Posts Tagged ‘bus tours’

THE ROGUE’s last chapter almost done–contest winner announced next week

My thanks to the many who contributed suggestions for my last chapter in response to my announcement of the contest on May 17.

The blue-ribbon panel of judges (whose identities I’ve kept private to protect them from the temptations of bribery) has finished its work and given me a short list of five finalists.

As I wrap up work on the last chapter this week, I’ll choose the winner of the $250 prize. Autographed copies of The Rogue will go to all five who made the short list.

Can anyone imagine how happy I am to be almost finished with this book?

I’ll be able to post the full jacket here soon–Random House/Crown has done a great job in every way, from copy-editing to legal review to jacket design. I’ll, of course, be keeping you all updated on the process as we move toward Sept. 20 publication. I can’t disclose anything about publicity appearances yet, except to say that I’ll be doing network TV from New York, Washington and Los Angeles, as well as–you betcha!–heading back to Alaska.

Transportation will be by airplane. Sorry, no bus tour. Nor will I bring my grandchildren along as human shields.

Honestly now…//UPDATE: New neighbors offer advice via NYTimes

…if you had the choice of spending the summer on an air-conditioned bus (or, more likely, on an air-conditioned private plane that could drop you at a private airfield so you could board the bus minutes before your next destination and pretend to have been on it all along) or here:

where summertime temps reach 120 and where you can’t putter in your “little garden,” or mow the lawn with Trig on your back, and where there’s no “children’s play area” (unless you want to turn them into lizards), and where you yourself would fry in five minutes in your “shorts and tank top,” and where there’s no “family swimming hole,” not to mention no place for Todd to land his float plane…well, which would you choose?

Not to mention that your Political Action Committee can hardly ask people to donate for you to stay home.

Sarah tried that once, charging the state of Alaska per-diem for working out of her house on Lake Lucille, claiming that she was entitled because Wasilla wasn’t her “duty station.”

No wonder that this year she’s opting for the bus.  Take a good look at that house and property (and, yes, that’s the compound she just bought and is moving into, even erecting a new fence around it):  she spends a summer there and by September we’ll be calling her Osarah Bin Laden.

There’ll always be time next year for her new TLC show:  Sarah Palin’s Arizona.

UPDATE:

NY Times (and who’s more “lamestream” than them?)  offers Sarah advice from her new Scottsdale neighbors.

The one I feel sorry for is Monica Rahman,

who says that even though “the commotion was scaring her horses,” she’s “excited to have a new neighbor.”

The well-intentioned Ms. Rahman says she “plans to bring cookies to the Palins.”

I hope she’s ready to leave them at the outer gate.  Having been a Palin neighbor, I’m pretty sure she won’t be welcomed with open arms.

Especially not after having spoken to the New York Times.

Good luck, Monica!  Just check in here if you feel you need advice.

 

 

 

Sarah’s Magical Mystery Tour

 

 

I wonder if this time she’ll really ride the bus.

Doesn’t look like there’s much space on the side for an ad for THE ROGUE, but I’ll ask Crown to inquire anyway.

At least this will give us all a chance to get out and say hi to Sarah in person–maybe our last chance.

And it will get Chuck and Sally and Piper out of  Alazona for a while, and it also gets Trig out of mothballs.

More seriously, it will be a genuine test of how far Sarah’s star has fallen since the Going Rogue days in the fall of 2009.

And, of course, it may be the quasi-official start of her 2012 presidential campaign.

I’m sure she’s anticipating huge cheering throngs at every stop.  Do you think she’ll get them?

Any thoughts as to which of Sarah’s band of Merry Pranksters will be on board?  Meg Stapleton?  Rebecca Mansour?  Franklin Graham?  Greta Van Susteren?  Mary Glazier?  Andrew Breitbart?  William Kristol?  Shailey Tripp?

Whoever Sarah chooses for the cast, I’m sure they’ll have a rollicking good time on the road.

Although I doubt the new tour will dethrone Ken Kesey and the original Merry Pranksters from number one on the “Best Bus Tours of All Time” list.