The XX Factor: What women really think.

Psst. The Real Scoop on Palin

Sarah Heath Palin is not the only resident of Wasilla, Ala., who got a career boost from the McCain campaign’s announcement that she will be No. 2 on the GOP presidential ticket. Alaska writer Kaylene Johnson’s biography of the two-year Alaska governor titled, Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned Alaska’s Political Establishment Upside Down was recently released by Epicenter Press, a “leading publisher of books about sled dog racing.” Johnson, a neighbor in Wasilla, where a younger Sarah was once Miss Wasilla, has written a largely flattering biography but exposes a few telling character traits. For example, among the details about Palin’s “boisterous and busy family,” Johnson mentions the little-known cover-up the future nominee had with her siblings (“We had a pact,” one sister admits, “If any of us … broke something, we promised not to tell.") The de facto campaign biography also reveals that though “everyone pitched in” for the mandatory "weeding … or stacking firewood,” Palin's father admits only Sarah displayed an  “unbending, unapologetic streak of stubbornness.”

Although the $19.95 hardcover does not yet appear on the publisher’s list of best sellers, chances are, after today, sales to journalists will skyrocket. For those who can’t wait for their copy, the first chapter, “Growing Up Sarah” is posted on the publisher’s website.