Dark and Stormy Nights

About a week ago the 2012 winners of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest were announced. The winner wasn’t  that bad, but I would have given the award to one of the “Dishonorable Mentions”:

Ronald left this world as he entered it: on a frigid winter night, amid frantic screams and blood-soaked linens, while relatives stood nearby and muttered furious promises to find and punish the man responsible. — Rebecca Oas, Atlanta, GA