The Night of the Comet

The Next Big Thing No. 2

Craig Renfroe is another old classmate from the UNC-Wilmington’s MFA program who’s doing some interesting stuff.

You might know Craig as the man who looks likes something like this:

RU4195

 

 

 

 

 

(That’s a terrible joke; he actually looks a lot better than that.)

But check out some of his writing. He’s the author of the short story collection YOU SHOULD GET THAT LOOKED AT (Main Street Rag Publishing Company). He was a finalist for the Novello Literary Award and the Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. His work has appeared in Puerto del Sol, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Pank, Hobart, and 3:AM Magazine, among others.

Just now he’s working on a collection of linked stories, set in the fictional town of Sumerville, NC. You can read one of the stories in the pulp issue of Pank:

http://www.pankmagazine.com/parricide/

For more on Craig, here’s the link to his blog: http://craigrenfroe.blogspot.com/

He Twitters, too! @SCraigRenfroeJr

Preview of The Night of the Comet in Wilmington Star News

A very nice sneak preview of THE NIGHT OF THE COMET from Ben Steelman, arts critic for the Wilmington Star News (NC):

“Just received an advance proof on “Night of the Comet,” the new novel from former Wilmingtonian George Bishop. It comes out Aug. 6 from Ballantine.

Talk about publicity: The novel arrives between Comet Pan-STARRS (which should be popping up nicely in the southwestern sky this weekend, near the planet Jupiter) and Comet Ison . . .”

http://books.blogs.starnewsonline.com/17340/night-of-the-comet/

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Comet Pan-STARRS

By now you’ve probably heard about Comet Pan-STARRS:

comet-panstarrs-lovejoy-australia

 

Comet Pan-STARRS is a long-period comet discovered last year by the Pan-STARRS telescope in Hawaii. It’s visible this month, March, in both the northern and southern hemispheres. Since it’s a long-period comet, it won’t be visible again for another 100 million years.

I haven’t spotted it yet from here in New Orleans, but here’s a photo of it as it appears over LSU in Baton Rouge:

pan-starrs-comet-clock-baton-rouge

 

Yuri Gagarin in Space

To launch my fab new WordPress blog, here’s something from Stars and Constellations, a commemoration of the birthday of Yuri Gagarin, first man in outer space.

On looking out the window of his Vostok 1 spacecraft, Yuri had this to say:

“The Earth is blue. How wonderful. It is amazing.”

Bud’te zdorovy, Yuri!

Yuri Gagarin

The Night of the Comet Catalogue Description

Just got this–the publisher’s catalogue description of my new novel, coming out next summer.  What do you think?
The Night of the Comet
A Novel
George Bishop
Reminiscent of The Wonder Years, a sensitive and insightful coming-of-age story by the author of Letter to My Daughter, who Pat Conroy hailed as a “novelist to keep your eye on.”
It’s the summer of 1973 and 14-year-old Alan Broussard is navigating the chaotic and disillusioning course of adolescence: awakening to the joys of first love, learning the meaning of disappointment, and getting accustomed to the perpetual embarrassment caused by his parents. And this is especially the case when Alan’s father – his high school’s geekiest science teacher – becomes obsessed over what he predicts will be the astrological event of the century: the sighting of comet Kohoutek. As the sleepy town of Terrebonne, Louisiana, gets caught up in the comet craze, Alan is preoccupied by his telescope’s ability to grant him access into the world of the beautiful girl who moved into the house across the river. But what he comes to see most clearly is a reality that’s been hidden from him his entire life – his father’s inadequacies, his mother’s growing unhappiness, his sister’s struggle to find autonomy and his own loss of innocence amidst it all. Bishop pens a delicate story about growing up – both its pains and pleasures – and the idea that hope and love can be found in the stars.
ON SALE 8/6/2013
BALLANTINE BOOKS
HARDCOVER

Cover for New Book

My next book, The Night of the Comet, comes out in the summer.  It’s a story about a boy, his father, and a comet.

I was looking for images to inspire the art team at Random House and I found this, from an old National Geographic.

What do you think?  Evocative?

 

New Novel

Just received word that my new novel, The Night of the Comet, will be coming out next year, the summer of 2013, with Ballantine Books.

Yes, you can break out the champagne now.

Next Novel

I recently submitted the manuscript for my next novel to Random House. Like Letter to My Daughter, it’s set in south Louisiana in the 1970s, but this one is more of a father-son story. More on it later . . .