Helen Bianchin Australian writer, novelist Country: Australia

1. Helen Bianchin: A Love Story Author
2. A Journey to Australia
3. A Successful Writing Career

Helen Bianchin: A Love Story Author

Helen Bianchin is an Australian writer and novelist belonging to the older generation of romance novelists. However, the stories she tells in her best-selling books are as timeless as love itself and captivate readers of all generations. Born and raised in New Zealand, Helen was the only child in her family. Despite being a quiet and somewhat withdrawn girl, she had a vivid imagination and loved to read. She would then create her own captivating and fantastic stories, imagining what would happen to her favorite characters if the circumstances were different from those described in the book. Helen would write her first stories in notebooks, although neither she nor her family attached much importance to them.

A Journey to Australia

After finishing school, Helen started working as a secretary in a family law firm. At the age of twenty-one, she decided to see the world. Along with her friend, she embarked on a cruise ship around Australia, although the four-day journey was filled not with maritime romance but with seasickness. After working in Melbourne for just over a year, the girls continued their travels in Australia, planning to end their trip in Sydney. Their journey took them through the city of Cairns, the center of the Queensland state. It was in Cairns that Helen's journey through Australia came to an end. She met Danilo Bianchin, an immigrant from the Italian city of Treviso, and became his wife. Bianchin was the owner of a tobacco farm in the Mareeba community. He spoke little English, and Helen did not know Italian. The life of a farmer's wife was drastically different from what Helen had been doing before. There was no running water or sewage system on the farm, and the stove had to be heated with firewood. Helen learned all about tobacco leaf preparation and drying, and she was responsible for two hundred chicks, turkeys, and ducks, which she had to slaughter and clean herself. There were nine other immigrants from Italy, Greece, and Albania working on the farm. Helen would cook for them and even wash their sports uniforms after weekend football matches. The young woman had to experience a hailstorm that destroyed the tobacco crop and a difficult first childbirth. The communication with people whose mentality and traditions were different from those Helen was accustomed to was not always easy, but many of the real-life stories became the basis for her literary works. For example, Helen was amazed when the parents of one of her workers arranged a marriage between him and a girl living in another country whom he had never met before. However, after the young wife arrived, a passionate love affair blossomed between them. This theme is often used by Helen Bianchin in her books. Finally, Helen and Danilo had a daughter, Lucia, and they moved to New Zealand. The family grew, and two sons, Angelo and Peter, were born. Home responsibilities did not leave Helen with much free time for writing, although her desire to write remained strong, especially after the death of her parents. Among her friends, Helen often told stories from her life on the farm, and after one particularly captivating story, her friend suggested that she try writing it down on paper and submit it to publishers.

A Successful Writing Career

For her first work, Helen Bianchin drew on real events on the tobacco farm, and the main character had a prototype – her own Italian husband. However, in the novel, he had a thriving tobacco farm. Helen acquired a portable typewriter and got to work, not knowing how it would end. Bianchin did not have any writers or publishers in her circle who could share the secrets of their craft. She wrote, revised, condensed, and extended. The final version of the manuscript was titled "Thirsting Heart," and she submitted it to the publishing house that published the books she herself enjoyed reading – Mills & Boon. After four months, she received a response with a contract offer. Her first experience was successful. Since 1975, Helen Bianchin has published over sixty novels, including several popular series such as the "Santanas Brothers" and "Dimitriades," which have appeared on bestseller lists. The writer is also the author of numerous stories published in collections and the co-author of about thirty works. Among the books by Helen Bianchin translated into Russian, the most successful are "Blue-Eyed Cassandra," "A Movie for Beloved," "You Are My Life," and others. However, the opinions of different readers about the same "little book" by the writer can often be diametrically opposed, but the interest in her works remains high. The Bianchin family lives in South Queensland, Australia. Helen and Danilo have three adult children and five grandchildren who live nearby. On the writer's table, along with her computer, which has replaced the typewriter, one of her two beloved cats is always resting.