Noni was 12 when she found herself shaken by a family story shared by a great-aunt about her great-great-great-grandmother Rose Caldwell. A slave girl, Rose watched her mother being sold away as she stood on the banks of the Mississippi River. Rose never saw her mother again. The story piqued a longing in Noni to delve deeper into the early history of African Americans -- and to take others along for the journey. Last year Simon & Schuster published Noni’s first novel, Good Fortune, a tale inspired by her real family history. "I hear the voices of my ancestors speak through me," she says.