HELEN TAYLOR

I decided at Christmas that I wanted to write full time, give up the main job. Retire. At first I didn't frame it as writing. I framed it as retiring. That is what I told people I was doing and being able to retire ten years early is a wonderful thing. Those that know me will tell you I wasn't going to slow down, rest and retiring didn't mean what it should. That will come later I'm sure but not right now.

When I first had the idea for The Author Season of The Story Behind My Stories podcast back in June, I thought it would be a small, quiet project. Something I could do to genuinely support indie authors, fill the gaps between my own podcast seasons and share the stories behind the stories we all carry. I didn’t expect what happened next.

Rugby is a world built on values. You hear them often — tradition, loyalty, honour, respect — but you only truly understand them when you see them lived. So when I began writing Die Trying, I faced a question that mattered deeply to me: How do you write crime fiction inside a world built on honour — without breaking the very values that make that world special?