{"id":225,"date":"2012-07-08T12:15:25","date_gmt":"2012-07-08T17:15:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/frenchrevolution\/?p=225"},"modified":"2012-07-08T19:19:24","modified_gmt":"2012-07-09T00:19:24","slug":"what-it-was-like-to-co-write-the-bristol-palin-memoir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/frenchrevolution\/2012\/07\/08\/what-it-was-like-to-co-write-the-bristol-palin-memoir\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Giveaway: Bristol Palin’s “Not Afraid of Life”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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Wecome to the SixSeeds Summer Beach Book Giveaway!Leave a comment below for a chance to win Bristol Palin\u2019s New York Times Best Selling memoir!<\/p>\n

How I ended up co-writing \u201cNot Afraid of Life\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

My friends and I huddled around my iPhone, as we listened to my agent\u2019s voicemail.<\/p>\n

\u201cNancy, Harper Collins wants you to submit your resume for an opportunity to write for a young Christian celebrity,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cBut I can\u2019t tell you who it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

I never considered myself a \u201cghost writer,\u201d since I\u2019ve published my own memoir<\/a> about being a southerner living in New York and a book about Iraq I co-authored with my husband<\/a> about his deployment and it\u2019s effect on our family.\u00a0 I was definitely interested, however, and the mystery only deepened my interest.<\/p>\n

Immediately, my friends and I began guessing. Miley Cyrus? Taylor Swift?<\/p>\n

Because I live near Nashville, Tennessee, I assumed they were interested in my geographic location as much as my writing ability.\u00a0 Surely, an up-and-coming country musician needed help with her book, and I was exactly the kind of local writer who could pop in and out with minimal inconvenience.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why I was surprised to get a call from Harper Collins a few weeks later \u2013 after I\u2019d figured I\u2019d been passed over for a more typical ghost writer (excuse me, \u201ccollaborator\u201d). \u201cCan you be on a call with Bristol Palin in one hour?\u201d<\/p>\n

Immediately, I figured I wouldn\u2019t get the job. Though I\u2019d \u201ccollaborated\u201d before, my efforts haven\u2019t yet been published.\u00a0 Surely she\u2019d want someone more experienced for a book that would be analyzed, dissected, critiqued, and attacked.\u00a0 Bristol was noncommittal in that first conversation, and ended it by saying \u201cI just need to talk to my mom.\u201d<\/p>\n

I tried to imagine that conversation, Momma Grizzly herself having a discussion with her daughter about me \u2013 a writer who lives in the Mule Capital of the World, Columbia, Tennessee.<\/p>\n

It seemed too surreal to be true.\u00a0 Within days, however, I was in Wasilla, Alaska.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can stay on your couch or wherever in your apartment,\u201d I texted Bristol on the way. \u201cI won\u2019t be a nuisance.\u201d<\/p>\n

She sent me an address, and I was certainly surprised when I drove up Todd and Sarah Palin\u2019s driveway.\u00a0 Ice cemented the ground under the snow, and Christmas lights decorated an iron gate.\u00a0 (White lights or colored?\u00a0 Guess in the comments section.)<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my parents\u2019 house,\u201d Bristol said as she came out to greet me. She looked great \u2013 young and fit in her yoga pants and North Face jacket.\u00a0 \u201cYou\u2019ll be staying here.\u201d<\/p>\n

She led me to where I\u2019d be living for the next month, in a detached building on the Palin\u2019s property, where Gov. Palin films her Fox interviews.\u00a0 In fact, I frequently wrote perched high in her chair, with a frozen Lake Lucille outside the tall windows.\u00a0 Cars drove by slowly on the lake, no doubt taking photos of their house.\u00a0 Some did \u201cdonuts\u201d and skidded around on the ice.\u00a0 A couple of guys were ice fishing.\u00a0 A moose slowly ambled across the frozen water and made his way to the Palin\u2019s house.<\/p>\n

In fact, meeting the family was like walking into the TLC television show, \u201cSarah Palin\u2019s Alaska\u201d \u2013 a series I watched in its entirety on my flight. Bristol\u2019s maternal grandparents Chuck and Sally Heath were there, as well as Todd\u2019s dad.\u00a0 Sarah was busy in the kitchen making moose hotdogs (much better than regular hotdogs\u2026 and these had cheese in them!) and salmon.\u00a0 Track was sitting with his fianc\u00e9, who is now his wife, in the entryway of their house.\u00a0 (Track had been deployed to the same province in Iraq where my husband, David, served.)\u00a0 Willow \u2013 who has a very striking appearance with her dark hair and eyes \u2014 sat on the couch with her feet on a bear rug, while Piper came in and out of the house with friends. Tripp and Trig tossed a ball around the house.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s how I got acclimated to Alaska\u2026 moose hot dogs, family, and playing with the kids on the floor.\u00a0 Then, Bristol and I tackled the difficult task of documenting her life. Thankfully, she\u2019s young, which meant we didn\u2019t have to search attics for fifty year-old, faded letters.\u00a0 Plus, I was thrilled to learn that she kept journals of challenging times in her life.\u00a0 These writings documented her exact feelings in various moments, before time softened the memories.\u00a0 So, we sat and read all that she had written. One day, we sat with magazines and notes spread out on the floor, along with letters to \u2013 and from \u2013 Levi, lots of photos, and other trinkets.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is it,\u201d she said.\u00a0 \u201cMy life.\u201d<\/p>\n

She wanted to be candid, she explained, so that other girls could learn from her mistakes.\u00a0 That meant a lot of very hard conversations about tough times.\u00a0 I felt at times that I should\u2019ve shown up in Wasilla with a sign: Hello, I\u2019m Nancy, and I\u2019m here to scrape the scab off your deepest emotional wounds.<\/p>\n

But Bristol, tough and honest, went through her life with me, year by year, event by event, as we drank coffee and watched the moose walking by outside the windows.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s how I became a part of the Palins\u2019 lives \u2013 lives that are shaped far less by politics than by the ordinary concerns of hearth and home.\u00a0\u00a0 We went bowling with Trig and Tripp, had our photo taken as we ordered coffee, and shopped at Costco. Later, I\u2019d stay with Bristol in her beautiful Arizona home, where people would honk at her on the interstate when they\u2019d see her customized Alaska license plate.<\/p>\n

Why tell a story like Bristol\u2019s?\u00a0 She\u2019s only twenty, people have repeatedly complained. However, these detractors are missing the point. While most of us haven\u2019t made mistakes in front of a gawking nation, all of us have done things we regret\u2026 mistakes that seem innocent enough, but end up changing the trajectory of life.\u00a0 Her story is ultimately a story of redemption \u2013 a story of a girl who admits her mistakes and acknowledges God\u2019s mercy in her life.<\/p>\n

After all, she began the entire book with this sentence: \u201cI lied to my mother.\u201d<\/p>\n

In spite of all her efforts to take responsibility, however, the Palin-haters came out in full force within seconds of the book\u2019s publication.\u00a0 In those seconds, they somehow found the time to read the entire book (poorly-written, they say) and pronounce it full of excuses.<\/p>\n

Full of excuses?\u00a0 They obviously hadn\u2019t even creased the spine.<\/p>\n

Eventually, the Palin-haters and the Palin-lovers evened out the Amazon ranking to a 3 Star.\u00a0 Out of 105 reviews, forty-four are 5 star and fifty-three are 1 star.\u00a0 One lonely reviewer gave it a 3 star review.<\/p>\n

Has there been a more polarizing political family?<\/p>\n

This fact alone makes Bristol\u2019s story interesting.\u00a0 What was it like to have the biggest mistake of your life analyzed in front of half of America who idolized you and the other half who despised you?\u00a0 And what if that biggest mistake turned into the biggest blessing of your life?<\/p>\n

Life is complicated, God is good.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the message of Bristol\u2019s book, and I\u2019m honored to have been a part of it.<\/p>\n

BOOK GIVEAWAY <\/em><\/strong>Leave a comment for a chance to win Not Afraid of Life<\/em>! <\/em><\/strong><\/h1>\n

On July 20th, we will pick a name in a random drawing from all eligible entries received and send you an email notification. \u00a0Limit one (1) entry per person; NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. Open only to legal residents of the 50 United States and Washington D.C. who are 18 or older as of date of entry.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n


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