{"href":"https://api.simplecast.com/oembed?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchanging-the-rules.simplecast.com%2Fepisodes%2Fhelin-vikings-M9L4oYm_","width":444,"version":"1.0","type":"rich","title":"E265: Behind the Story: How Don Helin Keeps Readers Wanting More","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_url":"https://image.simplecastcdn.com/images/038a465a-0c33-4d5b-b374-6f92e7017a9f/359fd80d-3c4c-4114-8305-fd2175a1705f/changing-the-rules-c1-stacked-white-3000x3000.jpg","thumbnail_height":300,"provider_url":"https://simplecast.com","provider_name":"Simplecast","html":"","height":200,"description":"What makes a novel draw us in, keep us turning pages, and leave us saying, “Wow—I want more”?\n\nAuthor and returning guest Don Helin joins Ray Loewe and Mary Ann Steinhauer to take us behind the stories. His latest novel has roots in a discovery he made at fifteen: he had Viking heritage. A trip to Norway in his fifties deepened that curiosity. Decades later, in his eighties, he turned that lifelong interest into a novel.\n\nDon shares how Viking sagas, history, and visits to the places he writes about helped shape his story. He takes us through the craft of bringing it together: familiar characters from earlier novels, a compelling setting, a plot, and the tipping points that keep readers wondering what happens next.\n\nIt’s a conversation about how curiosity becomes a story—and how an author makes that story hard to put down."}