The Bulwer/Lytton Fiction Contest was conceived to honor the memory of Victorian novelist Edward George Earl Bulwer-Lytton, encourage word play, and promote the universal improvement of mankind, the contest challenges entrants to compose bad opening sentences to imaginary novels. Bulwer was selected as patron of the competition because he opened his novel Paul Clifford (1830) with the immortal words, "It was a dark and stormy night." Lytton is also responsible for the line, "The pen is mightier than the sword," and the expression "the great unwashed." His best known work is probably The Last Days of Pompeii.
Anyway, I thought you might all be interested in the 2001 winner of the Detective category:
The graphic crime-scene photo that stared up at Homicide Inspector Chuck Venturi from the center of his desk was not a pretty picture, though it could have been, Chuck mused, had it only been shot in soft focus with a shutter speed of 1/125 second at f 5.6 or so. Ms. Rephah Berg, Oakland CA
-Terry
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