Writing and Self-Publishing Your Family Stories with Kathy Marshall

In 2017, Kathy Kanika Marshall wrote, The Ancestors Are Smiling! which is a collection of uplifting, funny, touching and sometimes harrowing real life stories, creatively told by Kathy Marshall’s ancestors and their descendants. For example, Marshall’s great-grandmother, Ella, worked for a congressman who helped convince President Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, making it possible for her second great-grandmother, Margaret, to transport her five enslaved children in a buckboard to freedom in Ohio. Spunky Great-aunt Reba describes receiving her high school diploma at 106, and being profiled in Essence Magazine and on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Pullman Porter Austin’s dream came true when his sometimes wayward son (Marshall’s father) became a doctor. Marshall’s mother, Mary, a Principal, shares her excitement when Apple Computers installed the first computer technology lab in her Sacramento school in 1983. And 93-year-old great-uncle Charles describes how he became a medical miracle in 1946. These true stories are woven by Marshall with the African fabric of American historical events. 

Marshall has been exploring her family roots off and on since 1976. She used several effective techniques to write her book in a mere 10 months, from start to published book on amazon.com. She is a self-avowed missionary for family history, encouraging others to write their own family stories NOW! 

Kathy Kanika Marshall has been the owner/artist for her Kanika African Sculptures business since 1993, sharing her love of African fabric and ethnic-inspired, welded and ceramic sculptures with art aficionados around the world.