Just finished reading an article about Nora Roberts in the New Yorker.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/06/22/090622fa_fact_collins
Impressive. Not that Nora Roberts is a favorite author of mine (although I have been known to read one of her books while visiting my sister), but her work ethic is amazing. Writing for that many hours a day? Doing her own research? (Although that I can totally see–doing research is one of my favorite things to do.) And sixty million dollars a year? Wow. I suppose I don’t need sixty million…six million should do me nicely. Ha. But what I’m really envious of is the job. She gets up and goes to work in her office doing what she loves to do. And then at five she stops and cooks dinner. One of the parts that I laughed at the most in the article was when her friends suggested that she hire a cook or assistant, and she protested, saying that if there were people around, then she’d have to talk to them. Exactly.
I mentioned the article to my sister and she mentioned that she’s getting a little bored with Nora these days. She made the point that NO ONE could have 180 different ideas for books–things have to start repeating. Then she brought up Margaret Mitchell who only had one good book and that was all she needed. True. They’re on completely different ends of the spectrum. Mitchell spent the rest of her life answering fan mail. Not sure I’d want to do that, but the happy medium that most writers seem to attain would work for me.