Nora Roberts (1950 - )

Her Life:

Roberts's fascination with good stories has its roots in watching movies. Her father, who ran a lighting company, was at one time also the projectionist at the local movie theater. There young Nora loved to watch, over and over, romantic popular Hollywood movies like Peter Pan and The King and I.

  These movies fueled her imagination and she decided that writing was her destiny. "There were always books all over the house," Roberts told Alec Foege in a 1999 Publishers Weekly interviewer. "And my dad was a real Irish storyteller."

  In 1968, right after high school, Nora married her childhood sweetheart. They moved to rural Keedysville, Maryland, and had two sons: Daniel and Jason. She taught herself how to bake, can, sew, embroider, and grow vegetables.

Her writing career started when a blizzard came in February of 1979 and she and her sons were stuck at home for a week. To keep her from going stir crazy, she got out a notebook and started writing down a story that she had whirling around in her head.

Nora's first novel, Irish Thoroughbred in 1981 was a Silhouette Romance. This quick success encouraged her to continue. "When I started working, it was like, 'This is it. Why didn't I realize it before?'" she told an interviewer.

  She published five paperbacks in 1982, eight the following year, and ten in 1984. She established the bi-monthly book quota that she has been following ever since. Since 1984, she joined forces with agent Amy Berkower, who has helped Nora move first from Silhouette to Bantam, then on to Putnam and Berkeley publishers.

After her first marriage ended in divorce, she married Bruce Wilder in 1985, a local carpenter whom she met when he came to her home to build bookcases for her.

Her Books:

Adelia Cunnane comes to the States from Ireland, to live with her uncle Paddy who is a horse trainer at Royal Meadows. The owner of RM, Travis Grant, is a hunk that the high society women are trying to land. However, feisty Adelia is the one who captures his heart.

1983: From This Day - Her Mother's Keeper - Reflections - Once More with Feeling - Untamed - Dance of Dreams - Tonight and Always - This Magic Moment

1984: Endings and Beginnings - Storm Warning - Sullivan's Woman - Rules of the Game - Less of a Stranger - A Matter of Choice - The Law Is a Lady - First Impressions - Opposites Attract - Promise Me Tomorrow

1985: Partners - The Right Path - Boundary Lines - Summer Desserts - Dual Image

1986:The Art of Deception - One Summer - Treasures Lost, Treasures Found - Risky Business - Lessons Learned - Second Nature - A Will and a Way - Home for Christmas

1987: Mind over Matter - Temptation - Hot Ice - Sacred Sins

Her first hardcover book is a "well-spun tale of illusion, corruption, and, romance." A family of jewel thieves is at the heart of this tale, including the patriarch Max Nouvelle, his partner Lily, their daughter, spirited Roxanne, and Luke, the runaway whom Max took in years earlier. This novel is "first-class romantic escapism."

1987: For Now, Forever

1988: Rebellion:

The Rebellion takes place just before the ill-fated battle of Culloden. This magnificant story revolves around Serena MacGregor, the proud daughter of the laird of the MacGregor clan, and the half scottish and english lord, Brigham Langston, the man destined to love her.

1997: MacGregor Brides

Daniel MacGregor's three single granddaughters all have busy lives in Boston, building careers for themselves. But to Daniel, their lives could be more complete. Over three Christmases spent at his mansion in Hyannis Port, the patriarch and matchmaker of the MacGregor clan plans to find each granddaughter a special gift that money can't buy--the gift of a perfect man! .

In The Winning Hand Darcy Wallace leaves behind the things which have made her life boring and predictable to seek adventure and excitment. When she reaches Las Vegas, she finds more than she bargained for, and before she knows it a slot machine has made her a millionaire. She meets the owner of the casino, Robert MacGregor Blake and soon they are in love.

1999: The Perfect Neighbor - The MacGregors: Serena-Caine - The MacGregors: Alan-Grant - The MacGregors: Daniel-Ian

This concludes Roberts's Key Trilogy, in which mortal women quest to unlock the spellbound souls of ancient demigoddesses. The third and last woman to make the attempt is hairstylist Zoe McCourt. Like her friends Malory and Dana-heroines of the previous installments (Key of Light, Key of Knowledge)-Zoe has a single month and a cryptic set of clues with which to find her key. The angry sorcerer Kane fights her efforts as friends both mortal and immortal lend their support.