S. Evan Townsend's Blog, page 114

Are All My Main Characters "Mary Sue"?

There is in fiction writing a concept call the "Mary Sue" (some call the male versions "Marty Stu").  A "Mary Sue" is a character who represents the writer themselves.  They are, thus, often wonderful amazing characters that achieve they hopes and dreams of the writer. Wikipedia notes the term comes from a satire of unrealistic "Star Trek" fan fiction:

The story starred Lieutenant Mary Sue ("the youngest Lieutenant in the fleet — only fifteen and a half years old")

Also according to the same article, it has been speculated that Wesley Crusher on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" was a "self-insertion" by Gene Roddenberry and thus a Marty Stu.  (I held this opinion long before I learned the term "Mary Sue" and in fact, since about half-way through the first season of ST:TNG.)

But here's the problem.  Who does the writer know best?  Himself or herself.  So where can the writer best draw character distinctions?  From himself or herself.  For instance, my main character in Hammer of Thor , Francis Kader, has a couple of flaws I have myself.  Michael Vaughan of Agent of Artifice is pretty much based on how I would probably act if I were an adept (the people with magical powers in my Adept Series novels).  And Peter Branton of Book of Death and the forthcoming Gods of Strife has more than a few of my personality quirks.  But does this make them Marty Stus?  I don't think so because they have flaws (mostly mine) and are not perfect.  Is there a little self-insertion going on?  Yeah, but I don't think that makes them bad characters.

(Speaking of self-insertion, I have read two fiction novels with mention the author: Brothers No More by William F. Buckley mentions Buckley's run for mayor of New York City and in Number of the Beast by Robert A. Heinlein a character says of Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land something like, "what some writers won't do for money."  But that's a different kind of self-insertion and in both cases the authors used it as self-denigrating jokes.)

In my novel Rock Killer, I gave the main character, Alexander Chun, horrible space sickness (and he works in space).  I did this because I suspect I would have horrible space sickness (I get motion sick very easily) and it was an easy flaw to give him (yes, he has other flaws).  So again, I drew upon myself.

Of course, for writers there are countless places to draw characters from.  And you should never base a character on a specific person but use an amalgamation of people and their characteristics.  But don't be afraid to give a character a characteristic you have in fear of having a Mary Sue, especially if it's a flaw.  And, whatever you do, don't have an idealized character who is flawless in every way.  Even Superman had Kryptonite and Lois Lane.

My Wish for My Next Computer

The other day I was horrified to discover that the 3-year warranty on my "new" computer expired.  My current computer is a Dell Latitude E6510 laptop.  This is the first laptop I bought for myself because up until a few years ago, I considered laptops specialty computers not fit for everyday use.  But now they are just as powerful and have as much hard drive space as desktops (which is why desktops are going away although I suppose there will still be some call for them in business settings because they are a lot cheaper than laptops).  When I bought my laptop I got with it a docking station (and paid through the nose for it).  This allows me to plug my laptop into the docking station which hooks it up to my ergonomic keyboard, large monitor, printer, speakers, and regular mouse.  So it's just like having a desktop experience but when I need a laptop (travel, writers' group meetings, etc.) I have one.  I love it.  It also runs Windows 7 which I consider the best Microsoft Windows OS ever (and it took a lot for me to give up XP).  It seems Windows versions are best if they are uneven numbered, at least since Windows 97 (97 was good, ME sucked, XP was great, Vista sucked, 7 is great, 8 isn't so good from what I hear).

Now everything is moving toward tables, it seems.  And like the old fogy I am (I used to be an early adapter but now I'm old) I'm reluctant.  A table would be nice to have for those few times a laptop is too much.  But my iPhone seems to work fine for that.  But I have seen a Dell computer that is a tablet, laptop, and has a docking station and to me, that's near perfect.

What I want in my next computer is an iPad Air-sized and massed tablet, that turns into a laptop with a nice big keyboard (I have fat fingers) that docks into a docking station to emulate a desktop.  Oh, and I don't want to have to carry something that turns it from tablet to laptop but that could be a compromise (have a keyboard and a frame to hold the tablet).

That way I'd have the best of all three worlds.  And since I'm a writer, I need to be able to use my ergonomic keyboard that I love.  Oh, and operating system needs to be as powerful as Windows 7 and as simple to use as iOS 7.  Is that too much to ask?

I'm thinking when I do buy a new computer I'm going to wait for Windows 9 and hope the problems with Windows 8 are worked out (I did notice Windows 8 had a huge update).

Computer Evolution

This being the first day of 2014, I started thinking about all the thing we don't have that we were predicted to have by now: flying cars, vacations on the Moon, talking computers.  But then I realized some things happened that weren't predicted: the Internet, the smartphone, the shrinking of computer.

Think about this: in the 1968 movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, the computer on the space ship (HAL) was much more advanced than computers we have now.  But it was also huge.  Remember that scene where the guy goes inside the computer to shut it down?  I mean, the astronaut went into the computer, his entire body.  So the makers of that film missed that computer would get smaller and smaller.

My first contact with a computer was at the Eastern Idaho State Fair in the early '70s.  Idaho State University had set up a computer and had interfaces were you could interact with the computer.  The interface looked a lot like a typewriter.  The computer's output was printed on paper, not displayed on a screen.  And what they had set up was a number guessing game (slightly fancied up as an artillery aiming game).  You'd put in a number on the typewriter-like keyboard, it'd print out "long" or "short" (if I remember correctly).  And I was so impressed!  Here I was using a real computer.  But the computer was probably in a back room taking up square feet of space.  (I wrote a similar program in BASIC about 10 years later on my first computer.)

I like to point out that my first PC, a rather large desktop, had a 40 megabyte hard drive.  My iPhone that fits in my pocket has 32 gigabytes of memory on a flash drive.  My laptop has a 500 gigabyte hard drive and my back up drive is 1 terabyte.  That's 26,200 times larger that that first hard drive.  And probably a lot cheaper.

So while we don't have a lot of things that were predicted when I was a kid, we do have amazing computer technology.  Just not yet advanced enough to talk to us, read lips, and lock us out of the cargo bay.

Oh, and Happy New Year!

UW Huskies go 9-4 on Season

This will probably be the last mention of the Huskies on this blog until sometime in August 2014.

Last night the University of Washington Huskies football team beat the Brigham Young University Cougars in the Fight Hunger Bowl to finish with a 9-4 season.  That's their best finish since 2000 when they were 11-1 and Marques Tuiasosopo was the quarterback.  Which is significant because Tuiasosopo was the head coach for last night's game, being appointed interim head coach after Steve Sarkisian left for USC after the Apple Cup victory.

The game seemed to start out slow with low-energy on both sides of the scrimmage line.  But the Husky defense held the Cougars over and over, making them settle for field goals if they didn't out right punt.  The Cougars had a better second quarter and scored 16 but never were able to surpass the Huskies who then went on to win 31-16 holding the Cougars scoreless in the second half.

Even a fourth-quarter illegal hit that took out starting quarterback Keith Price (a hit that wasn't penalized) didn't help the Cougars.  The Huskies did have trouble scoring after that but their defense kept the Cougars scoreless, too.  Star running back Bishop Sankey also left the game with an injury.

I was worried about this game because of the emotional beating the team has taken with Sarkisian abandoning them for USC before their bowl game.  From all accounts, the player leadership including Price stepped up and kept the team together.  And the affection the players felt for Tuiasosopo was almost palpable on the sidelines.

This is the Dawgs first bowl win since 2010 when as underdogs they beat Nebraska in the Holiday Bowl.  These two bowl wins are the only two they've had since 2000.  Husky fans have put up with a lot and I consider myself a die-hard.  We had a season the team went 0-12 in 2008.  We've had coaches fired for gambling.  We've had coaches who couldn't get the team to finish a game.  And this for a program that used to regularly win the Pac-10 championship and national titles.

So next year with our new head coach Chris Petersen and a lot of fresh young talent coming up (some of which was on display last night) I'm looking forward to next year.  Yes, we'll still be in the Pac-12 North Division with powerhouses Stanford and Oregon (even this year we finished third to those two teams) but we'll have a chance, a chance to become a contender in one of the toughest conferences in college football.

Are All My Main Characters "Mary Sue"?

There is in fiction writing a concept call the "Mary Sue" (some call the male versions "Marty Stu").  A "Mary Sue" is a character who represents the writer themselves.  They are, thus, often wonderful amazing characters that achieve they hopes and dreams of the writer. Wikipedia notes the term comes from a satire of unrealistic "Star Trek" fan fiction:

The story starred Lieutenant Mary Sue ("the youngest Lieutenant in the fleet — only fifteen and a half years old")

Also according to the same article, it has been speculated that Wesley Crusher on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" was a "self-insertion" by Gene Roddenberry and thus a Marty Stu.  (I held this opinion long before I learned the term "Mary Sue" and in fact, since about half-way through the first season of ST:TNG.)

But here's the problem.  Who does the writer know best?  Himself or herself.  So where can the writer best draw character distinctions?  From himself or herself.  For instance, my main character in Hammer of Thor , Francis Kader, has a couple of flaws I have myself.  Michael Vaughan of Agent of Artifice is pretty much based on how I would probably act if I were an adept (the people with magical powers in my Adept Series novels).  And Peter Branton of Book of Death and the forthcoming Gods of Strife has more than a few of my personality quirks.  But does this make them Marty Stus?  I don't think so because they have flaws (mostly mine) and are not perfect.  Is there a little self-insertion going on?  Yeah, but I don't think that makes them bad characters.

(Speaking of self-insertion, I have read two fiction novels with mention the author: Brothers No More by William F. Buckley mentions Buckley's run for mayor of New York City and in Number of the Beast by Robert A. Heinlein a character says of Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land something like, "what some writers won't do for money."  But that's a different kind of self-insertion and in both cases the authors used it as self-denigrating jokes.)

In my novel Rock Killer, I gave the main character, Alexander Chun, horrible space sickness (and he works in space).  I did this because I suspect I would have horrible space sickness (I get motion sick very easily) and it was an easy flaw to give him (yes, he has other flaws).  So again, I drew upon myself again.

Of course, for writers there are countless places to draw characters from.  And you should never base a character on a specific person but use an amalgamation of people and their characteristics.  But don't be afraid to give a character a characteristic you have in fear of having a Mary Sue, especially if it's a flaw.  And, whatever you do, don't have an idealized character who is flawless in every way.  Even Superman had Kryptonite and Lois Lane.

Life in Cougar Country

Washington State University LogoI live in Washington State.  When I tell people that they always say, "Oh, that’s such a pretty state."  Which is true, mostly.

You see, the Cascade Mountain Range runs down the length of the state from Canada to Oregon cutting the state roughly into a western third and an eastern two-thirds.  The Cascades is a barrier geographically, climatologically, culturally, economically, and politically.  The Washington State most people think of when they praise its beauty is what those of us living in the rain shadow of the Cascades call "The Wet Side."  That's the side with the Seattle metropolitan area, with Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands.  That's the side with Mount Rainier, Mount Baker, Mount Adams, Mount St. Helens, and the majestic Olympic Mountains.  That's the side that has 78% of the population of the state.  That's the side of the state with the headquarters of Fortune 500 companies Microsoft, Costco, and Weyerhaeuser.  It's where Boeing builds most of its planes.  It's the side with trees and green vegetation.

The Eastern two-thirds of the state are quite different.  A large part of it is the Columbia Basin that runs roughly from Grand Coulee Dam to the Oregon border, from the Cascades to the rolling, wheat-covered hills of the Palouse.  Scrubbed clean by ice age mega-floods (parts are called "The Scab Lands") and in that aforementioned rain shadow, here you only see green vegetation if someone is irrigating it.  And there's a lot of irrigation of potatoes, corn, wheat, alfalfa, apples, and grapes for the famous Basin wineries.  The economy is mostly agriculture, which lately is paying worse than usual.  Then there are the sparsely populated, mountainous counties along the Canadian Border, the farmland of the Palouse in the southeastern corner, and the foothills of the Rockies along the Idaho Border.  Spokane is the second largest city in the state, and Spokane County the fourth largest county.

And the east side of the state is "Cougar Country."

There are two major universities in Washington State: the University of Washington in Seattle and Washington State University in Pullman.  The contrast couldn't be more stark.  UW (also known as U-Dub) is in the state's largest city.  It is the largest university in the Pacific Northwest.  It is considered one of the "Public Ivies" (universities that are public or state owned but are on a par with the Ivy League).  It has for decades led the country in research grant dollars.  Its medical school is world class.

WSU (also known as Wazzu) is in a small town of about 30,000 people.  The next nearest large town is
Spokane which is 75 miles due north on slow, two-lane roads.  It is 8 miles from Moscow, Idaho (home of the University of Idaho).  It is known for its agriculture and animal husbandry programs (which is earned it the nickname "Cow-tech").  And most of the east side of the state is considered "Cougar Country."  And the Cougar fans (or simply "Cougars") support their "Cougs" come hell or high water or losing seasons or whatever may come.  Even as a UW alum and supporter and fan, I have to admit the Cougs are more virulent in their support of their school.  The potato storage pictured at right is an example (this is located along a major east-west highway in Eastern Washington).

And I have to admit, the WSU alumni are more supportive.  For example, there was a competition that the alumni who donated the most money to Habitat for Humanity got their flag to fly at the top of the Space Needle during the week of the Apple Cup, the annual rivalry football game between the two schools.  The Cougs won and not but a small margin.

University of Washington LogoSo I live in Cougar Country but I'm a "Husky."  And I'm not quiet about it.  I have a big purple W on the back window of my car (Husky's colors are purple and gold) and University of Washington licence plates.  I often wear Husky T-shirts and polos.  And I never lose a chance to tweak some Cougar about their team (assuming the Huskies win the Apple Cup as they did this year).  And Cougars never fail to tease me if the Huskies don't win the Apple Cup (like last year).

But even in Seattle (home of UW) the aura of support for the Huskies is nothing like it is in Eastern Washington for the Cougs.  It's pervasive with crimson clothes, license plates, and the WSU logo (see above) everywhere.  In fact, I might be (due to my rebellious streak) more supportive of UW than I otherwise would be because I'm so steeped in WSU support.

But it's all in fun.  I've yet to meet a Coug who couldn't take good-natured ribbing about their team.  And if a Coug gets smart with me I just smile and point out how the Cougars "couged" their first bowl game in 10 years.  And I'm looking forward to Friday's Fight Hunger Bowl, when the Huskies will be playing the Cougars (of BYU).

Updated Website

I have updated my website to include a exclusive and exciting excerpt from my forth-coming novel, Gods of Strife .  Also on my website are the "buy links" for all of my books that are currently available.  So go check it out: www.sevantownsend.com!

Drivers and "Motor Vehicle Operators"

The other day I pulled into Starbucks' parking lot and I saw an attractive car I didn't recognize.  Which, of course, caught my eye.  On closer inspection I saw the Toyota logo and the Camry nameplate.  I was surprised.  For years Camrys have been what Car and Driver described as "aggressively bland."  But it must have worked for them because for years it has been the best selling passenger motor vehicle in the U.S.  But now that Hyundai and Kia (owned by Hyundai) are putting out very pretty cars, perhaps Toyota has decided it better keep up.

Doesn't change my opinion of the Camry as a "transportation appliance."

There are, in my opinion, three types of motor vehicles on the road and two type of motor vehicle operators.

The three types of vehicles are:
Utility vehiclesTransportation appliancesCarsUtility vehicles are vehicles designed to do a certain job.  Trucks, pickup trucks, delivery vans, etc. are utility vehicles.  Sports utility vehicles (SUVs) were once in the category exclusively but have migrated into category 2.

Transportation appliances are vehicles that are designed to get you from point at to point be with
Toyota Priusthe least travail.  These include: SUVs, minivans, almost every vehicle sold by Toyota and Subaru in the US.  (Exceptions are the Scion FR-S, Lexus LFA, Subaru BRZ (which is the same vehicle as the Scion FR-S), and the Subaru WRX).  The Toyota Prius is the ultimate transportation appliance, designed solely around getting good fuel mileage.  The people who are behind the steering wheel of these transportation appliances are "motor vehicle operators" (and often the most clueless people on the road).

Cars are vehicles that are fun, a joy to drive, bring a smile to your face with their looks, performance, and handling (yes, all three; a good looking Camry is still a transportation appliance).  These cars do not have to be high-powered (although that helps) and they don't have to be small.  A Chrysler 300C with the V-8 Hemi is huge, but it is fun to drive and therefore a car.  And cars tend to have "drivers" behind the wheel.  These are people who take an active part in operating their vehicle.  They know it's limits (because they've tested them) and it's capabilities (because they've used them).  They pay attention to the road (not the radio or their cell phone), they don't think driving slow equates to safety more than driving aware.

Of course, some cars are driven by motor vehicle operators who don't know what they have, and some drivers are forced behind the wheel of a utility vehicle or a transportation appliance and gaze lustfully upon the Ford Mustang beside them at the red light.

I have, in my life, owned one transportation appliance, a minivan to hold my three sons (and have some separation between them).  Even then I pushed the limits (admittedly low) of that vehicle.

Next time you drive, look around, see if you can spot the drivers and the motor vehicle operators.  The former will be in the left lane going under the speed limit in a Subaru.

The Future of Husky Football

It's been a while since head football coach Steve Sarkisian announced he was leaving the University of Washington for USC.  In the meantime, former Husky quarterback and current QB coach, Marques Tuiasosopo has been named interim head coach and will coach the Dawgs in the Fight Hunger Bowl.  Which I don't understand because UW announced not long after naming Tuiasosopo interim head coach that Boise State University head coach Chris Petersen will be the new head coach of the Huskies.

Things seem to be in carefully hidden turmoil on the Husky sidelines.  Sarkisian is poaching a great deal of the assistant coaching staff to take to USC with him.  I haven't seen any instance where Petersen is bring coaches from BSU.  And the future of Tuiasosopo is up in the air after the bowl game.

I am, to be honest, not completely happy with the choice of Petersen to coach the Huskies.  Petersen's record as head coach is 92–12.  But at least two of those 12 losses came at the hands of the Huskies.  The BSU Broncos are in the Mountain West conference.  That conference has never been strong nor very respected as far as I can tell.  Looking at it this year, there is one ranked team in the Mountain West (Fresno State at #20) and only five teams have winning records and only six are bowl eligible (out of 12 teams).  Compare with the Pac-12 where Petersen will now be playing.  Nine teams are going to bowls and five are ranked, including Stanford ant #5.

And I don't think BSU has ever played Oregon or Stanford, something UW does every year.  My worry is Petersen may have been great in the Mountain West but will be over his head in the Pac-12.  Playing out of his league, or conference.

They say Petersen is a great recruiter, which is good because apparently Sarkisian is also dragging recruits to USC from UW.  Petersen is said to be able to find the diamond in the rough where others just see rough.  And I would think recruiting to UW would be easier then BSU ("Hey, you want to go to Seattle and UW that gets national exposure, or Boise and BSU and labor in obscurity?").  But I am cautiously hopeful that Petersen will prove me wrong and be a great head coach.  Of course, I was hopeful that Tyrone Willingham would be a great coach, and he nearly destroyed the team.

And since Tuiasosopo is coaching the Dawgs through their bowl game, we won't see Petersen's work until next fall.  That's a long wait.

Fun with Numbers

I know there are people who hate math.  I see their posts on Facebook.  And some talk about how story problems are, to them, incomprehensible.  To which I say, "Life is a story problem."  In engineering, every problem is a story problem. 

I don't understand not liking math because I do like math.  I don't really love it because I'm not really good at it.  I'm slow and have to think a lot.  I took math in college up through differential equations which I loved because it took all that math (algebra, calculus, etc.) and applied it to the real world.  If someone asks me why they have to study algebra I say (if I'm feeling snarky), "So you can study calculus and God speaks calculus."

It's been 20 years since I graduated college (almost) and because I haven't used my calculus and differential equations, I've pretty much forgotten how to do them.  I know the principles involved, but to sit down and do a derivative or an integral, forget it!  But I still enjoy math.

One area of math were a lot of people have misconceptions is statistics.  That is probably because there's "luck" involved, they think.  You've heard, perhaps, that the lottery is tax on those bad at math?  Well, specifically, it's a tax on those bad at statistics.  According to the Powerball page the odds of winning the big prize are 1 in 175,000,000.  That's one ticket out of 175,000,000.  The odds of flipping a coin and getting heads is 50% (1/2).  The odds of winning the Powerball is 0.0000000057% (1/175,000,000).  That's close enough to zero to basically be zero.

The odds of being hit by lightning sometime in your life is 1 in 3,000.  So you are 58,333 times more likely to be hit by lightning in your lifetime than to win the Powerball lottery with one ticket.  Or, to make the odds of being hit by lightning the same as winning the Powerball, you'd need to buy 58,333 tickets in your lifetime.

So don't play the lottery.

Powerball is different for a lot of lotteries because of the power ball.  But if a lottery is where you pick six numbers out of, oh, 50, then any six numbers have the same (low) odds of winning.  Using 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 will win just as much as any other six-number combination (including your grandchildren's ages).  It doesn't matter which numbers you play, you'll still lose.

Another area people don't understand statistics is with lucky runs.  The odds of flipping a coin and getting heads is 50% (1/2).  The odds of doing that three times in a row is 12.5% (1/2 x 1/2 x 1/2).  That means if you flip a coin three times 1,000 times, 125 times you'll get three heads in a row (or three tails).  So on that fourth throw, what are the odds of getting a heads?  It's 50%. Coins don't have memory.  Before the first flip the odds of flipping a coin and getting heads four times is 6.25%.  But after three flips (all heads) the odds the next flip will be heads is 50%.  Most people don't believe that (bar bet time!).