"It was a dark and stormy night."


I know-- you think this is Bulwer-Lytton-- and it is.

But it's also Madeleine' L'Engle's opening line for her Newbery-winning book A Wrinkle in Time

I remember being sucked into this scene, with a vividly-realized storm around the Murry house and Meg coming down to the kitchen for cocoa. Meeting the fascinating characters....L'Engle deliberately took a famous cliche to open her book, and got away with it. -- Donna Farley