Author Roberts weaves romantic tales
The Maryland Writers’ Association this year is celebrating its 30th anniversary with the Writers’ Round Table Program to encourage writers, poets, playwrights and authors through monthly articles and activities. A kickoff ceremony for the program will be held at a conference on March 24 at BWI Airport Marriott. For more about the conference, go to https://marylandwritersconference.wordpress. com.
The Notable Maryland Author articles and associated Fun With Words writers’ prompts are the centerpiece of the 30th anniversary program. Each month, the Maryland Independent and other newspapers in the state will feature a Maryland Writers’ Association article about an author. Marylanders are encouraged to read the articles and try their hand at the writing prompts each month.
Author Nora Roberts
“I need to write to be happy.” – Nora Roberts
A partial reading list includes “Year One,” “Stars of Fortune,” “Carolina Moon,” “The Reef,” “Once Upon a Rose,” and “All I Want for Christmas.”
Romance novels of this type of fiction place their primary focus on the relationship and romantic love between two people, and must have an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending.
Born Eleanor Marie Robertson on Oct. 10, 1950, in Silver Spring, Nora Roberts was the youngest of five children. She married young and settled in Keedysville. When her sons were born she stayed home and tried every craft that came along.
A blizzard in February 1979 forced her hand to try another creative outlet. She was snowed in with a 3-yearold and a 6-year-old.
Roberts had never known a time that she wasn’t reading or making up stories, so she pulled out a pencil and notebook and began to write down one of those stories.
Her first book, “Irish Thoroughbred,” was published by Silhouette in 1981. She is now the bestselling author of more than 225 romance novels and was the first author to be inducted into the Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame.
Roberts met her second husband, Bruce Wilder, when she hired him to build bookshelves. They were married in July 1985. Since that time, they’ve expanded their home, traveled the world and opened a bookstore together.
Read more about Roberts at www. noraroberts.com.
Fun with words
Maryland Writers’ Association invites residents to have fun writing part of a romance novel using only 100 words. In 100 words, weave together the names of two characters, the event where they met, how or why they met, and a sealed manila envelope.
To see a sample of how this might look, go to www.mwawritersroundtable.org/fun-with-words.
Readers who respond to the prompt are encouraged to paste their result at the website www.mwawritersroundtable.org/submit-fun-with-words by the 15th of the month and receive an MWA Writers’ Round Table Submission Certificate. Selected prompts will be published next month.