Sixth time’s a charm in the case of Jon Clinch, whose novel, titled simply Finn is an elaborate expansion on the life of Huckleberry Finn’s notorious father, Pap. Clinch wrote his first novel five separate times before arriving finally at a version he felt was suitable. Of writing novels, Clinch, who spoke with NPR this past weekend, said “It’s like building a house out of raisins. It’s the most bizarre thing.” Regardless, he says the failed efforts were still valuable time, and “honestly, I’m just as happy that they’re not out there dragging behind me.” Clinch was discovered on Backspace, BKSP.org, when his current agent read the ten pages Clinch had posted and asked to see more.

And aren’t we glad he did? Finn imagines the life of “Pap” Finn, father to the famous Huckleberry, who appears only briefly, and primarily as a corpse, in Twain’s original text. Clinch took full advantage of the more Gothic aspects of the novel, creating a cast of murdering, moon-shining characters the gives the queen of southern depravity, Flannery O’Conner, a run for her money.

Listen to the full interview.

The sun rolled slowly, like a fiery fur ball coughed up uneasily onto a sky blue carpet by some giant unseen cat.

This is but one of hundreds of the best worst opening sentences that San Jose State University professor Scott Rice has collected over the past twenty-five years. Rice is the creator of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, which collects and judges some of the most pretentious, over-the-top, inadvertently hilarious sentences ever written in English. He has collected some of them in a volume titled It Was a Dark and Stormy Night, named after the now infamous first line, penned originally by Mr. Bulwer-Lytton himself.

Listen to the full interview here, and take solace in the fact that the first line of your novel isn’t nearly so bad.

Some years ago, suburbanite mystery writer Jon Katz packed up and bought an upstate New York farm in hopes of giving his border collies the best life possible. Now, some five books later, Katz has discovered what that really entails. His sixth in the series, Dog Days, is series of dispatches from Bedlam farm, which now boasts the beloved dogs, as well as sheep, steers and cow, donkeys, a barn cat, a rooster and three hens. Katz, who writes about farm life for Slate and co-hosts “Dog Talk”, a public radio talk show, dropped in on Diane Rehm to discuss how hard it is to promote harmony between animals, why his donkeys like Willie Nelson best, and how his collies continually surprise him.

Listen to the full interview.

Connie Schultz and her husband, Sherrod Brown, were eating a restaurant with a local democratic chapter when Brown, for the seventh time in two days, announced his intentions to run for the senate, and in a state, Ohio, where no democrat had won statewide office in twelve years, no less. The party chairman introduced Brown from his podium, and, for the first time, introduced Schultz as “his lovely wife”. Now, a year later, that lovely wife, also a Pulitzer prize winning journalist, brings us this: His Lovely Wife: A Memoir from the Woman Beside the Man, her memoir of a year on the campaign trail. From her “lovely wife” position, she could see the workings of her husband’s campaign better than all most anyone else: the sacrifices, both personal and professional, the new-found responsibilities of being a political wife, the endless chin-wagging, and the day to rigors of political life (including those nasty bloggers!). Schultz captures all these details in a witty and intelligent tone, much the same tone she used in her NPR interview, which you may listen to here.

No, it’s not the name of that crappy band that practices next door to you, its the premise behind Matthew Sharpe’s newest novel, Jamestown. Silly you.

Sharpe has taken the now legendary story of Virginia’s first colony, and reimagined it in the 21st century, shortly after the Chrysler building as mysteriously fallen into the Earth’s gaping maw. A band of rogue survivors gets it into their heads that they’re going to travel down to southern Virginia, find oil and exploit the native population. Members of the group have assumed the roles of famous Jamestownians of yore: Pocahantas, John Smith, Powhawtan, all with clever tweaks on the qualities generally associated with originals. By juxtaposing the traditional narrative against an apocalyptic backdrop that modern readers can more easily identify with, Sharpe has illuminated an American legend in ways never before conceived.

And aren’t you lucky, NPR has put an excerpt on its website.

Intrepid nice guy and environmentalist David de Rothschild’s The Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook is the latest in the parade of Green literature, and perhaps the most informative, too. Published to coincide with the Live Earth concert this summer, de Rothschild’s book offers 77 ways for the common household to combat the ever-looming threat of global warming, ranging from the obvious — start a compost pile, go vegetarian — to the downright bizarre: mutate, burrow underground.

The Today Show, perhaps the greenist of all the morning shows, hosted de Rothschild this morning, and the results are stunning. Watch the interview.