Announcing the Finn Book Club Menu Contest

Win a visit from me to your book club, and copies of Finn: A Novel for your high school.

If there's one thing that book clubs like better than reading, it's eating. Which is why I've dreamed up the Finn Book Club Menu Contest.

Here's how it works.

Design a menu for your book club to enjoy on the night you discuss Finn. Use your imagination. Use your frying pan. Use catfish and whiskey and fatback bacon and cornbread and sunfish and baking powder biscuits and...well, you get the idea. Be inspired. Have fun. And make sure that you don't forget the huckleberries.

Describe your menu in as much detail as you like, and send it in the body of an e-mail FinnContest@gmail.com. No attachments, please. Be sure to include your full name, street address, and daytime phone number.

All entries must arrive by February 15, 2008. The winning entry, as judged by yours truly, will receive a visit from me at a book club meeting to be held at the my convenience in March or April, 2008, along with a classroom set of Finn in Random House trade paperback for presentation to your local high school. Runners-up will get a visit via telephone, plus a classroom set. Winners will be announced on my web site and contacted via e-mail on or around March 1, 2008.

OK. Get cooking! And watch for the trade paperback of Finn in your local bookstore, coming March 11...