My books include the novels "Sellout" and "Wink" and several educational titles (subjects varying from drug abuse and its impact on society, a historical look at domestic spying, and a biography of Bill Gates) as well as "Tested XX" - the bestselling history of my rather inbred family, which also happens to be America's oldest family of knife-makers, the infamous Case clan.

FORBES: I seek small stories with big implications.

I'm very proud of my family history and have great relationships with my cousins.

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It is the smell of home, history and my family story.

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When I told her my family history of mental illness that included at least one suicide, she threw her pen down on the floor as if this years-long mystery had finally been solved.

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Knowing these opposing experiences could be simultaneously shared within the collective subconscious of my family drove me towards trying to better understand history, politics, perspectives and the human condition.

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My interview began with 87-year old Mary West telling me about the history of her family and the West Family Farm.

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Thanks to the efforts of a researcher at the Society of Genealogists, the body behind this weekend's Family History Show in London, I found out that my great-great-great-grandparents were married in an Aberdeenshire village in 1823.

BBC: NEWS | UK | Magazine | 'My ancestors got hitched in this church'