Most people in their 70s who have lived a busy and active life have either retired or are planning their retirement.

But it seems for Worcester author Helen McCabe, aged 72, her life is just taking off.

With more than 30 historical, romance and horror novels under her belt, she has publishers queuing up, a Hollywood film company has taken an option on her most recent trilogy and some of her work is now being published for the Italian market.

If that wasn’t exciting enough, one of her Victorian romantic novels reached number one on the Amazon best seller list last September and she is currently in the running for three awards for her horror novel The Piercing, which also came second in the annual Preditors and Editors Readers’ Poll this month.

“Everything is going fantastically well and I am extremely happy. It has been quite a shock to me that, after all my work, everything is coming together. All at once, everyone is interested in everything I do,” she said.

But it wasn’t always like that and Helen is no stranger to adversity – battling with ill health from childhood and financial pressures while bringing up her three children as a single parent.

Literature and writing are, without a doubt, coursing through every part of her being. As a child she was an avid reader – absorbing herself in stories to escape her environment – and wrote her first long story aged seven.

Brought up in Dunhampstead alongside the Worcester and Birmingham Canal, she won a scholarship to St Mary’s Convent School, Battenhall, Worcester, and shone academically.

“I loved school and hoped to take a degree but ill health forced me to drop out. I took a job as a library assistant and my first writing success came at the age of 20 when I had a poem read on the BBC programme Midlands Poets.”

Helen married and had three children but when the marriage didn’t work out she started writing to try and make some money to support her family.

“I had three children at school and I first wanted to get into writing romantic novels for Mills and Boon.”

Her work was not accepted so she tried magazines where her stories started to be published. “I got my first story in first time with My Weekly Story Library,” she says proudly.

“Times were hard and my children were growing up. I kept selling to the magazines but began writing novels.”

Now, more than 30 years later, all her work and perseverance are paying off and her zest for literature and writing is as strong as ever. In fact, it seems she cannot stop writing.

Despite breathing problems, arthritis and other ailments - she currently takes 30 tablets daily and is virtually confined to a wheelchair – her writing is as prolific as ever.

“I have got to keep going. I have spent a lot of time over the years in and out of hospital but my brain is not affected with anything. I am determined to feel better and get back on my feet again.”

She says stories just keep flooding into her head. “I used to use my dreams a lot. I still use them but not as much. It is as though I have a camera in the right side of my head and I see things going on and I use this for my books.”

She sometimes wakes up in the middle of the night with ideas for her current novel or for another book. “I woke at 3.30am the other day and had all these ideas so I have a notebook by the side of the bed and I wrote 17 pages while it was in my mind.”

“Everyone is telling me to rest but I cannot stop my writing. Writing is part of me. I live my books,” says Helen.

She admits there was a period when she struggled to write the final book – called The Codex - of her current trilogy. “But now I’m flying and the fans and the publishers are all waiting for it.”

Apart from writing, she is an avid reader, a member of Mensa and loves doing puzzles and crosswords, reviews other writers’ work and still harbours an ambition to do a PhD in English. Helen already has an Honours Degree in English and followed this with a Masters but she really wants the full set.

“My big problem is doing too much. I am a person who wants to excel in all things.”

By contrast she manages to get some relaxation by watching football – she follows Manchester United – horse racing and tennis. She says she must finish her latest book before Wimbledon starts.

Helen’s book the Piercing has been put forward for:

• The prestigious Bram Stoker Awards (presented by the Horror Writers Association)

• The British Fantasy Awards (organised by the British Fantasy Society)

• The World Fantasy Awards (run by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America)

Helen’s books can be ordered in print from www.telos.co.uk and from Telos through any bookshop. Price £12.99. As a download, they can be obtained from www.amazon.co.uk and www.amazon.com as well as Kobo, Nook, Barnes & Noble.