I love your leading men! How do you think of all these characters and plots?

NORA ROBERTS: This is, bottom level, the job. Writers think in story lines and character types. If I were a dentist, my fantasies would probably involve interesting and creative ways to improve dental hygiene. But I'm not a dentist, so I don't think about that much. For me, character is the most vital element of a story, and as a result my work is primarily character-driven. I have to know, like and have an investment in the people in my books. If I don't believe they exist, don't care what happens to them, why should the reader?

How long does it take you to complete a novel? And do you write more than one at the same time?

NORA ROBERTS: How long does it take me to write a book? Until it's finished. I find this is the case every time. I only work on one book, with one cast of characters, at a time. This is my process, and if I tried to juggle more than one story, more than one cast, I'd not only get confused, I wouldn't give the individual story and people my full energies and attention. As I possess one of the most essential writers' tools, neuroses, I don't time or keep track of the time involved in producing a story. If I did, I'd very shortly drive myself crazy comparing the time it's taking me to write this one with the time it took me to write that one--and wondering how long it might take me to write the next one. Therein lies madness.

Do you a family/genealogical connection to Ireland? How many times have you visited there?

NORA ROBERTS: I'm Irish on both sides of my family. All roots are Celtic--Ireland and Scotland. I've been to Ireland many times, and it's one of my favorite places in the world. In fact, I love it so much I recently bought land in County Clare.

What's your writing schedule? Do you have a set number of hours you write per day or a set number of pages you aim to complete each day?

NORA ROBERTS: In a perfect world, I write six to eight hours a day. Uninterrupted. It's very rarely a perfect world in my house, so too often that time is interrupted by phone calls, barking dogs, a husband who for some reason hasn't yet left the house, phone calls, delivery men, whining dogs and whimpering requests from my husband, who is now back in the house, about what we're having for dinner. Generally, I''m at the keyboard from nine to five, or thereabouts. I don''t count pages. It''s more of a happy feeling at the end of the day that I''ve written the chunk of the book I''d hoped to write, or an unhappy one that I wasn''t able to get there