This entire blog comes from an email blast sent by author Chris Jackson. I don’t know anyone at Kensington, and all that follows comes straight from Chris:
Publisher Kills Black POW’s Book Deal
To add insult to injury – literally – Kensington Publishing has canceled its book deal with Shoshana Jonson, the country?s first African-American female prisoner of war.
Shoshana, who was held captive in Iraq for 22 days in 2003, contacted the Literary Diva and asked that I pass on the word. She said she?s been asked about the book, which was supposed to be available next month, for the past several weeks and wanted her supporters to know it had been axed.
She says Kensington terminated her contract and asked her to return the advance because the publisher claims she failed to submit releases for photos that were to be used in the book. She declined to reveal the amount of the advance, but said it was small relative to what others get in the publishing industry.
Shoshana believes this is a smokescreen. The real reason Kensington wants out, she says, is because she refused to compromise by sensationalizing the circumstances surrounding her capture, release, and the subsequent media attention given to fellow captured soldier Jessica Lynch, a young blonde whose story not only made headlines, but was turned into a movie and garnered a million-dollar book deal.
Michaela Hamilton, the editor in charge of the project, declined comment, saying she could only confirm that Kensington would not be publishing the book. The original title of the work was One Wrong Turn. It was subsequently changed to I?m Still Standing.
Shoshana said she doesn?t mind what they call it, she just wants it published.
Shoshana was one of five soldiers in the 507th Maintenance Company captured when the caravan of armored vehicles in which she was traveling made a wrong turn into a deadly ambush by Iraqi insurgents that killed nine members of her unit in March 2003.
Two other female soldiers also were captured, Lynch and Pfc. Lori Ann Piestewa, who did not survive her injuries.
Shoshana was shot through both legs. Her return home lacked the fanfare and media hype that Lynch?s return received. Also, Lynch was discharged with an 80 percent disability benefit. Johnson originally got a 30 percent disability benefit from the army for her injuries.
Many cried racism. Shoshana said it?s just a fact of life in America that white blondes get more attention than black women, and added that there has never been any competition or animosity between herself and Lynch.
In the book, Shoshana was to detail her life; her young adulthood, the ambush, her captivity and her injuries, her disability, her ongoing emotional trauma, her post-Iraq day-to-day life and the latest about her family.
Shoshana, who is Catholic, said that in addition to wanting her to sensationalize things, Kensington wanted the book to have a religious focus and wanted her to ?preach,? something else she was unwilling to do.
She says the most important message she wants people to get from her book is to be grateful for what they have, particularly friends and family.
Unfortunately, the other publishers her agent has approached with the book don?t seem interested.
CAC’s take: I know these clowns at Kensington and this indeed was a smokescreen. Though something even more insidious is going on in the hallowed halls of publishing giants (not so hallowed any more…). If she’d written a quasi-autobiographical romp with her having sex with other soldiers (the more thuggish the better), wagging her head and shaking her finger like a sistagurl at some stereotypical nerd and/or Rambo white officers, praising the Lord loud and screechily, all the usual sitcom conventions that involve black people’s image, oh the book deals would be rolling in! In light of the truth coming out on Capitol Hill about Jessica Lynch, maybe Jessica’s advance should be docked?