The Franklin News-Post
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Rocky Mount, Virginia 24151
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Staff Photo by Steven Marsh:
Becky Mushko, a winner in the 2008 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, holds a copy of the book It Was a Dark and Stormy Night , in which two of her winning entries in earlier Bulwer-Lytton contests were published. |
Penhook resident and author Becky Mushko was among the division winners in the 2008 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, an international competition that began at San Jose State University in 1982.
The competition celebrates the worst opening line from a novel that hasn't been written. It was inspired by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, whose 1830 novel "Paul Clifford" begins with "It was a dark and stormy night." Snoopy later made the line famous.
Mushko's "Vile Pun" winner was inspired by a Wordsworth poem and a 1960s Warren Beatty/Natalie Woods movie, "Splendor in the Grass."
The opening lines read, "Vowing to get revenge on his English teacher for making him memorize Wordsworth's "Intimations of Immortality," Warren decided to pour sugar in her gas tank, but he inadvertently grabbed a sugar substitute, so it was actually Splenda in the gas."
The competition received over 8,000 entries.
This year's grand prize winner was Garrison Spik, who received $250. The division winners -- like Mushko -- get the pleasure of knowing their writing is the best of the worst.
Mushko, who has entered the contest for 14 years, won "Worst Western" division in 1996 and received a "Miscellaneous Dishonorable Mention" in 2000.
Mushko said she was surprised that her entry won.
"I was also surprised to see that over 800 websites quote my pun," said Mushko. "Apparently, I struck a chord with a lot of English majors." |
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