To Fan Fiction or Not to Fan Fiction? : a book worm's guilty pleasure

Have you ever gotten to the end of a book or even watched a movie, that ended and you still wanted more? You just have this feeling or curiosity as to what happens next, especially if there's sequels coming? Well, recently I decided to look up some fan fiction. To my delight, I found out that it's quite a big thing actually. Many people are online publishing free fan fiction for people to read all over the world.
I found two websites in particular that were very good as far as the types of stories I was interested in reading. The first, I have to admit, was harrypotterfanfiction.com. I found this website when I suddenly got a craving for more Harry Potter but having read all the books several times and owning all the released movies(that I'd seen many times), I wanted to see what else was out there. In popped the embarrassing words, FAN FICTION. Duh, duh, dun... LOL. Most people believe that all fan fiction is just fluffy non-sense that is an insult to the original author's work. I had this same thought in mind when I went searching. I was embarrassed that I was looking for more "fakes". Yet, I was under a false impression. Fan fiction is not ALL horrible. Yes, some of it isn't great and some is down right awful. But when you go to these websites, they give you the opportunity to tell the author of the fan fics what you think. So I didn't hesitate to give bad and good reviews. As I kept reading, and reading, and reading... I realized that the majority of the stories I picked to read were not too bad and that I was addicted to reading them. My world was changed. Suddenly, harrypotterfanfiction.com wasn't enough. What other fan fiction was out there? For what other books that I love? That's when I found fanfiction.net. Ya, it's a .net! .Nets are always better than .coms in my opinion. They just seem more trust worthy. (idk why, so don't ask.) At fanfiction.net, they have not only fan fiction for books, but also for movies, tv shows, animated shows, comic books, video games, etc... *GASP* OH YEAH!!! JACK POT!!! =D haha. Anyways, first I checked into the "books". There are sooo many books and I was happy to find not only more Harry Potter fan fiction, but fan fiction for several other books I have read and loved. (Matched by Ally Condie, The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini, I am Number Four by Patticus Lore...just to name a few). Then I had to check out fan fiction for some of my favorite tv shows that are no longer aired. (Dark Angel, Roswell, Little Men,Legacy...) Then onto the movies where there was some great fan fics too. (Alien/Predator, 10 Things I Hate About You, American Outlaws, etc...) It is an amazing website.
So after going crazy in love with all these fan fictions, I just wasn't feeling completely satisfied. I thought to myself, I just haven't found any stories that tell it like I imagined it could have happened differently. Well, duh, of course not. Which leads me to my biggest question. To Fan Fiction or Not to Fan Fiction? That is what I'm deciding between. Though as a writer, it excites me to think about doing, I'm worried about it demeaning my writing skills. Not to say that I think fan fiction authors don't have writing skills... It's just... IDK. I'm torn between putting my fan fiction works out there for everyone to read or not. I AM writing them, that's not what I'm stuck on. They have to come out now, now that I've entertained them. Tell me what you think of fan fiction. What do you think about writing them? Do you write some yourselves? What kind of fan fiction would interest you the most in reading? Let me know. :)
~T

Websites mentioned: www.harrypotterfanfiction.com , www.fanfiction.net

I'll be adding these links to my favorites links on my blog soon as well.

P.S. Sorry for not posting any new book reviews. I have been burned out on new books and plus as you can tell from this post, that I have been reading fan fiction and writing my own lately too. I'll try to get into a new book here soon. I promise.

Star of the Morning by Lynn Kurland

I would never had found this book except for this wonderful book reviewer who blogs on http://chachic.wordpress.com/ . She is the only book reviewer I actually read. She reviewed this book and it sounded good, so I picked it up when I saw it at the book store.

Legend has it that only the two magical swords held in trust by Neroche's rulers can defeat the evil in the black mage...and never have they been more needed, as the mage's assault begins to cover the kingdom in darkness.

It was very easy to become engrossed in this story. AT 327 pages long, it took me two days to read. Introducing the King of Neroche before his archmage brother was a very good move by Kurland. I would not have liked the King at all if I had met his brother first. I like how she uses this also with introducing the pair to the main female, Morgan. Morgan is a mystery to these Neroche men, as well as herself. Yet, in their travels, they learn about her as she also learns about herself. This book is the 1st of a series. I would consider this 1st book as, the journey. The next book, I'm sure will be, the plan. My only complaint would be that everything was too predictable up until the very end. The synopsis on the back of the book gives away too much of the story line and ruins the surprises that could have been throughout the book for the reader. That is why I did not recite the whole synopsis for you here. ;) Over all though, I consider this a very good fantasy novel. It has rich characters, a nice journey and a twitterpating romance. :)
I give this book 4/5 Stars! Missing 1 star because of the spoiling back cover synopsis and the predictability.