"I need to write to be happy." That explains why Nora Roberts, aka J.D. Robb, has a career that spans more than 35 years. She started writing as a stay-at-home mom, resulting in Irish Thoroughbred (1981). Its lead characters are vastly different from those later in her career, like the archetypal, multi-dimensional stars of her long-running In Death series: Lieutenant Eve Dallas and Roarke. The futuristic romantic suspense novels revolve around a brilliant but socially inept homicide detective and her husband, a reformed thief and the wealthiest and most enlightened man on Earth. Given the series' longevity and popularity, it's surprising that it has won Roberts just one of her 16 Rita Awards. The prodigious author also opened a historic bed and breakfast in Maryland.