JadeLiChen

Hi Everyone reading this and to the Beta Readers of my fan fics,

I want to apologize to all of you for the lack of communication I've been having with you. I've had alot filling my plate and it's prevented from writing in the last several weeks or so. I will be trying to get back on track with my work, so if any of you are reading this, please reply entry and let me know if you're still out there.

Hi Everyone,

I came across a comment today that got me thinking on people's perceptive on what makes a Mary-Sue and what makes an OC. The basic definitions most commonly accepted for both terms are:

Mary-Sue: A created character for a fan fic that is paired up romantically with a cannon character. This character often has little to no flaws and whatever cannon character they are meant to be romantically involved with will fall for the Mary-Sue right away. There are times when this flawless character has a tragic back story, but shows little to no signs of the psychological damage that often comes with such traumatic pasts and are somehow magically able to function in society without a care in the world. Another case of the tragic past can often come in the form of the writer repeatedly slapping their reader in the face with this fact over and over again to still attempt to garner some sympathy from the readers.

Original Character: A created character for a fan fic that has flaws, character development, and psychological issues if they happen to have a tragic past. These characters are often relatable and if paired with a cannon character, there is actual development in the relationship and they do not fall in love with each other right away.

Many people don't just use these terms for fan fic, however. Now Mary-Sue can apparently be applied to cannon characters in any series, be it anime or live action tv. At the very least, for anyone who doesn't use the term Mary-Sue for cannon characters, there are many examples of this floating around in non-fan fic stuff.

Prime example, The Anita Blake novels.

I speak as someone who use to be a former fan girl of this series, back when LKH still believed in things like plot and character development. Lately Anita has turned into an uber bitch who has little to no morals at all, will threaten and punish people who question what she's doing (even if what she is doing is clearly wrong), and will have various sex adventures with a grand number of men and women who all think she's the greatest person on earth and can do no wrong. Also, from what I've been told by people who still read the series, her tragic past slaps readers repeatedly over and over until they're blue in the face. So yeah, classic Mary-Sue, but can we really call her that since she is a character in an original series and not someone's fan created character?

So my question to anyone reading the entry is this, do the basic terms of what makes an OC and what makes a Mary-Sue still apply? Are they terms we can apply to officially published characters just because they have traits that piss us off or we simply find the character irritating? And is everyone's definition of a Mary-Sue and an OC as basic as I put it, or does it get more complicated and if it does, why does it?

Hey all,

This particular entry has nothing to do with me or my own personal life. Today I want to talk about a tragedy that recently happened in the past several days and hope that those out there will spread the word and do whatever they can to help.

On November 25, its was officially confirmed that VA Michal Friedman passed away giving birth to twins by cesarean section and while the twins are perfectly healthy, they are now without a mother. And for those who may not know this, she was also the wife of fellow VA, Dan Green. A more in depth article on the event can be found here:

www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/…

A website was set up for anyone out there who might be able to make a donation for immediate care of the twins. Even if you are not a fan of Dan Green, please make a donation if at all possible, or at the very least, please leave him a message on the guestbook and let him know that his fans are thinking of him. Even if you take away the fact that he is a well known voice actor, he is still someone who lost someone on a day that was supposed to be filled with only joy and happiness. Here is the link where you can donate and let him know he is in our hearts:

sites.google.com/site/thedangr…

Damn, I haven't updated this thing in ages. And I sound so emo in that last post.

I know I keep promising this, but I swear to the Gods above that I shall go back on DA more often!  I need to go back to at least once a week!  That should be easy enough...I hope.

Anyway, things have been getting a bit better for me, the universe as really unique ways of showing me that I'm choosing the right path as a writer. As silly as this might sound, anytime I start getting the "did I make the wrong choice" voice in the back of my head, the universe decides to send me a sign. Case in point being the VA I met at work early this month. On August 3rd, 2011, I was at work checking people's ID, hating my day job as usual, when the evil thought I mentioned above started to sneak its way into my thoughts and my self confidence took was about to take another noise dive. And on top of that, every time I tried to tell people to come up to me so I could see their ID and tickets (thus letting them go through the line faster), the coworker next to me kept interrupting me every single time, despite the fact I asked this guy very nicely to knock it off. So as you can imagine, I was already starting to get into a depressed and cranky mood.

And then Vic Mignogna came up to me to get his ID checked.

Vic Freaking Mignogna!

Now keep in mind that there were two other people checking IDs as well, so it wasn't just me. Anyway, I asked him how he was doing and he replied that he was doing well and then he asked how I knew how to pronounce his name. I told him I had been to a few conventions and we got to talking for little bit. He then went on line and I went back to checking IDs and about a minute later he came back and asked me if he could take my picture! Apparently he likes to take pics of fans he runs into randomly in real life.

Now, I'd like to say right now, that I'm not a blind fan girl of this particular VA since Vic is pretty popular, this is just me geeking out. My reaction would have been the same if it had been Tatum, Haberkorn, Strait, O'Brian, Freeman, Bailey, etc. So please don't think I'm being a Vic fantard.

I also went to Worldcon in Reno, which was alot of fun. My uncle was one of the guests there, so it was pretty cool seeing him interact with his fans and what not. I do admit, it's both awe inspiring and terrifying that this is the man whose footsteps I want to follow in. I mean, he got a TV show on HBO based on his books for crying out loud! I can only hope to be a quarter as good as that. Of course, I did get another self esteem booster when the head of his fan club found out I wanted to be like my uncle and said that when I was published, he'd start a fan club for me. That really made my day.

But yeah, that was really how my life as been recently. Other than that, there's not much I can really talk about.

I've just experienced a FML moment tonight. On the news, I discovered my boss, someone I thought was a really nice guy, who said I was his favorite employee, whose name I have in my resume as a referance, is a thief.

For those parties interested, read the article here:

www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010…

The Michael Arato mentioned is said boss. I know this is a cliche you see in the news alot, but I honestly wouldn't suspect the guy of such a thing. He was one of the best bosses I had, when I had to get retested for my job, he helped build my confidence up and as I mentioned before, when I asked if I could add him as a reference to my resume, he said of course, I was his favorite employee. So to quote the famous tag line:

F my life.