joe was featured today on pop candy, a pop culture blog at usatoday.com. here’s what blogger whitney matheson had to say:

The year’s best in bad writing
Congratulations are in order for Pop reader Joe S., who is among the winners of this year’s Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest.

This may sound like an esteemed competition, and it is … one of very bad writing. The Bulwer-Lytton contest honors Victorian novelist Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, the guy responsible for starting his novel Paul Clifford with the line, “It was a dark and stormy night.”

The contest challenges participants to “submit bad opening sentences to imaginary novels.” Joe won in the science fiction category. His winning sentence:

“Timothy Hanson, Commander of the 43rd Space Regiment in the 52nd Battalion on board the USAOPAC (United Space Alliance Of Planets Attack Carrier) and second in command to Admiral L. R. Morris of the USAOP Space Command, awoke early for breakfast.”

“My parents are almost proud of me,” Joe says.

All of the winning entries are online. Take a look, and treat them as a guide for what not to do.

he’s also been interviewed by our local newspaper. we’re hoping the atlanta journal constitution will pick it up as well.