Nora Roberts (born Eleanor Marie Robertson on October 10, 1950) is an American author of over 225 novels, known for romance published under her own name.
[1] She also writes police procedurals which have elements of science fiction under the name J. D. Robb, and has published as Jill March, and (in the U.K.) Sarah Hardesty.
Roberts would later refer to this time period as her "Earth Mother" years, when she did crafts, including ceramics and sewing her children's clothes.
Roberts met her second husband, Bruce Wilder, a carpenter, when she hired him to build bookshelves in July 1985.
[11][12] Her husband owns Turn the Page Books bookstore in Boonsboro[13] and works as an adult content photographer and videographer.
After it was destroyed by a fire in February 2008, it was restored and reopened as the Inn BoonsBoro in 2009; the suites were inspired by and named for literary romantic couples with happy endings.
Roberts states that with three feet of snow, a dwindling supply of chocolate, and no morning kindergarten for her two boys, she had little else to do.
[17][18] She fell in love with the writing process, and quickly produced six manuscripts[19] which she submitted to Harlequin, the leading publisher of romance novels, but was repeatedly rejected.
[24] In the past, her trilogies were all released in paperback, as Roberts believed the wait for hardcover editions was too long for the reader.
[9] In 1980, a new publisher, Silhouette Books, formed to take advantage of the manuscripts from the American writers that Harlequin had rejected.
Regis calls Roberts "a master of the romance novel form", because she "has a keen ear for dialogue, constructs deft scenes, maintains a page-turning pace, and provides compelling characterization.
"[20] Publishers Weekly once talked about her "wry humor and the use of different narrators, two devices that were once rarities" in the romance novel genre.
[9] Roberts had long wanted to write romantic suspense in the vein of Mary Stewart, but, at the urging of her agent, she concentrated on classic contemporary romance while she built a following of readers.
[9] After moving to Putnam in 1992, the publishing company quickly realized that they were unable to keep up with Roberts's prolific output.
[24] Her agent, Amy Berkover, convinced the publishers to allow Roberts to write romantic suspense under the new name.
These books, all part of the in Death series, feature detective Eve Dallas and her husband Roarke and are set in a mid-21st century New York City.
[29] Roberts wrote a story for a magazine titled Melodies of Love under the pseudonym Jill March.
[32] A founding member of the Romance Writers of America (RWA), Roberts was the first inductee in the organization's Hall of Fame.
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.
[36] In 1997, another best-selling romance writer, Janet Dailey, admitted to repeatedly plagiarizing Roberts' work.
The practice came to light after a reader read Roberts' Sweet Revenge and Dailey's Notorious back-to-back; she noticed several similarities and posted the comparable passages on the Internet.
[47][48][49] The foundation financially supports organizations that promote literacy and the arts, assist children and engage in humanitarian efforts.