Pat's Mary Sue self-insert in
The Ark, summarised from four chapters:
Everyone hates me because of some nothing my family did centuries ago (that actually is a big deal, but whatever), not because of any of my own actions. Sure, they potentially endangered the rest of humanity through their own selfishness, but the problem was fixed without their help, so get off my back already. (This has no bearing on how I feel about reparations, though, if any blacks are reading.)
Except ignore that last part - everyone loves me because I'm just so good at sports. Sports sports sports. I'm not an over-compensation for the author's real world lack of ability at all.
Women love it when you insult them, tell them they make your dick hard, and make a point of
writing in your book when they make a mistake, taking the chance to correct them condescendingly and prove you're smarter and more tolerant than they are. They pretend not to, but they do. (I believe there will be a large number of lines in this book that are euphemisms that could be replaced by, 'She made/You make my dick hard'. A
lot.)
Men, manly men, care about sports and sex with women. That's pretty much it. Oh, some science as well - because they're
stealthy geeks, not obvious ones. Jobs or any other responsibilities? Eh, only if they don't get in the way of the other things.
Guaranteed he saw that past tense tell in another book or TV show. Undoubtedly something old, because it's barely used anymore for being so obvious. Pat thinks it's so clever he couldn't wait to put it in the first chance he got, to show off how smart his protagonist is in his very first conversation with one of the obvious villains. He didn't absorb nearly anything else, but he remembered that one.
Also I'm pretty certain that you don't need to know any Pat lore to get these vibes from the book. But it brings out the flavour when you know the details behind the incredibly mediocre product. It's pretty much what I expected - blandly below-average rather than the aggressive shittiness of a Chuck Wendig, but with constant small irritations and mistakes. Alone, they would be fine, but just keep building up into a bumbling mess of worthlessness.
@Boston Brand - how was the rest of the con? Talk to any of the other panelists on with Pat, or see him with his empty signing line? Any other lolcow or potential lolcow interactions? I noticed a Cat Rambo cancelation, for example.