Nora Roberts

Author profile

born

in Silver Spring, Maryland, The United States

October 10, 1950

gender

female

website

http://www.noraroberts.com/

genre

Romance, Suspense, Fantasy

About this author

edit data

aka
J.D. Robb
Sarah Hardesty

Eleanor Marie Robertson was born on October 10, 1950 in Silver Spring, Maryland, USA. She was the youngest of the five children, also the only girl, of a marriage with Irish ancestors. Her family were avid readers, so books were always important in her life. She attended a Catholic school and credits the nuns with instilling in her a sense of discipline. During her sophomore year in high school, she transferred to a local public school, where she met Ronald Aufdem-Brinke, her future first husband.

In Augusy 17, 1968, as soon as she had graduated from High School, Eleanor married, against her parents' wishes. The marriage settled in Keedysville, Maryland. Her husband worked at his father's sheet-metal business befor...more aka
J.D. Robb
Sarah Hardesty

Eleanor Marie Robertson was born on October 10, 1950 in Silver Spring, Maryland, USA. She was the youngest of the five children, also the only girl, of a marriage with Irish ancestors. Her family were avid readers, so books were always important in her life. She attended a Catholic school and credits the nuns with instilling in her a sense of discipline. During her sophomore year in high school, she transferred to a local public school, where she met Ronald Aufdem-Brinke, her future first husband.

In Augusy 17, 1968, as soon as she had graduated from High School, Eleanor married, against her parents' wishes. The marriage settled in Keedysville, Maryland. Her husband worked at his father's sheet-metal business before joining her parents in their lighting company. While, she worked briefly as a legal secretary. "I could type fast but couldn't spell, I was the worst legal secretary ever," she says now. After their sons, Dan and Jason, were born she stayed home. Calling this her "Earth Mother" years, she spent much of her time doing crafts, including ceramics and sewing her children's clothes. The marriage ended separating, and they obtained the divorce in January 1985.

In February 1979, a blizzard in forced her hand to try another creative outlet. She was snowed in with a three and six year old with no kindergarten respite in sight and a dwindling supply of chocolate. During the now famous blizzard, she pulled out a pencil and notebook and began to write down one of those stories. It was there that a career was born. Several manuscripts and rejections later, her first book, Irish Thoroughbred, was published by Silhouette in 1981 as Nora Roberts, a shortened form of her birth name Eleanor Marie Robertson, because she assumed that all authors had pen names.

Eleanor wrote under the pseudonym Jill March a story for a magazine titled "Melodies of Love".

Eleanor met her second husband, Bruce Wilder, when she hired him to build bookshelves. They were married in July 1985. Her husband owns and operates a bookstore in Boonsboro, Maryland called "Turn the Page Books". Since that time, they've expanded their home, traveled the world.

In 1992, she decided adopted other pseudonym so to publish a futuristic-suspense novels, she first decided to use the pseudonym D.J. MacGregor, but she discovered that this pseudonym was used by another author. In 1995, her first "In Death" serial novel was published under the pseudonym J.D. Robb, the initials "J.D." were taken from her sons, Jason and Dan, while "Robb" is a shortened form of Roberts.

Eleanor has also been known as Sara Hardesty, because when the "Born In" series was released in U.K. it carried that name instead of Nora Roberts. She has since changed publishers.

Eleanor has been plagiarized by another best-selling romance writer, Janet Dailey. The practice came to light after a reader read Nora Roberts' "Sweet Revenge" and Janet Dailey's "Notorious" back-to-back; she noticed several similarities and posted the comparable passages on the Internet. Calling the plagiarism "mind rape," Eleanor sued Janet Daily. In 1997, Janet, admitted to repeatedly plagiarizing from Nora Roberts' work, and that both "Aspen Gold" and "Notorious" lifted heavily from Nora Roberts's work. Both of those novels were pulled from print after Janet's admission. She acknowledged the plagiarism and blamed it on a psychological disorder. In a settlement, Janet paid Eleanor an undisclosed sum, which Eleanor donated to the Literacy Volunteers of America.

A founding member of the Romance Writers of America (R.W.A.), she was the first inductee in the organization's Hall of Fame. She also is a member of several writers groups and has won countless awards from her colleagues and the (less)

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Nora Roberts's Books

Average rating: 4.01 · 1,407,676 ratings · 45,744 reviews · 454 distinct works · Similar authors

	Vision in White (Bride Quartet, #1) 4.05 of 5 stars 4.05 avg rating — 55,430 ratings — published 2009 — 58 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Born in Fire (Born In Trilogy, #1) 4.16 of 5 stars 4.16 avg rating — 30,062 ratings — published 1994 — 55 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Blue Dahlia (In The Garden, #1) 4.06 of 5 stars 4.06 avg rating — 31,541 ratings — published 2004 — 46 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Dance Upon the Air (Three Sisters Island, #1) 4.16 of 5 stars 4.16 avg rating — 29,203 ratings — published 2001 — 45 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Jewels of the Sun (Gallaghers of Ardmore / Irish Trilogy, #1) 4.18 of 5 stars 4.18 avg rating — 27,207 ratings — published 1999 — 38 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Key of Light (Key Trilogy, #1) 4.12 of 5 stars 4.12 avg rating — 27,653 ratings — published 2003 — 41 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Sea Swept (Chesapeake Bay Saga, #1) 4.21 of 5 stars 4.21 avg rating — 26,557 ratings — published 1998 — 49 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Blood Brothers (Sign of Seven, #1) 4.12 of 5 stars 4.12 avg rating — 26,780 ratings — published 2007 — 39 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Morrigan's Cross (Circle Trilogy, #1) 4.1 of 5 stars 4.10 avg rating — 26,541 ratings — published 2006 — 44 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Next Always (Inn BoonsBoro, #1) by Nora Roberts, MacLeod Andrews (Narrator) 4.05 of 5 stars 4.05 avg rating — 28,279 ratings — published 2011 — 13 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Nora Roberts…

Series by Nora Roberts

Bride Quartet (4 books)
by Nora Roberts
4.068535118574832 of 5 stars 4.07 avg rating — 123,382 ratings

In the Garden (3 books)
by Nora Roberts
4.034442564926296 of 5 stars 4.03 avg rating — 70,349 ratings

Three Sisters Island (3 books)
by Nora Roberts
4.142564881926584 of 5 stars 4.14 avg rating — 68,432 ratings

Irish Born Concannon Sisters (3 books)
by Nora Roberts
4.119500789790588 of 5 stars 4.12 avg rating — 63,941 ratings

Gallaghers of Ardmore / Irish Trilogy (3 books)
by Nora Roberts
4.162608364136651 of 5 stars 4.16 avg rating — 60,329 ratings

More series by Nora Roberts…

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Quotes by Nora Roberts

“If you don't go after what you want, you'll never have it. If you don't ask, the answer is always no. If you don't step forward, you're always in the same place.”
― Nora Roberts

tags: inspirational

1,186 people liked it

“Damn me to hell or take me to heaven, but for Gods sake, do it now....”
― Nora Roberts, The Stanislaski Brothers: Mikhail and Alex

tags: romance

957 people liked it

“You can fix anything but a blank page.”
― Nora Roberts

tags: on-writing, storytelling, writing

447 people liked it

See all Nora Roberts's quotes »

Polls

What book would you like to read in August as the group read?

by Lauren Kate

3 votes, 60.0%

by Diane Setterfield

1 vote, 20.0%

by Amanda Cabot

1 vote, 20.0%

by Helen Simonson

0 votes, 0.0%

by Maggie Stiefvater

0 votes, 0.0%

by Lisa See

0 votes, 0.0%

Night World, No. 3 Huntress, Black Dawn, Witchlight (Night World, #7-9)

by L.J. Smith

0 votes, 0.0%

by Nora Roberts

0 votes, 0.0%

5 total votes

2 comments

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Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
Romance Series Lists: Stanislaskis - Nora Roberts (COMPLETE)	1	94	Apr 22, 2008 01:45pm
Romance Series Lists: O'Hurleys - Nora Roberts (COMPLETE)	1	56	Apr 22, 2008 01:52pm
Romance Series Lists: Donovans - Nora Roberts (COMPLETE)	1	51	Apr 22, 2008 01:56pm
Romance Series Lists: Cordina's Royal Family - Nora Roberts (COMPLETE)	1	64	Apr 22, 2008 02:00pm
Romance Series Lists: Calhouns - Nora Roberts (COMPLETE)	1	57	Apr 22, 2008 02:32pm
Romance Series Lists: Stars of Mithra - Nora Roberts (COMPLETE)	1	51	Apr 22, 2008 02:39pm
Romance Series Lists: Three Sisters Island trilogy - Nora Roberts (COMPLETE)	1	64	Apr 22, 2008 02:42pm
Romance Series Lists: Key trilogy - Nora Roberts (COMPLETE)	1	58	Apr 22, 2008 02:45pm
Romance Series Lists: In The Garden trilogy - Nora Roberts (COMPLETE)	1	16	Apr 22, 2008 02:51pm
Romance Series Lists: Gallaghers of Ardmore (aka Irish) trilogy - Nora Roberts (COMPLETE)	1	27	Apr 22, 2008 02:55pm

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Nora Roberts

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Nora Roberts

Author profile

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combine editionsNora Roberts's Books

Series by Nora Roberts

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Quotes by Nora Roberts

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Videos

0 posts
Nora Roberts's Blog

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Nora Roberts's Books