I actually discovered Diana Gabaldon quite recently via audiobooks read by the deliciously voiced Jeff Woodman. I don't read her main series (which sound a lot like bad fanfiction to me - present day heroine finds herself transported to the past where she meets dashing Scottish soldier), but her Lord John Grey books are very entertaining - aristocrat and soldier in the 1750s has exciting adventures whilst dealing with being a closet homosexual in an era when he could be hanged for it. I'm not sure I would have enjoyed them if I'd read the text versions, but I could listen to Jeff Woodnam read the phone book and love every minute.

I find Gabaldon's attitude to fanfiction disappointing, though I can understand a lot of writers feeling that way. I'm of the opinion that I would take fanfiction as a tremendous compliement, but then it's possible my attitude might change if I was actually a published writer. Expressing that strong an opinion against it, though, has to be a pretty good way to alienate fans.