The Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)

This is the best writer written defense of fan-fiction that I've read. I rarely read fan-fiction because of the slush pile problem but have read sparely in a few of the fandoms over the year. Just recently I read a novella set after Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle which was lovely.

I find the outrage particularly ironic considering there are some published novels that are so derivative that one can see the stuffing leaking out of the seams of the plot and characters.