ABOUT NATASHA

I grew up in Malaysia, Singapore, and Hong Kong, but chose to come to California for my college education. I  attended Dominican College (now Dominican University) in San Rafael, a small liberal arts college just north of San Francisco where I received a B.A. in English Literature with a Writing Emphasis, and a M.S. in Counseling Psychology.

Most of my professional career has been in counseling or social work. I worked in residential treatment centers, group homes, foster family agencies, and finally, with Mendocino County Child Protective Services before I left to take care of my growing family full time. Along the way, I’ve written articles for regional and national magazines and newspapers, short plays that have been performed in venues around Northern California, Los Angeles, internationally in Sydney and Brisbane, Australia, and in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and children's books. 

My first picture book, Otto’s Rainy Day was published by Charlesbridge Publishing in 2000, and was a Kids' Pick of the Lists. Cixi, The Dragon Empress, a picture book biography of the last empress of China, was released in fall 2011 by Goosebottom Books as one of six books in The Thinking Girl's Treasury of Dastardly Dames series. Sacajawea of the Shoshone (Goosebottom Books) was published in fall 2012 as an addition to The Thinking Girl's Treasury of Real Princesses, and Goldy Luck and the Three Pandas (Charlesbridge Publishing) was published in Jan. 2014. It's a 2014 Junior Library Guild selection.

As a mother of three young children, finding the time to write is like finding a needle in a haystack. But I plug away -- one word at a time, in between school functions, gymnastic classes and soccer practices. And who knows? My next published book just might be born on the sidelines of a soccer game.