Norah grew up in Pointe-Claire, Quebec, a suburb of Montreal. The grade school she attended offered one of the first French immersion programs in Quebec. She later attended McGill University where she earned a degree in history.
Norah moved to Toronto with her husband in 1976. She worked for many years in the non-profit sector while she pursued her writing on the side, mostly at night “while pumping myself full of caffeine!” She started writing full time about eight years ago, and now writes every day, including weekends.
Norah believes that growing up in a home full of books played a big part in her decision to become a writer. Norah’s mother placed a very high value on reading. “Even though we didn’t have a lot of spare cash, we always had books. We were also extremely lucky because we lived two blocks from the public library where I spent a lot of time. Reading was a big deal since it was only a two channel universe at the time,” she jokes.

Another person who encouraged Norah was her Grade 7 teacher. “He was young, and likely in his first year of teaching. On Friday afternoons, he would read to us. He read all kinds of stuff, even adult books like The 39 Steps. He also really encouraged us to try creative writing.” When the teacher told her that she was really good at writing, 12-year-old Norah happily agreed, deciding then and there to become a writer.

Her first attempt at getting published was when she sent an unsolicited manuscript to Scholastic. She received a polite and “not too impersonal” reply back one year later and so decided to try again with another manuscript. “When I received the call that it had been accepted, I was at work and I just screamed. Everyone in the office came over!,” says Norah. And that was how her first book Shakespeare and Legs came to be published in 1987.

Though she doesn’t base her characters on real people, the situations they find themselves in are often based on real-life crimes. For example, for the Mike and Riel series, she wanted to write about kids in her neighbourhood. After writing the first book in the series, Hit and Run, she says, “I heard on the news about the verdict in the trial of a teenager who had been beaten to death in a park because he didn’t offer up a cigarette to a group of young men and I thought to myself, how does this even happen? What if Mike was involved?” She started writing Truth and Lies, based on that incident. The fifth title in the Mike and Riel series, Dead Silence, was released in Spring 2008.

The idea for Over the Edge from the Chloe and Levesque series came from the time she was walking over the Bloor viaduct (a very long and high bridge over one of Toronto’s busiest highways – the Don Valley Parkway) and wondered about falling from such a height. For Norah, the question then became, “what if a kid gets murdered?” That led to the first book in her Chloe and Levesque series, which is one of her most popular in Canada and internationally, with translations in 12 different languages.

Most of her recent writing includes the device of having an older relative or friend who works in law enforcement as a crime-solving partner. She says this helps keep the story authentic. “I ask myself: what role could a young person play? What’s a realistic way for a 15-year-old to have knowledge that would help solve the crime? The character would be very limited otherwise, so I try to include that insider information to bring the story to life,” explains Norah.
A lot of that inside information comes from Norah’s huge library of reference books. She also talks to police officers to verify if the events she’s imagined could actually transpire. How does she get access to police officers? “I just telephone the police station. Once I tell them I’m a kids’ writer they are very cooperative! I usually ask things like ‘is it possible that X could happen?’’’
Norah has also taken a couple of unique courses to learn about police work and forensics. Through the Toronto Police College, she completed a 12-week civilian police course at police headquarters that covered subjects such as police training and forensics.

At the University of Toronto, Norah attended a continuing education lecture called “Forensic Scientists at Work” that included insights into police work from a pathologist, a DNA specialist, a coroner, a defense lawyer and others involved in police and criminal law.

Norah receives lots of fan email, mostly from girls, and is thrilled to know that kids do still read despite other temptations out there. She gets all kinds of feedback and just loves it - responding to 98% of what comes in. The most satisfying emails are the ones that start off: I had to read one of your books for a class assignment and I really loved it. Then I read three more… “I think, here’s a kid who has now been turned on to reading, and who doesn’t think of a book that is something that is just inflicted upon them. Maybe I’ve helped turn them onto a lifetime of enjoyment,” she says happily.

Being adored by readers and critics is obviously one of the perks of being a writer. The Vancouver Sun called her “John Grisham for teens.” But what is the best part of being a writer? “I really enjoy the writing when it’s going well. I get enormous pleasure and satisfaction from seeing a story come together on paper the same as it has been evolving in my head,” says Norah. “That’s when I know there is nothing else I’d rather be doing.” And no, Norah claims she is nothing like her heroines, Chloe and Robyn, but that she lives vicariously through them. In writing a mystery, it’s all about the architecture, explains Norah. “I spend a long time working it all out before I write a word, otherwise, it can be a complete waste of time. I do make outlines, teachers will be happy to hear!”

However, writing also comes with its challenges. One of the main ones for Norah is having a deadline and realizing that the story’s not working. “I can’t sleep, my brain is going around and around like a hamster on a wheel. I once wrote three-quarters of a book and then had to abandon it because it wasn’t working,” she laments. Another challenge is demand for her time. Norah receives many requests to do school visits, but because she spends so much time writing, she can’t respond to them all. She usually picks two months, one in the spring and one in the fall, and does 20 or so visits in each.

On the personal front, Norah has two daughters, reads a lot, is physically active and goes to the gym five times a week. She also likes riding her bike and hiking.
Being as prolific a writer as she is, what advice would Norah offer for aspiring young writers? 1) READ, READ a lot, READ all different kinds of writing and subjects. 2) You will get better if you persevere. Keep writing, and 3) Don’t let anyone tell you you can’t do it. Keep working at it. Have faith in yourself. Don’t give up.