create a video.

In the new Farrar, Straus and Giroux multimedia newsletter, Work in Progress, Franzen says, “This might be a good place for me to register my profound discomfort at having to make videos like this. To me, the point of a novel is to take you to a still place.

 “You can multitask with a lot of things, but you can’t really multitask reading a book. You’re either reading a book or you’re not. To me, the world of books is the quiet alternative, an ever more desperately needed alternative. I understand that not everyone sees it that way; I understand that a lot of commerce happens online now -- so I think it makes eminently good sense to be recording little videos like this.”

This sounds to me like leading a horse to water and making him drink.

Thompson’s offer

British actress Emma Thompson has had “a lovely little job offer” to write a new Peter Rabbit tale to coincide with the 110th anniversary of Beatrix Potter’s original.

BBC News has confirmed that she and a British publisher “are in talks” about the project, apparently convinced that the world needs a new Peter Rabbit story.

Time will tell.