Background

Nora Roberts was born on October 10, 1950, in Silver Spring, Maryland, the youngest of five children.

Education

Roberts attended a Catholic school and credits the nuns with instilling in her a sense of discipline. During her second year in high school, Roberts transferred to a local public school, Montgomery Blair High School from which she graduated in 1968.

Career

Nora Roberts had her first try with writing in 1979 during a blizzard in February. She recalls that being housebound with three feet of snow everywhere she had nothing else to do. She fell in love with writing as soon as she wrote down her ideas for the first time and ended up producing six manuscripts right away. She tried her luck with Harlequin a Canadian based leading publisher of romantic novels but faced rejections for the first couple of tries. Harlequin wrote back to her saying they already had their American writer referring towards Janet Dailey.

By the time Nora got her first novel, Irish Thoroughbred, published in 1981 she had several rejections and three years of experience behind her. During 1982 to 1984, Nora wrote 23 novels. Despite a large number of novels produced by her, Nora did not get real recognition until 1985 when “Playing the Odds” the first novel of her best selling romantic series surfaced in the market. The book was an instant success and with it, Nora achieved a great recognition among the romance readers. Nora played a key role in making a shift of romantic novels from typical eighteen-year-old heroines and superficial male portrayals to a more realistic approach. Her years of experience in romantic genre helped her build an ability to create more realistic characters.

Roberts passed in 1996 the hundred-novel mark with Montana Sky and in 2012 doubled that with The Witness. Since 1999, every one of Roberts's novels has been a New York Times bestseller, and 124 of her novels have ranked on the Times bestseller list, including 29 that debuted in the number-one spot. As of January 24, 2013, Roberts's novels had spent a combined 948 weeks on The New York Times Bestseller List, including 148 weeks in the number-one spot. As of January 9, 2009, 400 million copies of her books are in print, including 12 million copies sold in 2005 alone. Her novels have been published in 35 countries.

Two of Roberts' novels, Sanctuary and Magic Moments, had previously been made into TV movies. In 2007, Lifetime Television adapted four Nora Roberts novels into TV movies: Angels Fall starring Heather Locklear, Montana Sky starring Ashley Williams, Blue Smoke starring Alicia Witt, and Carolina Moon starring Claire Forlani. It was the first time that Lifetime had adapted multiple works by the same author. Four more films were released on four consecutive Saturdays in March and April 2009. The 2009 collection included Northern Lights starring LeAnn Rimes and Eddie Cibrian, Midnight Bayou starring Jerry O'Connell, High Noon starring Emilie de Ravin, and Tribute starring Brittany Murphy.

Roberts continues to be a prolific author. In 2013, she released Calculated In Death, Whiskey Beach, and Thankless in Death. In 2014, she released Concealed in Death, The Collector, and Festive in Death. In 2015, she’s released the latest J.D. Robb book Obsession in Death and Devoted in Death is slated for sale in September. She also released The Liar.

Roberts also has been included repeatedly on the Giving Back Fund's annual lists of the most philanthropic celebrities, with the bulk of her donations going to the Nora Roberts Foundation. The foundation financially supports organizations that promote literacy and the arts, assist children and engage in humanitarian efforts. The Foundation also endowed the Nora Roberts Center for American Romance at McDaniel College, which supports academic scholarship on the American romance novel, with special emphasis on the literary qualities and significance of the romance.

Achievements

• 

  Nora Roberts' main achievement is in becoming the most popular and demanded novelist with over 127 million copies of books in print in the United States. She has published more than 140 novels so far and her books have been printed in dozens of countries around the world with many of them have been adapted into TV movies.
  
  Another Roberts's achievement is in being a founding member of the Romance Writers of America (RWA). In 1997 she was awarded the RWA Lifetime Achievement Award, which in 2008 was renamed the RWA Nora Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award. As of 2012, she has won an unprecedented 21 of the RWA's RITA Awards, the highest honor given in the romance genre.
  
  In 2001, Nora Roberts was the year's number two author based on USA Today's bestseller list, following only J.K. Rowling. She had six books in the top 100 list for the year, more than any other single author.
  
  In 2000, the top five bestselling romance titles of the year (based on actual sales figures) were penned by Nora Roberts: Tears of the Moon, Irish Hearts, River's End, Irish Rebels, and The Stanislaski Brothers. All but one were among the top 100 fiction/non-fiction titles of the year based on retail sales. She was among the top four bestselling authors for the year, according to sales figures compiled by USA Today.
  
  In 1999, Nora penned four out of the top five romance novels; two were among the top 100 bestsellers of all books for the year. Nora was among the top five bestselling authors of the year.
  
  TIME named Roberts one of their 100 Most Influential People in 2007, saying she "has inspected, dissected, deconstructed, explored, explained and extolled the passions of the human heart." Having received nearly every romance writing award available, Roberts became the first author to be inducted into the Romance Writers of America's Hall of Fame in 1986.
  
  Since 2002, the Nora Roberts Foundation has been an avid supporter of FMH, pledging a total of $700,000 to help FMH with funding priorities.
  
  

Works

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  • Divine Evil

    (Famed sculptor Clare Kimball has commanded the attention ...)

    2009
  • The Witness

    (Daughter of a cold, controlling mother and an anonymous d...)

    2012
  • Birthright

    (When five-thousand-year-old human bones are found at a co...)

    2004
  • Of Blood and Bone: Chronicles of The One

    (Fallon Swift, approaching her thirteenth birthday, barely...)

    2018
  • Black Hills

    (Cooper Sullivan spent the summers of his youth on his gra...)

    2009
  • The Rise of Magicks: Chronicles of The One

    (After the sickness known as the Doom destroyed civilizati...)

    2019
  • Under Currents

    (Within the walls of a tasteful, perfectly kept house in N...)

    2019
  • Second Nature

    (For celebrity magazine reporter Lee Radcliffe getting an ...)

    2019
  • The Art of Deception

    (When the handsome Adam Haines shows up at Kirby Fairchild...)

    2017
  • Name of the Game

    (A fiercely independent career woman is determined not to ...)

    2019
  • Island of Glass

    (As the hunt for the Star of Ice leads the six guardians t...)

    2016
  • Stars of Fortune

    (Sasha Riggs is a reclusive artist, haunted by dreams and ...)

    2015
  • Whiskey Beach

    (For more than three hundred years, Bluff House has sat ab...)

    2013
  • Connections in Death: An Eve Dallas Novel

    (Lieutenant Eve Dallas fights to save the innocent and ser...)

    2019
  • The Search

    (A canine Search and Rescue volunteer fights danger and fi...)

    2010
  • Northern Lights

    (As a Baltimore cop, Nate Burke watched his partner die on...)

    2004
  • Come Sundown

    (The Bodine ranch and resort in western Montana is a famil...)

    2017
  • Chasing Fire

    (Being a Missoula smoke jumper is in Rowan’s blood: her fa...)

    2011
  • Tribute

    (Cilla McGowan, a former child star, has found a more sati...)

    2008
  • The Villa

    (PR executive Sophia Giambelli loves her job and has never...)

    2001
  • The Obsession

    (Naomi Bowes lost her innocence the night she followed her...)

    2016
  • The Welcoming

    (Visitors come to Charity’s friendly little inn to escape ...)

    2019
  • Unfinished Business

    (It’s been twelve years, but very little in Hyatt Town, Ma...)

    2018
  • Risky Business: A Passionate Novel of Suspense

    (Dive shop owner Liz Palmer has made an idyllic life for h...)

    2017
  • Shelter in Place

    (It was a typical evening at a mall outside Portland, Main...)

    2018
  • Dark Witch

    (Iona Sheehan grew up craving devotion and acceptance. Fro...)

    2013
  • The Liar

    (Shelby Foxworth lost her husband. Then she lost her illus...)

    2018
  • Year One: Chronicles of The One

    (It began on New Year’s Eve. The sickness came on suddenly...)

    2017
  • Public Secrets

    (Emma. Beautiful, intelligent, radiantly talented, she liv...)

    2009

Views

When Nora Roberts not writing traditional romance novels, she writes futuristic romantic suspense under the pen name J.D. Robb, which allows her to branch out into even more areas of creativity.

Quotations: "Write the best book you possibly can, and don't worry about the future. Don't look at five or ten years down the road when it comes to plotting and planning. You can't do anything about those books. What you can do is make sure the book you're working on right now is the best thing you've ever written."

"Build a foundation to create a career as an author. One hit wonders won't be around in five years, but if you give your readers a consistent series of great stories, they'll come back again and again. You're creating a catalog you can be proud of, not trying for instant stardom. It's a gradual process, but so is building a wall or creating anything of value."

"If you were a doctor or a plumber, you wouldn't be struggling to justify your work time with other obligations. Learn to juggle family, friends, and social time so that your writing career is as important as any other job would be."

"Never wait around for inspiration. It's your job to sit down in the chair and figure out what to write. There is no muse. There is no writer's block. There's only writing."

"The most important advice in the world: BICHOK, which stands for Butt In Chair, Hands On Keyboard. In other words, sit yourself down and write. Write like it's your job, not like it's a hobby. If you've only been able to carve out an hour a day to write, write steadily through that entire hour. Don't take days off, don't avoid writing because you don't feel like it today. Get in front of the computer and create words every single day of your life."

Membership

Nora Roberts is a charter member of the Romance Writers of America and a member of the Mystery Writers of America.

Personality

Born to Irish descendent parents, Nora Roberts describes herself as “an Irish woman through and through”. Since her childhood Nora remembers herself being fond of reading. Her family always had passion for reading; this developed a never ending bond between Nora and writing which she delightfully embraced.

Physical Characteristics: Roberts has an aversion to flying.

Interests

• Sport & Clubs

  Nora Roberts is an ardent baseball fan, having been honored by the local minor league baseball team Hagerstown Suns several times.

Connections

Nora Roberts met her first husband, Ronald Aufdem-Brinke while studying at the public school, Montgomery Blair High School. They married against her parents' wishes, in 1968, as soon as she had graduated from high school. During her first marriage, she had two sons, Jason and Dan.

Nora met her second husband, Bruce Wilder when she hired him to build bookshelves. They were married in July 1985. Since that time, they’ve expanded their home, traveled the world and opened a bookstore together.

ex husband:

Ronald Aufdem-Brinke

husband:

Bruce Wilder

Roberts met her second husband, Bruce Wilder, a carpenter, when she hired him to build bookshelves in July 1985. Her husband owns and operates a bookstore in Boonsboro, Maryland called Turn the Page Books.

References

• Nora Roberts Land
  2013
• The Official Nora Roberts Companion
  2003
• Nora Roberts: A Biography
  2012
• JD Robb Books in Order: In Death series
  2017
• J.D. Robb: A Biography
  2012
• Reading Nora Roberts
  2009
• Author Nora Roberts` Official Website