I hear of Mary Sue everywhere...

With all this talk about Mary Sues, I've been struck by a new thought.

Some people have mentioned seeing MS characters in published fiction -- Anita Blake is frequently mentioned, and of course there are other plausible candidates like Amelia Peabody, Mary Russell, and Anne of Green Gables (come on -- she's a spunky orphan with a tragic past, an unusual hair colour, and she wins the heart of everybody she meets! How can she not be a Mary Sue?*).

However, I haven't heard anybody mention an even more serious and irritating problem -- Mary Sues in real life!

Think about it. Alexander the Great? So a Gary Stu. Elizabeth Taylor? I mean, she has violet eyes**! And let's not even get started on Gwyneth Paltrow...

But that's just a tiny sample. So step right up, folks! Nominate your favorite RL Mary Sues and Gary Stus. We might even start a new genre -- RPMS fic!

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*This is, by the way, mostly facetious. I like Anne just fine.
**Yes, I do know they aren't really violet. Tell that to the press, though.

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With all the glowing comments I've been getting on the new blog design (thank you, all!), I'd like to make sure at least some credit goes where it's really due -- to Trish at In a Mood Designs. The template is called "Serenity" and it's in the "Log Looks" section under "Linkware", along with some other really beautiful stuff. I just twiddled things a bit.

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A bit of grousing about a recent review of my stories (well, ostensibly just one story, but the critic comments on the sequels as well) is in the LiveJournal. For whatever that's worth.

All shall love me II: Electric Boogaloo

Further to my recent post on the subject, the original lawful_fic review of The Potions Master's Apprentice has been taken down. The author is reworking the review and plans to post a revised version on Wednesday.

I don't expect she will change her mind about disliking the fic, nor do I even think she should; but it looks as though she did think my complaint had some validity, and plans to make her criticisms more reasoned and careful on the second go-round. Which is good, and all I really ask for.

(Well, that and maybe one really witty piece of snark that I can giggle over, like the bit in the MarySues review about Maud's sense of self-righteousness having its own gravitational pull. That was funny.)

It is no doubt revelatory of my character, however, that when I found the author had taken down the review I felt obscurely guilty for complaining about it.

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Now the content-specific banner ads are starting to scare me. Where did it get the cat stuff from? How does Blogger know I like cats?

*is worried*