You Will Not Have Seen This Book Cover Before,

because it was made using a image generator,

called the Pulp-O-Mizer, a programme that lets you design your own book cover, but this post is about the story that begins with, "It was a dark and stormy night..." (the entire sentence is here), 

the author was a 19th century politician who was the first to begin a novel with the line, his name was Edward Bulwer-Lytton, in his honour, San Jose State University holds an annual contest challenging writers to come up with the opening line of the worst possible novel, and now the winners of the 2023 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest have been announced. The Grand Prize winner is Maya Pasic of New York City, for this literary opening:

‘She was a beautiful woman; more specifically she was the kind of beautiful woman who had an hourlong skincare routine that made her look either ethereal or like a glazed donut, depending on how attracted to her you were’

and here is another from the Fantasy & Horror opening line, by Drew Herman of Midlothian, Virginia.

‘In obedience to the Thousand-year Mandate of Hawksrealm, following the prophecy of Glenfrik the Morrowsayer, Klagnar and his (thus far) loyal Deathsword Warriors journeyed countless skyturns across the Burning Plains of Hellsplat and the Great Eastern Doomsea to an immense, shining folkshive that more or less resembled Fresno, but with a more genre-appropriate name’

you can read all of the winners in all categories, plus plenty of Dishonorable Mentions, at the Bulwer-Lytton contest site, and the good news? I was not on the list!