Dunno if this has been linked before

[KevinEvans]

(Grin),
The story mentioned is finished, sold, payed for, and published. (GG13) The one "We" (my wife is my co writer) are working on, is Marlon goes to Denmark to set up banking relations, and gets conned into setting up a LTA postal service. The story is a bit of a jump for us, as we are being allowed to use a significant person (King Christian) from the main story thread, as one of our protagonists. Our biggest problem is getting the "Voice" right, it is a little nerve twisting, meeting the standard set by the Primary Authors.
Regards,
Kevin


Gad, I am gratefull for spell checkers......

You know, I was just about to point out that this premise sounded exactly like that of 1632. Imagine my consternation when I do a quick re-read of your post to find out that that IS the story you're working on LOL!

[Qualapec]

I'm no writer, but I thought a "Mary Sue" was a character based (at least loosely) on an idealized self-portrait by the author.  Often similar background, perhaps superficially similar appearance, gets away with stuff the author wishes s/he could, etc. 

Along the same lines, Mary Sue is little Miss Perfect - always has the right skill for the particular task, always knows the crucial piece of obscure lore to figure out the mystery etc. 

In a way, yes. That is basically it. But remember this kind of test basically just goes over a laundry list of character traits similar to a so called Mary Sue. But personally as far as I'm concerned the character CAN be all the things to mentioned but if the character is written correctly it really doesn't matter. Say she/he has the answer to every problem, right skills, etc. But maybe they can't access that knowledge whenever they want too, or maybe they have the answer to those problems or obscure folk tales because they have a background in that kind of thing.

So, basically a Mary Sue is somebody who has those traits without the characterization to back it up.