Forest Felines Warrior Cat Updates and More

Yikes, summer has gotten the best of me. All that fun in the sun has kept me from posting for three weeks. So, here’s your update;

Erin Hunter has a released a new author tracker;

AuthorTracker :: Erin Hunter

Hi everyone,

July is upon us, which can mean only one thing: MY BIRTHDAY! Top of my wish list this year is a Friesian horse. I’ve seen some in a field close to my home and talked to their owners, and they are my Dream Horses in every way: tall, black, sturdy but graceful, and always impossibly shiny with flowing manes and tails. I have ridden horses all my life, but I’ve never had the honor of owning a purebred Friesian. Maybe one day…

The other exciting thing about July is that it means we’re just days away until SKYCLAN’S DESTINY and the final part of RAVENPAW’S PATH are published on August 3rd. Don’t forget to pre-order your copy from your local bookstore or online! Cherith and I had a lot of fun revisiting new SkyClan in the sandy gorge. We were so interested to see how the characters had developed over the six moons since FIRESTAR’S QUEST that I think we almost forgot these cats only exist in our imaginations! Sometimes I truly believe they are carrying on with their lives beyond the pages of the books. FIRESTAR’S QUEST was one of the most fun storylines to develop. Once I had the idea about the fifth Clan, and Firestar finding out in a cryptic message from Bluestar, the story seemed to write itself. My favorite scene is the battle with the rats, when the enemy is like a single river flowing around them, sharp-teethed and hostile.

I think I was hoping that SKYCLAN’S DESTINY would be similarly straightforward to come up with a plot, but in fact I spent a long time thinking about various dramatic things that could happen next to the beleaguered modern Clan. Once I started thinking along the lines of a Civil War, with conflicting ideas that threaten to destroy the foundations of the new community, things started to fall into place. I hope we have succeeded in giving SkyClan a satisfying second chapter to their courageous modern history!

I’m excited to hear your opinions on the Ravenpaw manga trilogy, too. This character was an obvious choice for a manga series; I promise I miss him as much as you do! I set out to give him a series of adventures that would prove he is a true warrior at heart-brave, loyal to Barley, and willing to fight for what he believes in-but by the time I finished the trio of storylines I realized that I had also created a passionate defence for Ravenpaw keeping his apprentice name. One the questions I am asked the most is, What would Ravenpaw’s warrior name have been? My answer is always the same: He was never going to have one because he isn’t suited to be a Clan warrior. However, it’s a bit more complicated than that, and if you read my introductions to each part of his manga trilogy, you’ll get more of an insight into why this issue became so important to me.

I haven’t succeeded in buying a house yet, but we are still very interested in the Coach House, with all its history and red-bricked charm. One unusual element is that part of the property is the home of a colony of Lesser Horseshoe Bats, which are very rare. As the cold weather arrives, they all decamp to the cellars of a large country house several miles away, where they hibernate peacefully until spring returns. They have been living in these two properties, for nearly three hundred years. The bats are gorgeous, about the size of plums with thick soft-looking fur and velvety wings. Generations and generations of them have been flying back and forth between their summer and winter quarters and theirs are the stories I would most like to hear! If I moved there, maybe they would inspire a new Erin Hunter series? 🙂

If you need some downtime from outdoor activities during the long vacation, don’t forget to pit your skills and wits against the Warriors-themed challenges at www.awesomeadventurebooks.com. All the games and activities are completely FREE, and I have no doubt that you will be far, far better than me. My scores on the bejewelled game (so pretty! So hard!) are shameful, I’m afraid.

And if you can’t bear the thought of going an entire month without a new Warriors or Seekers title, have you read BATTLES OF THE CLANS yet? It doesn’t only feature battles that have appeared in the series so far; there are lots of battles from before we met the four Clans, as well as some familiar encounters from a completely different point of view.

Have a safe and happy vacation, and don’t forget to wear sunscreen when you’re out on patrol!

With love and good wishes
Erin x

And the Browse Inside for SkyClan’s Destiny is out. (Click the title to view). And let me just say that the titles in SkyClan’s Destiny are horrific. Exhibit A; Ebonyclaw, Billystorm, Harveymoon, Rockshade, Bouncefire, Snookpaw (This is NOT Jersey Shore, people), Hunchfoot, and; this is not for young children or the faint of heart; Macgyver. It’s obviously a kittypet name, and, in that case, i’m mad at whatever human named their cat that. Hopefully I didn’t offend any Macgyver owners.

Update; the browse inside for the final Manga in the Ravenpaw trilogy is out! Click here to view it.

Enjoy your Browse Insides and summer vacations-

~Seedfur (who is still upset over the names in SkyClan’s Destiny)