Thursday, October 11, 2012

Nora Roberts is a well known author Why? I don’t know, but when I am in the library, her books are always in the new book section.  There seems to  always be a woman clutching one of her novels under her arms like she just found the Hope Diamond and she is  trying to sneak out the door with her new find.
The stories that Nora has written fill many bookstore shelves. Now her stories are being portrayed on TV shows too. It turns out that she writes about plenty of romantic fun. Lots of fun as in “Angels Fall” the TV movie based on the novel by Nora Roberts starring Heather Locklear. She is the one author that has her name all over her book in larger font then even the name of her novel.
Nora says that love matters most in all of her books. So, when you pick up any of her books, you kind of already know that romantic tingle will be there somewhere. Consistency is important for success. For example, take Jim Carrey’s career. He was a $20 Million dollar actor when he did his Mask movie and the Grinch. We all knew if we went to see his movie it would be wacky and fun until he decided to be a serious actor and no one cared about him anymore.
Love is the most emotion that we have and she sure likes writing books that celebrates that between two really interesting strong people. Interesting and strong is more like a description that should describe Nora herself. At her book signings you would see ordinary women that belong at Parent Teacher’s meetings or ordinary house wives thanking her for taking them out of the doldrums of their ordinary lives into a romantic adventure.
She is one of the top selling authors in the world with more than 400 million books in print. There are devoted fans who can’t seem to get enough of her independent heroine’s. The women in her books appear to always have an interesting career and who take care of themselves. She is credited to be one of the first romance writers to get away from the young helpless and hapless women as characters.
Nora doesn’t write just pure romance. In 1995 she wrote a science fiction detective series using the author’s pen name J.D. Robb to make it clear that this is a departure from her usual writing. Books like Divided In Death, Celebrity In Death, Treachery In Death, and New York to Dallas. No matter what name she is writing under, hero’s and heroine’s are bound to be fabulous looking and highly sexual.
Nora Roberts loves it when someone says she writes great sex scenes. If you are writing a romance novel it is disappointing if you don’t write a good sexual scene. You want these characters to have fabulous sex. Either very romantic sex or fun sex or hot sex. Hey I didn’t say this, Nora Roberts said it. I wonder if these experiences came from her own life. I have fantasies too but who can write dozens of books about them?
In response Nora replies that yes, she has had sex with many different men and has solved crimes; have committed them and traveled in space climbed mountains, done it all. All we know is that she has done all the writing from her home in rural Maryland where she has lived since 1972. She was a young Mom and decided to start writing in 1979 while raising 2 young boys and thought she was going insane and had to do something for herself. So instead of doing it she decided to write about murder, suicide and love.
Publishers were not immediately impressed and rejected her brand of writing many times and there are people that don’t like her writing and say the locations aren’t even described accurately. Nora was persistent and her first novel Irish Thoroughbred was published in 1981. In just over 3 decades she has turned out more than 200 books. No wonder she doesn’t have any time to do any research. Many of them have become number one bestsellers.
Nora says she works 6 to 8 hours a day writing and finds it a struggle. Then why do it to the tune of 200 books? Her efforts have won her 19 trophies representing excellence from the Romance Writers of America including a Lifetime Achievement Award given to her back in 1997. Romance sells even if she might put the Eiffel Tower in New York.
She brings in a whopping 60 Million dollars a year. Hey, I’ve been wasting my time writing stupid blogs. I should sharpen my pencil and start writing mushy kissing stuff. Now that she is filthy rich she spends her money on refurbishing buildings especially on a building she saw falling apart that she invested millions to look beautiful again. It was built in the 1790’s and is located in the town of Boonsboro, Maryland just a few miles from her home.
There are fans who book romantic hideaways at her Inn and have a choice of booking rooms that are named after famous couples found in literature. There are guest rooms called Elizabeth & Darcy from Pride and Prejudice, Jane & Rochester from Jane Eyre and even Eve & Roarke from her own science fiction series. Maybe she should get into movies and try John & Maureen from great old movies.
Nora is 61 years old and has no intention of stopping putting into print whatever enters her mind. She is happily married to the local book store owner who has an entire room dedicated to selling her 200 books and her son owns the local pizza place in town.

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