IN THE BEGINNING
The Bulwar-Lytton prize (named for the author of the opening line, "It was a dark and stormy night...") is awarded every year to some of the worst possible opening lines of a book. Here are some samples of past winners: "Just beyond the Narrows the river widens." "With a curvaceous figure that Venus would have envied, a tanned, unblemished oval face framed with lustrous thick brown hair, deep azure-blue eyes fringed with long black lashes, perfect teeth that vied for competition, and a small straight nose, Marilee had a beauty that defied description." "Detective Kodiak plucked a single hair from the bearskin rug and at once understood the grisly nature of the crime: it had been a ferocious act, a real honey, the sort of thing that could polarize a community, so he padded quietly out the back to avoid a cub reporter waiting in the den." (you'll want to read this one again.....slowly and carefully!) "Stanley looke...