- Robin Hobb, author of The Farseer Trilogy, explains why fan fiction is disastrous to an emerging writer's creativity. Read Robin Hobb's rant here.

- David Wellington's new serial blog novel is called Thirteen Bullets. As with the Monster trilogy, new chapters are posted every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The first chapter was posted on 9 January 2006, and the usual commenting suspects are along for the ride.

- In 2004, David Wellington started a serialised blog-novel called Monster Island. Wellington posted a new chapter three times a week, allowing himself no re-writes (only correcting obvious typos). For a novel, Monster Island is very good - for a draft, it is fabulous. Following an epidemic that has turned most humans into walking dead, a UN weapons inspector is forced to return to New York to steal antiretroviral drugs - to trade for citizenship for himself and his daughter into the only semi-safe country remaining in the world: Somalia. Meanwhile a medical student decides to join the undead rather than be eaten - but he first takes steps to preserve his brain while he dies. Monster Island is a well-plotted story, with memorable characters, excellent villains, and many juicy twists. Wellington has since written two follow up serialisations in the Monster trilogy: Monster Nation, which is a prequel to Monster Island, and Monster Planet, which closes the trilogy.

Update - Dave Wellington has received a book deal through Thunder's Mouth Press. Monster Island is due for release in April 2006, but is available already as a pre-order from Amazon.com. Congratulations Dave!

- Sick of wading through Squidoo lenses looking for the good stuff. Lensroll is a peer-voted listing of the "cream" of Squidoo lenses, while The Isle of Squid is a selection of hand-reviewed Squidoo lenses.