Every family has its share of stories, and for children, these stories shape their  family's identity and thus their own. My own family stories were about life in China as expatriates, mainly during the Japanese occupation. After the second World War, conflict continued between the Nationalists and Communists causing expatriate families like mine to flee, many to the US and Australia.   As an adult, I began to write down these stories from  long ago and in time, they became the impetus and background to the story of the fictional Natasha in my novel, Natasha Lands Down Under.  She is a Russian immigrant to Australia in 1950, a time of rife anti-Communism in the western world.  She struggles to become accepted in her new environment, while still remaining loyal to the Russian family she loves. It doesn't help that she has a quick temper and a strong sense of justice.  My novel is not a memoir (www.katherinemccaughan.com). Some of the stories I recalled from my childhood turned out not to have been true when I questioned my parents as an adult - but they made good stories. So I used them as fiction and even embellished them to create more drama. Of course, I used my own experiences, but again, I twisted and turned them, exaggerating them to make them better reading material than they really were. The core feelings, I hope, have remained the same and true to all immigrant experiences.           

'Natasha Lands Down Under' has been chosen first place winner in the 2009 Moonbeam Children's Awards, YA Historical/Cultural category. Katherine McCaughan was be a 'fetured author' at the 2010 Amelia Island, Florida, Book Fair and invited to participate in the 2010 Florida Heritage Book Festival.