Newsmaker

Palin's new neighbor, a critical author-reporter

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-05-26 09:47

Former Alaska Governor and vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin prepares to speak during a campaign rally for US Senator John McCain (R-AZ) as Todd Palin (C) looks on at Dobson High School in Mesa, Arizona March 27, 2010. [Agencies]

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Former Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has taken to her Facebook page to complain about her new neighbor - a writer penning a book about her.

Author Joe McGinniss has taken up residence in a house next to Palin's lakeside home in Wasilla.

McGinniss previously wrote a critical expose on Palin and her natural gas pipeline plan for the Conde Nast publication Portfolio last year, and is planning a book about the former Alaska governor and Republican vice-presidential candidate. It's tentatively titled, "Sarah Palin's Year of Living Dangerously" and could be on the shelves in the fall of 2011.

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"Yes, that Joe McGinniss. Here he is about 15 feet away on the neighbor's rented deck overlooking my children's play area and my kitchen window," Palin posted on Facebook late Monday, hours after returning from a trip to the mainland and learning of McGinniss' presence.

"We're sure to have a doozey to look forward to with this treasure he's penning. Wonder what kind of material he'll gather while overlooking Piper's bedroom, my little garden, and the family's swimming hole?" she wrote.

McGinniss is renting the place "for the next five months or so," Palin wrote.

However, his publishing house, Broadway Books, released a statement.

It reads, in part: "McGinniss is the author of "Going to Extremes," a classic book about Alaska, and his work-in-progress returns him to the 49th state to examine Sarah Palin's significance as both a political and cultural phenomenon and as an embodiment of the contradictory forces that shaped Alaska as it moved into its second half-century of statehood.

"Well regarded for his in-depth, up-close reporting, Mr. McGinniss will be highly respectful of his subject's privacy as he investigates her public activities," the statement says.

Palin has promised to ensure that privacy.

"And you know what they say about 'fences make for good neighbors'? Well, we'll get started on that tall fence tomorrow," she wrote on Facebook.