AP Photo
Proof that life really does imitate art: Alabama shooter Amy Bishop wrote a novel about—surprise!—a scientist at an Alabama university who desperately wants tenure. As The Boston Globe points out, the unpublished novel may be a window into the life of Bishop, who allegedly shot six colleagues at the University of Alabama last week after they denied her tenure. The novel follows Olivia, a scientist who moves to Alabama and struggles with her career while a global pandemic leaves women unable to have children. Bishop wrote of the heroine: "She knew she was a professor, having finally achieved tenure. Her huge family sat at the table, her mother, father, her sister, Steve's parents and the children—her many children... she felt warm, happy, fulfilled, and yet she knew it was just a dream." Bizarrely, Bishop is the second cousin of novelist John Irving, and was particularly proud of that connection. She had worked on the book for several years, sending the most recent version of it to a colleague in Massachusetts six months ago.