Author Nora Roberts starts off each of her novels with the idea of entertaining herself … and ends up enthralling legions of readers as well.
The writer of 154 books, many of which end up on the best-seller lists of The New York Times, sets out each time, she says, “to entertain myself.” If she can do that, she reasons, her fans will be pleased, too.
Roberts, in Knoxville recently to sign her latest book, Three Fates, is usually classified as a romance writer. But she finds the tag confining. “Whatever label you put on them, they’re stories - about people,” she says.
The Maryland-based novelist particularly refers to those who insist they read her books not for the romantic entanglements, but for the layered non-romantic plots. Especially male readers, who tell her they enjoy her books’ elements of mystery. “They’ll say, ‘It isn’t romance; it’s suspense,’” she explains, adding that as long as both genders are reading it, she doesn’t particularly mind what they call it.
In addition to her own well-known moniker, she writes futuristic crime novels under the nom de plume J.D. Robb. Under the Robb name, she is currently working on “Portrait in Death.”
Robb was suggested to Roberts as a way to capitalize on her inexhaustible efforts by offering two types of novels -- hopefully doubling sales -- rather than just one at a time. Once she understood the marketing ploy, the realization that “I could be two popular brands” followed.
And, like a true writer-harboring a dozen unwritten ideas at any given time-she’d already mapped out detective Eve Dallas in the year 2058 in her mind some time earlier, without a literary “home” for the poor woman. Dallas and Robb have proven extremely good for each other.
As an example of how the genderless psuedonym has helped her, Roberts tells the story of one of her friends’ husbands, who contended that women could never write -- until the friend slipped him a Robb book. He was hooked.
“I love to surprise men with J.D. Robb,” she says.
Roberts’ success comes from a combination of varied research, numbingly long hours at the keyboard and considered inspiration -- “considered,” because while an event or idea might spark an idea, the spark alone isn’t enough to produce 120,000 words for a novel. Her fuel comes from playing “if this, then what?” and “what next?” games with her characters’ motivations and personalities.
Three Fates, for example, emerges from her desire to write a “quest story” -- her characters’ search for valuable silver statues of the Fates as well as emotional quests for each person. Interest in her Celtic heritage gave her inspiration to use the 1915 German U-boat sinking of the Lusitania off the coast of Ireland as the catalyst for the plot, and from there she spun it out layer by layer into book-length.
For this novel alone, she had to research texts on mythology, geography and history, as well as learn more about the antiques business and collectibles themselves. This isn’t unusual for a Roberts book; except for signing tours and weekends, Roberts normally puts in a 40-hour writing week, in addition to the research and the few interviews she conducts.
“When I write a story, I want to be invested in the characters,” she explains.
During an April 3 signing at Knoxville’s Barnes & Noble bookstore on Kingston Pike, Roberts told an enthusiastic crowd that, bowing to pressure from fans over the years, one of her more popular characters, Seth Quinn, has aged to an adult for a novel to be released in November. He was 11 when readers last saw him.
“From the time you pick up that book ‘til you put it down, she has you,” says reader Janette Erickson of Knoxville, explaining that Roberts has maintained the same “form” over the past 20 years without becoming stale. Other readers concur, and add that Roberts has a knack for imbuing her supporting characters with nearly as much warmth and appeal as she does her protagonists.
Too, she follows the cardinal rule of written creation: Show your audience, don’t tell. Preferably with color. In one early Silhouette novel, instead of just telling readers about all the personality quirks of her heroine, a soap-opera scriptwriter, Roberts put the character in a situation where she had to empty the contents of her purse for police examination. A lot can be told about a woman from what she carries around close to her body for eight or more hours a day.
Good romance accepts elements of all fiction -- it isn‘t all “just sex.” Roberts herself says, “It’s all Tab A into Slot B anyway, so [such writing is] all about the emotions,” as well as letting one’s reader into a character’s circle of family and friendships.
Roberts loyalists can likely recite the story of her ascension to publishing prominence by now: She took a job as a legal secretary out of high school and was so bad at it that, as she’s fond of saying, “I would’ve fired me.” Luckily, being a wife and mother was more successful, but cabin fever one winter drove her to start scribbling story ideas to pass the time.
She started out writing longhand in notebooks, because she could carry her work with her. If she took the kids to the playground, she could take out her notebook and pencil and work on her story. And she’s been doing it for 23 years.
Asked what she would be doing if not writing, Roberts ruminates a moment, finally answering, “I have no idea. I have no other talent.”
Like any successful author, she inspires struggling writers. Cynthia Hill and Derickja Gentile, both Knoxville twentysomethings, draw great vibes from Roberts’ stories. They see shades of Eve Dallas emerging in the book they’re now writing. “Knock ‘em down, beat ‘em up, fall in love” is how Gentile describes it.
Roberts’ inspiration comes from many sources including books, movies, and television. Local fans may yet see a Roberts plot spring up in their own backyard. She has a story brewing for which she hasn’t picked a setting, and since she’s never used East Tennessee … well, “maybe I’ll have to rectify that,” she muses.
-Originally published in Knoxville Cityview , 2002