Brilliantly Bad Starts

-

There's a great article in the Guardian Book Blog today, highlighting some of the winning entries for the The Bulwer-Lytton award for brilliantly bad starts.

Here's the classic inspiring opener from the contest's namesake:

“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)

Do check out the article; it's especially worth it to read this year's winning entry.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Marketing Mania!

-
Image
All of my time seems to be taken up at the moment by marketing my book. I never knew how much effort it would take. Actually, I suppose I should say, I never knew could much effort it could take, as no one has a gun to my head. But having adapted it and gone through the whole process of making it available, it would be silly to let it just sit there gathering e-dust. So I've been researching and nosing around all over the place to find out the most successful ways to get your book noticed. It's hard! Still, I've always loved a challenge, and until the fire in me turns to apathy I'll be doing all I can. If I find out anything that I think others may not be aware of, I'll be sure to post it. I just did a revamp of my book's cover. I think it's a bit more impacting now, and despite what adages tell us, we all fall victim to judging a book... I'm just now waiting for my Smashwords edition to be approved, so that should help. I read a lot of posts on Kindleb...
Read more

What's the Meta?

-
Image
I'm pleased to announce that my short play "What's the Meta?" will be included in the upcoming tenth edition of the Bedford/St.Martin’s textbook The Bedford Introduction to Literature . I'm very honored to have a work of mine included in such a respected (and best selling) publication, which is written and edited by the noted scholar and author Michael Meyer. After all of my recent immersion in the frontier world of ebooks, it makes for a lovely counterpoint to have a work of mine included in a great big, hardcover, 2000+ word tome! "What's the Meta?" is one of eight short plays in my recent collection "The Meta Plays" and was originally published by Smith & Kraus in the anthology "2009: The Best 10-Minute Plays for 2or More Actors (Contemporary Playwrights Series)" . The Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading, Thinking, Writing, 10/e, by Michael Meyer is tentatively scheduled for release January 2013...
Read more

Release Day! Schism: A Psychological Thriller

-
Image
The day has finally arrived for the release of my new book Schism at the Amazon Kindle Store. It’s a dark, disturbing psychological thriller laced with plenty of dark humour. I do hope you’ll check it out. You can find it at the U.S. Amazon Kindle Store here and at the U.K. Amazon Kindle Store here . Description: As a boy, Horatio Higgins was ignored by the other children, but that didn't stop him having lots of friends...friends only he could see and whom he'd regale with tales of his fantastical exploits. Eventually, though, his parents became concerned at the inordinate amount of time their son appeared to spend talking to himself and took him for treatment, which, in time, proved successful...almost. One friend remained. Unfortunately it was the spiteful one. Years later, living alone in his tiny London flat, Horatio's loneliness is mitigated only by his acid-tongued friend and the company of what he affectionately refers to as "my wife". After losing his jo...
Read more