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Bulwer-Lytton Contest
“It was the best of intentions, it was the worst of sentences”

We continue the tradition of the Guilty Pleasures Bulwer-Lytton contest this year. Enter to win guilt-inducing prizes by writing your own Best First Worst Sentence. Enter early, enter often by emailing bulwer@book-it.org.

For inspiration in crafting your entry:

Here is the original First Worst Sentence in all its glory.
"It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents--except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness."
 --Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, Paul Clifford (1830)

Here are two entries from 2009 Guilty Pleasures attendees
"Emma was well-known for her quirky sense of humor, which her mother had always said was only natural given that she was conceived in the back of a clown car."

"It was a dark and stormy Seattle knight, a he perhaps but more likely a she (kin to mother nature you know), driving through thunderous sound of sword to shield and rod-cast streaks of lightening across the gloom - a rapid moving front, high winds and lowland flooding, bogs with busy beavers building bridges barely withstanding wild wet watery waves - just imagine the commute." 

Check out selections from the San Jose State University English Department Bulwer-Lytton contest

Read more about the life of the florid, popular writer and politician Lord Lytton