https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jan/30/nora-roberts-novels-crime-suspense-romance

Her 220 novels – from crime to romance to suspense – have sold 500m copies around the world. Her secret? Early morning Diet Pepsis and an eight-hour day

Nora Roberts was a young stay-at-home mum with two small boys when 3ft of snow hit Maryland in February 1979, and the family was stuck inside. She picked up a notebook and had a go at writing a romance novel. “I thought, I’m going nuts here, so I’ll take one of the stories out of my head and write it down,” she says. “And I just fell in love. Before that I’d sewed, baked bread, crocheted, macramed two hammocks. I was desperately searching for a creative outlet and as soon as I started that was it.”

Today, Roberts is the author of more than 220 novels, publishing at least five a year. Known by her legions of fans as La Nora, she’s a perennial New York Times bestseller who has sold more than 500m books worldwide. Forbes estimates her net worth at $390m. We’re talking in the stunning setting of Ashford Castle in Ireland, the inspiration for her bestselling Cousins O’Dwyer series – witchcraft; romance; horses – where almost 200 readers are due for an event later that day. One booked a flight to Ireland the second the event was announced. She has, she says later, read every book Roberts has ever written, from supernatural-tinged series such as the Guardians trilogy to the romantic suspense of The Obsession; this is some feat.