It’s time to announce the 2012 winners of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest for the Worst Opening Line to an imaginary novel.

It’s named after the author who penned “It was a dark and stormy night,” which would have been fine had he not continued with, “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.”

To write something truly awful either takes a lot of skill or a complete absence of such. Here are some of the winners who have carefully chosen every appalling word and are rewarded with being acknowledged as the very worst.

We hope you love to hate every word and if you can stand more, take a look at all the 2012 winners and last year’s winners here on our blog.

Overall Winner
As he told her that he loved her she gazed into his eyes, wondering, as she noted the infestation of eyelash mites, the tiny deodicids burrowing into his follicles to eat the greasy sebum therein, each female laying up to 25 eggs in a single follicle, causing inflammation, whether the eyes are truly the windows of the soul; and, if so, his soul needed regrouting. Cathy Bryant, Manchester, England

Winner: Historical Fiction
The “clunk” of the guillotine blade’s release reminded Marie Antoinette, quite briefly, of the sound of the wooden leg of her favorite manservant as he not-quite-silently crossed the polished floors of Versailles to bring her another tray of petit fours. Leslie Craven, Hataitai, New Zealand

Runner-Up: Romance
“Your eyes are like deep blue pools that I would like to drown in,” he had told Kimberly when she had asked him what he was thinking; but what he was actually thinking was that sometimes when he recharges his phone he forgets to put the little plug back in but he wasn’t going to tell her that. Dan Leyde, Edmonds, WA

Runner-Up: Science Fiction
The real problem with the “many universes” interpretation of quantum mechanics is that if it’s true, then somewhere, in some universe, anything you can possibly imagine has already happened, which means that somewhere, another version of me has already finished writing the rest of this science-fiction novel, so I’m not feeling real inspired to do it myself. Steve Lauducci, Bethlehem, PA

Dishonorable Mention
Her skin was like flocked wallpaper and her eyes had seen better days, but when her bloodless lips murmured “Hi, Sailor,” my heart melted from the inside out like one of those chocolate-covered ice cream bars on a summer day that runs down your arm and gets all over your new shirt. James Macdonald, Vancouver, B.C.

Dishonorable Mention
Her fixed gaze at dinner reminded him so much of an owl that he found himself wondering when she would regurgitate her meal into a pellet and told the waitress they didn’t need a dessert menu. Leah Sitkoff, New York