Before it came out, we were promised a book exceeding 300 pages detailing the trials and tribulations of Bristol Palin's impregnator, Levi Johnston. Trig Truthers hoped for truth from the pen of a couple of senior citizens from Florida who won the trust of a young man in Alaska. From the Miami Herald online edition, September 20, 2011, an interview with ghostwriters James and Lois Cowan (they live in Key West, FL ) begins this way:
Hitting bookstores Tuesday is Levi Johnston’s 319-page memoir with the provocative title: Deer in the Headlights: My Life in Sarah Palin’s Crosshairs.
Note that the Florida-based journalist, Cammy Clark, said the book has three hundred nineteen pages. That's funny, because the copy in front of me has 289. (Yes, a first edition, copyright September 2011.)
Maybe Ms. Clark is one of those journalists Sarah Palin likes to criticize- the ones who go around "makin' stuff up." But isn't it more likely, she got the number of pages from the Cowans and figured they were a reliable first-person source? After all, they did write the book. And this isn't their first book. So, what gives with this thirty page discrepency?
Maybe Ms. Clark misunderstood. Maybe Ms. Clark misread her notes. Maybe it's a typo. The natural investigator in me had to look further.
Found something posted recently. On December 22, 2011 KeysNet.com (news about the Florida Keys) announced that James and Lois Cowen [sic] will participate in the Friends of the Marathon Library's annual weekly speaker series:
Programs are at St. Columba Episcopal Church, 451 52nd St. bayside, behind the Panda House restaurant. Coffee, tea and cookies are served at 1:30 p.m. and the programs, all about 45 minutes and followed by question-and-answer sessions, start at 2. Admission is free and open to the public.
Apparently the Cowans are community minded. Nice people. No surprise.
The scheduled events begin tomorrow and continue through late March. It sounds like a quality program, the last two weeks in particular caught my eye. On March 16 there will be David Koontz, "once married to Christina Crawford and the executive producer of the movie "Mommie Dearest," which tells the story of Crawford being abused by her mother, actress Joan Crawford," and then the grand finale:
...March 23: James and Lois Cowen, liveaboards at the Key West Harbor Yacht Club who ghost-wrote Levi Johnston's 319-page memoir "Deer in the Headlights: My Life in Sarah Palin's Crosshairs."
The Cowens made two month-long trips to Alaska and spent countless hours interviewing Johnston, who fathered Sarah Palin's grandchild, in Wasilla.
I'm going to pass up the obvious chance to make a corrolation between these last two subjects and just say this - WHY are the Cowans providing a DITH synopsis using the number 319 as the length of this book? (Note to assuage my conscience - I noticed the misspelling of their surname, so maybe, just maybe the unnamed person who compiled the schedule made the whole blurb up without help from James and Lois. I don't buy that. I'm just sayin'.) It leads me to conclude this misinformation is coming from them. Two Florida-based announcements, apparently connected directly with the authors, both coming away with the same information - 319 pages in Levi's book.
In Wasilla, there's a hockey mom who wants you to believe this doesn't prove anything except that, if either of these had been written by a "rill" journalist a la Sarah Heath with a BA (has anyone ever seen that diploma?) in journalism, someone would have checked the facts with the publisher's website.
So...this is from the publisher's website - the Simon & Schuster :
Product Details
Touchstone, September 2011
Hardcover, 304 pages
ISBN-10: 1451651651
ISBN-13: 9781451651652
See there? The publisher says 304 pages. Sarah's right - modern journalism is all about makin' stuff up. But wait --- 304 is still 15 more pages than actually came out between the covers in the final printing.
You all know what I'm getting at. Levi wrote a tell-all. He told about Trig, who Trig's birth mother is, and other truths that would expose Sarah Palin and her lies. He told about Bristol becoming pregnant with Tripp in February 2008. He talked about the first month of Tripp's life, and how he and Bristol parented together in the Palin home for a month. He talked about his feelings.
Then the Babygate information got cut out. A phrase here and a phrase there went in to try to make the text fit the Palin's wishes and to hide the changes. In the end, the book was 15 - 30 pages shorter, but the authors can't seem to remember the new number. That first finished product, the real story, was over 300 pages. Somehow, that's what pops into their heads when they are asked that little detail.
One more thought - what if it's different when it is in e-book format? It's a long-shot, I know, to think the elderly ghostwriters are quoting e-book format design, but I checked anyway. Just to be fair. E-book format actually has fewer pages than my hardcover. No real surprise there.
Simon & Schuster; September 2011
256 pages; ISBN 9781451651676
Touchstone, September 2011
Hardcover, 304 pages
ISBN-10: 1451651651
ISBN-13: 9781451651652
See there? The publisher says 304 pages. Sarah's right - modern journalism is all about makin' stuff up. But wait --- 304 is still 15 more pages than actually came out between the covers in the final printing.
You all know what I'm getting at. Levi wrote a tell-all. He told about Trig, who Trig's birth mother is, and other truths that would expose Sarah Palin and her lies. He told about Bristol becoming pregnant with Tripp in February 2008. He talked about the first month of Tripp's life, and how he and Bristol parented together in the Palin home for a month. He talked about his feelings.
Then the Babygate information got cut out. A phrase here and a phrase there went in to try to make the text fit the Palin's wishes and to hide the changes. In the end, the book was 15 - 30 pages shorter, but the authors can't seem to remember the new number. That first finished product, the real story, was over 300 pages. Somehow, that's what pops into their heads when they are asked that little detail.
One more thought - what if it's different when it is in e-book format? It's a long-shot, I know, to think the elderly ghostwriters are quoting e-book format design, but I checked anyway. Just to be fair. E-book format actually has fewer pages than my hardcover. No real surprise there.
Simon & Schuster; September 2011
256 pages; ISBN 9781451651676
So we have another mystery. Why do the Cowans repeatedly say three hundred nineteen pages? Why did Simon and Schuster say three hundred four? Why is it neither? My copy has two hundred eighty-nine. That's right - 289 pages including the "Acknowledgements."
I've never been published. Can someone jump in here and speak from experience? Didn't this happen with "Going Rogue" and anti-Palin blogs discussed the probable cause as Sarah cutting out all references to Levi? Is this another example of Palin life repeating itself?
It certainly appears that this book lost weight prior to it's final printing. Somewhere between 15 and 30 pages of material removed. That's a lot when you consider we are talking about the life of an unremarkable kid from Wasilla, AK.
Babygate, anyone?
15 comments:
Allison, the first thing you need to do in this story is to clarify precisely what you mean when you state the page count. The Amazon and all other page counts received from Ingram usually include every single page, including the blank ones at the beginning and end of the book. The second thing you need to verify is that once that figure has been released by Ingram, it gets repeated everywhere in the media. I am not saying you are wrong about your implication of pages removed from the final release, but I am saying that you must be precise in such discussions of page count and note that there are several points at which mistakes can be made and then repeated. I don't think The Cowans ever had any intention of telling the whole truth. They were just another couple of opportunists who spotted a gravy train coming toward them from Babygate.
Floyd you are a treasure trove of information!
Now I've counted the unnumbered pages and there are 15 of them. That explains the 304 page Simon and Schuster count. Which leave 15 pages unaccounted for.
Three hundred nineteen is a very specific number. Like 304, it hasn't been rounded off. Certainly the Cowans had a copy on Sept. 20 when bookstores all over the country had them ready to put on shelves after midnight. But they said 319. A very specific number that was someone's - I think thiers- idea of the number of pages in DITH. So odd.
This wan't their first book??? Jesus, is this their career? DITH sucked ass. I don't even wanna read other books by them.
I don't know. Joe's book changed page numbers as did Bristol's. 30 pages is a lot. Too much for anything major to have been omitted. I found the Cowans to be genuine in their remarks in the pogates chat session.
You have to think. Levi literally rewrote his high school years, TRYING to depict Bristol as the lost one instead of him.
I don't know Allison. I wouldn't read a lot into pages numbers. For one thing, Tripp was definitely born Dec 27th. Levi and bristol definitely fought a lot of the pregnancy, which he ignored, as he ignored the truth about their relationship.
The two DID breakup in early 08, a time she frequently hung out with her cousin and Anch friends and he played hockey through Feb and chilled.
Wasilla and even Anch aren't big places. You' d think there'd be some indication of Bristol having a baby and focusing on that Jan- on. There is none. There is the opposite.
Once Sarah shocked her state with the pregnancy news, Bristol was not only shocked along with the family but, feeding her own maternal instinct, she wanted one too. she told her friends she was already pregnant in April when she didn't even know it. This landed her in trouble, probably because Sarah was having to answer questions about something she thought was bogus, but was in fact abou tto be true.
While I don't trust the Cowans (I mean, they let an ignorant boy put out a barely literate piece of fictional garbage out for public consumption), I DOUBT Levi even knows what truth is. Not only do I doubt he know where Trig came from, I even moreso doubt any of the Palin kids know where he came from, at least then. They may now.
Bristol was furious and extremely confused on March 5th. The woman she had just spent time with in Fairbanks 2 weeks prior was announcing she is pregnant. Given Bristol's strong maternal nature, her subsequent reaction wasn't odd to me. I myself wanted a baby in high school, and had my first at 20. Don't regret one day and am pretty successful and finan indep. Some people are just there mentally.
I doubt the Trig truth takes up 30 pages. That's so much. Books change constantly in editing.
If anything, Levi told the truth about he and Bristol's dramatic and tumuluous relationship, only then to think, "Gee, I dont want my son to read the truth about me" and changed it to, "we were perfect, I was smart and driven"
I think most of his book was written after Bristol's came out. She captured him pretty well, his laziness and "lostness" in the last 3 years. He HAD to ensure there was a written record refuting this, regardless of truth.
That is how the book read to me. Trying to erase his typical bad boy past and create a good man for his son.
If it matters, In the week leading up to the release of NAOL, a significant number of pages was added. I think in the editing process, these changes change constantly. I'm not shocked and didn't think anything of it. The day we take things on the internet seriously is the day we fail ourselves.
"I don't know" Allison, Wasilla and even Anch and Juneau are small places and Levi re-wrote his high school years, FACT.
The people who question Tripp's birth date are immature and judgmental.
FACT!
And by "fact", I mean "completely made up in attempt to once again have myself come off as the pretty pretty princess and portray Levi as a grunting troll".
Love, Bristol. I mean, "anonymous".
Love ya N'yah! You aren't letting our resident triple troll get away with serving up that same old tired tripe. Anon who posts one right after another bores me. . I think we figured out the pay is per-entry, hence three on a row that sing the refrain Levi bad, Bristol good, we know nothing. Ho hum, such a bore.
Ha, ha :~)
Our "friend" also told us something else: Levi and the Palin kids DON'T KNOW where Trig came from!!
So, our "friend" just assured us that Trig did not issue forth from SP's womb.
Thanks Granny, you're a peach!
C @ L great catch!
There are two tidbits here from Miss "I don't Know, Allison, I'd just move on."
Bristol was furious and extremely confused on March 5th. The woman she had just spent time with in Fairbanks 2 weeks prior was announcing she is pregnant. Given Bristol's strong maternal nature, her subsequent reaction wasn't odd to me.
This one I just don't get. Why would this cause Bristol to suddenly go off and get knocked up? And who says she has a "strong maternal nature" besides you, Miss "I don't Know"?
Once Sarah shocked her state with the pregnancy news, Bristol was not only shocked along with the family but, feeding her own maternal instinct, she wanted one too. she told her friends she was already pregnant in April when she didn't even know it. This landed her in trouble, probably because Sarah was having to answer questions about something she thought was bogus, but was in fact about to be true.
Come now. Bristol told her friends she was pregnant in April before she knew she was pregnant? Why, pray tell? For what earthly reason? I think the truth is more like: Trig was born in November and was six weeks old when Levi was kicked out of the house in the first week of January, just like he says in his book.
and since Levi and Bristol "broke up" early 2008, he wondered how the hell he could have "knocked her up" in April. If anything he may have "knocked her up" in February immediately after the birth of her first child.
Didn't Levi and Bristol get married when they were 16 and pregnant the first time? Did they ever get divorced? Are they just living apart and keeping the children secret?
Anonymous @ 7:59 Bristol is her mother's daughter so the day we take her word for anything is the day we become as brain-dead as Sarah's cult following. Bristol pretends that all of the blame for the break-up of their relationship lies squarely on Levi's shoulders. That is NEVER true. It takes two people to keep a relationship going and it is the actions and words of both that will ruin it.
Bristol has had the worst example of marriage in observing her parents' relationship. She was insecure from day one with Levi, consistently accusing him of cheating likely pushing him at other girls in doing so. She attempted to trap him with her pregnancy and Levi's actions upon finding out she was pregnant negate Bristol's own words. He gave up on a hockey scholarship which was a distinct possibility for him and went to work with the intention of supporting his future wife and son. Was this enough for Bristol? Hell, no! She's a spoiled little girl who was neglected by her mother and yet follows in her footsteps because she knows nothing else. You can berate Levi all you want but I don't take Bristol's word for anything, especially when it comes to visitation or child support. A woman who moves her son thousands of miles from his father does NOT have his best interests at heart. Instead, she's done her best to turn her son against his father and extended family. There will come a day when Tripp will want the truth. He'll also grow up seeing his mother lie just as his grandmother does. He'll be able to read the truth archived on the internet, not to mention the trash his own mother wrote about his father. If he compares the books, he'll soon see how she treated his father and how he didn't retaliate against her in his own published book. After reading Sarah's emails and the nasty, vicious things she wrote about her colleagues, I'm certain she encouraged Bristol to spin the loss of virginity in an attempt to make it look as if she was blameless. Instead, she ended up claiming date rape. She's fortunate that Levi didn't take her back to court right then and there to have the book pulled from the shelves since she was in contempt of the court order regarding public disparagement. I'm looking forward to the day when this family finally gets what they truly deserve.
...gravy train...? there are some real writing skillz behind the book. lois cowan wrote millionairess as lois rich-mccoy, a book about women who became millionaires on their own. late bloomer, same non-fiction direction, but women older than 40 or 50. im thinking they/she have some experience as far as getting to the facts goes. the missing pages intrest me, maybe an unabridged edition is due. the author is also the sister in law of florida state senator d-nan rich, running for govenor of florida.
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