Best known for her romance novels, Nora Roberts is one of the bestselling American authors of all time, with over 280 million copies sold and almost 150 novels. These novels have been extremely successful, spending over a combined 660 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list, 100 of which were in the number one spot.

Born Eleanor Robertson, Roberts was the youngest of five children to two parents of Irish decent. She attended a local catholic school to which she attributes here sense of discipline in writing. Roberts met her current husband, Bruce Wilder, after she hired him to construct bookshelves for her.

Roberts first started writing in February 1979 when she was trapped in her house by a blizzard. She quickly fell in love with writing and produced six manuscripts which were all rejected by leading romance publisher Harlequin. The next year, her first novel, Irish Thoroughbred was picked up by Silhouette books and published in 1981. Roberts is often credited with broadening the romance genre by introducing more complex characterization for her heroines and more realistic, believable male characters. She is also know for injecting wry humor and shifting perspective to differentiate her works from generic romance.

Roberts also writers under the pseudonym "JD Robb" for her romance/suspense series "In Death." Roberts has won 19 of the Romance Writers of America RITA awards, the highest honor given to romance writers.