ALASKAN AUTHORS WEEKLY ROUND-UP

Plenty again to round up this week. First, go to 49 Writers, No Moose, where blooger Andromeda Romano-Lax is launching the Equinox Book Club. John Straley's The Big Both Ways is the club's first pick. No long-term commitment, and you've got till November to read the first book.

Mark your calendars for Kaylene Johnson, signing copies of Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned Alaska's Political Establishment Upside Down, on Saturday, Sept. 20 from 1-3 at Title Wave Books. You may want to get in line early. Tyndale, now distributing the books, reports 350,000 copies going into print.

On the same day and time, you can catch a book signing for Captain Cook in Alaska and the North Pacific at Pandemonium Booksellers in Wasilla. (Wow - did they have some sort of premonition in naming that store or what?) The print run's not nearly as large, but I've got it queued up on my shelf.

Speaking of Sarah (is anyone not?), the ADN reports on several Alaskan writers who are getting lots of hits - as in one million, per Andrew Halcro - on their political blogs. Check out the story for a list of the featured blogs.

I've only read excerpts of Sarah's first interview since she turned V.P. pick; plan to watch the whole thing tonight. I did get the impression that she's not going to second guess what Israel will do - possibly because she repeated it three times. Expect the rhetorical line between fiction and nonfiction to blur even more as the campaign heats up. Several Bush (as in W., not Alaskan) campaign vets have jumped on to manage and prep Sarah. Enough said.

The Constitutional free speech doctrine has come up with Palin's questions about removing books from the Wasilla library. Now it's coming up again as a group calling itself Alaska Women Against Palin plan a rally for tomorrow, Sept. 13, and local radio host "butt-whooping" Eddie Burke called the organizers "maggots" and gave out their personal phone numbers over the air. According to the organizers, threats of violence ensued. And Representative Jay Ramras is worried that we'll be airing our dirty laundry with Troopergate? Come on, people. Let's show the rest of the world that the freedoms we enjoy in our country can do better than name-calling and threats of harm to people who have the audacity to express opinions that differ from ours.

Speaking of the Constitution, Alaskans will have an opportunity to hear from an influential author of legal opinions, Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. He'll by speaking on another Palin-timely topic, "The Curious Case of Free Exercise: Religion and the First Amendment," at the Loussac Library's Marston Theater at 3 p.m. on Saturday, September 27.

And finally, on an infinitely lighter note, sometimes author and always funny Mr. Whitekeys is appearing tonight at 8 p.m. at the Palmer Depot. Subject of his $30 show: "Mr. Whitekeys Does the Valley."