Category Archives: Uncategorized

In Defense of Neville Longbottom

NevilleOver at Tor, blogger Emily Asher-Perrin has written a nice piece about Neville Longbottom, pegging him not only as an undervalued character, but going as far as saying that he, “determines the course of the Harry Potter series.” While initially sounding like a bit of an outlandish claim, she mounts a pretty convincing defense in her essay. She also draws some very interesting generational parallels that I hadn’t really picked up while reading the books. All and all, it’s a great read for Harry Potter fans. Hop on over to Tor to check out the full essay, but here’s an excerpt:

Rowling largely operates Harry’s generation in a clear system of parallels to the previous generation, Marauders and all. Harry is his father—Quidditch star, a little pig-headed sometimes, an excellent leader. Ron is Sirius Black—snarky and fun, loyal to a fault, mired in self-doubts. Hermione is Remus Lupin—book smart and meticulous, always level-headed, unfailingly perceptive. Ginny is Lily Evans—a firecracker, clever and kind, unwilling to take excuses. Draco Malfoy is Severus Snape—a natural foil to Harry, pretentious, possessed of the frailest ego and also deeper sense of right and wrong when it counts. And guess what?

Neville Longbottom is Peter Pettigrew.

‘Cosmos’ Reboot Will Debut in March


The reboot of Carl Sagan’s Cosmos series is slated to debut March 9th on FOX. The 13-episode series will oddly enough be produced by Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane and will have internet beloved physicist Neil deGrasse Tyson at the helm. It looks quite good.

What I Did This Summer Other Than Write And Bike


Although I think my generation records and documents way too much of their lives, I too must confess that I like recording random things I do with a GoPro. These are some of the random things I did this summer along with some good friends. I enjoyed summer thoroughly.

This Week’s Writing Links

Just a quick batch of writing links for this week. It features a nice quote from Joss Whedon about the interpretation of art, a possible new director for the Hunger Games sequel, an announcement about J.K Rowling’s new novel and some new agents on the literary scene.

Also, if you are in Chicago this weekend, there are some cool events going on. I’ll be signing books today for ‘The Exiles’ book launch (Open Books 6:30 – 8). The Windy City Rollers, Chicago’s premiere women’s roller derby league has a bout on Saturday at 6 pm and one of my good friends Joey Murphy has a show with his band Pet Lions later that evening at Lincoln Hall 10 PM.

Hope everyone has a great weekend! Andddd links.

Links:

– Joss Whedon’s Philosophy On Interpreting Art (imgur)

– 10 Must Reads For April (flavorwire)

– Finalists For The 2012 David Gemmell Legend Award (sfsignal)

– Ray Bradbury On How Disneyland Humanized Robots (io9)

– J.K Rowling’s First Adult Novel Will Be A Black Political Comedy (flavorwire)

– AV Club Reviews Brian Francis Slattery’s ‘Lost Everything’ (avclub)

– New Literary Agent Alert: Andrew Wetzel (guidetoliteraryagents)

– Author Interview: Alec Nevala-Lee (writersdigest)

– Review: The Emperors Knife (sfsignal)

– Kirkus Review’s Sci-fi and Fantasy Reviews For April (kirkusreview)

– Director Picked For Hunger Games Sequel? (comingsoon)

Great ‘Hunger Games’ Fan Art

In honor of the Hunger Games movie releasing today, the always reliable io9 posted a great article chronicling the best fan made art for the Hunger Games. Head over to io9 to check out some of the varying takes on Katniss Everdeen and the world of Panem. The movie has been getting reviewed well, so if you have the day off, make sure to check it out at a theater near you.

Via io9.

Welcome To The New Site

Sorry about the technical difficulties, but I just had my website redesigned and content will now only be updated here on conorpdempsey.com. The blogspot is still up, but it will be phased out in the next couple of weeks.

This should be my only move. I’ll try to find everyone’s pages again via wordpress, but feel free to stop by the page and say hi, so it’d be easier to find you again. Jospeh R. Murphy was kind enough to redesign the site. When he’s not touring with his band Pet Lions, you should track him down for web design work. He does good work. I should be updating the site more often now that this is done and the switch is finalized. Thanks for everyone’s patience and understanding!

Is Your Namesake From A Book?

A recent post from Kate Evangelista’s Reads, Reviews, Recommends blog profiling Irish author Noel Farrell’s new book, Booker’s World, a story about a man dealing with a friend’s suicide during the Irish recession, reminded me of another bit of depressing Celtic literature, Leon Uris’ Trinity.

I was told at a very young age that I was named after the protagonist of Trinity, Conor Larkin. Admittedly, I have not gotten around to reading Trinity yet (So, I can’t actually say it is a depressing book, but the synopsis sure makes it seem that way. And I mean, the guy I was named after gets shot in the head, so that morbid detail doesn’t quite have me rushing to read it), but it’s on my list of books to read and hopefully I’ll get around to it this year.

Despite Conor Larkin’s tragic (and hopefully heroic) death in Trinity, I’ve always enjoyed my name. I like having something off the beaten path that reminds me of my Irish roots. I have to thank my parents for not naming me something like Drake Chesterfield or Chet Porterhouse (I apologize to all Chesterfields and Porterhouses, I’m sure they’re great names, just not for me).

What about you? Were you named after a literary character? If so, which one? Was there a literary character you wished you were named after? Do you plan on naming any of your kids after characters from books? If you plan on naming any kids/pets after characters from Twilight, how deep of a hole are you digging for them? When will the terrible, terrible repercussions for what you’ve done finally set in? When they reach middle school? High school? College?