"IT WAS A DARK AND STORMY NIGHT"

[Brighton ed draugelis]

Stumbled across the phrase ''It was a dark and stormy night'' in Alexander Dumas', (Pere) The Three Musketeers. Perhaps the first of the now famous scene setting phrase.

Here is my latest dark and stormy night: ''Rainclouds clustered over Metro Detroit throughout the night leaving, at daybreak, a sullen day-night grayness.'' (From OF BREAD AND ANGELS.) There are some other scene setting dark and stormy nights out there. Surprise your bloggers with your favorite.

[I. J. Parker]

There's an annual contest on who can write the worst intoductory paragraph. Actually, the original is much maligned. It isn't half bad. Neither is the example from BREAD AND ANGELS.
There's an unreasonable hatred for weather/mood among American writers/readers. They prefer to get right to the blood and guts as the main point of the novel.