Nora Roberts was born in Silver Spring, Maryland on October 10, 1950. Her first book, Irish Thoroughbred, was published in 1981. Since then, she has written more than 150 novels, which have been translated into more than 25 languages. She writes romances under her own name including Montana Sky, Time and Again, Blue Smoke, Carolina Moon, The Search, Chasing Fire, and The Witness. She writes crime novels under the pseudonym of J. D. Robb including the In Death series. Her title Thankless in Death made The New York Times Best Seller List in 2013. She has been given the Romance Writers of America Lifetime Achievement Award and has been inducted into their Hall of Fame.