Erin Hunter

Erin Hunter is a pseudonym used by the authors Kate Cary, Cherith Baldry, Gillian Philip, Inbali Iserles, and Tui Sutherland, along with editor Victoria Holmes.^[1] Each of the authors play a different role: while Holmes creates the storyline of each book, Cary, Baldry, and Sutherland take turns writing the books!^[1] Sutherland joined the group later and writes mostly for the Seekers series; she has written fewer Warriors books, with all of them being field guides.^[2] In addition, another person who is not an Erin Hunter writes the manga: Dan Jolley.^[3] The newest addition to the group is Inbali Iserles, who writes Survivors under the pseudonym as well.

History

In 2003, HarperCollins asked Victoria Holmes to write a fantasy series about feral cats, but, not being a reader of fantasy, she was less than enthusiastic.^[4] After writing one storyline, Kate Cary was brought in to write the book as Holmes went behind the scenes to supervise details and edit the book. Then on the third book, Forest of Secrets Cherith Baldry joined Erin Hunter.^[5] Later, after Sutherland wrote the first Warriors field guide, she became the fourth Erin Hunter.^[2]

The name Erin Hunter was chosen for a few reasons. First, if the authors used all of their own names, the books would be placed in different places in a library, making them hard to find. Second, they were trying to pick a surname that would place the books very close to the Redwall series by Brian Jacques, which was, at the time, the book series with the closest plot to Warriors.^[6] One of the authors suggested "Hunter", and the others found that it was "perfect" because not only did it place the book series close to Jacques, but it evokes the image of a cat.^[6] One of Victoria Holmes's favorite given names is Erin, and it was accepted for being a strong, Celtic name and "not particularly girly".^[6]

Authors

Victoria Holmes

Holmes was the original author of the series with HarperCollins requesting her to write the series.^[4] After inviting Kate Cary to do the actual writing of the book, she moved behind the scenes to help edit and supervise the details.^[5]

Holmes grew up on a farm in England. She was born on July 7, 1974, and learned how to ride horses at age two. Later she attended Oxford University. There, the buildings "inspired an interest in history." She now lives in London where she works as the editor for the series.^[7]

On April 5, 2011, Bookperk, a site that offers special deals on books, ran a special for signed copies of Warriors: Omen of the Stars #4: Sign of the Moon. Because Erin Hunter is not an actual person, these books were signed by Victoria Holmes on behalf of the created person.^[8]

Kate Cary

Kate was the second author brought on board to write for the series. Holmes chose Cary to write the first book after Holmes had finished one storyline. In the first series she wrote Into the Wild, Fire and Ice and Rising Storm.^[5] In the second series (The New Prophecy) she only wrote Dawn, the third book.^[9] In the third series (Power Of Three) she wrote The Sight, Dark River and Eclipse.^[10] In the most recent series (Omen of The Stars) she wrote Fading Echoes and The Last Hope.^[11]

She was born in England on November 4, 1967. She later moved to Scotland where she lived for 12 years before going back to England where she currently resides. Besides the Warriors series she has also written the books Bloodline and the sequel Reckoning.^[12]

Cherith Baldry

Cherith was the third author brought in to the Erin Hunter team. Holmes invited her to join on the third book, Forest of Secrets after seeing her writing style feeling that it was similar to Kate Cary's.^[5] She wrote the rest of the books that Kate Cary did not write. Since there were only 12 books of Cary's.

Tui Sutherland

Sutherland was born in Caracas, Venezuela, but now lives in the United States which makes her the only non-British author of the series. She now lives in Boston and first wrote the field guide Secrets of the Clans.^[7] Sutherland was an editor of the Warriors series for HarperCollins until she quit editing to become a full-time writer.^[13] Victoria Holmes approached her and asked if she would like to become a writer for the Erin Hunter team, and Sutherland accepted.^[13]

Gillian Philip

Philip is the author of The Empty City and A Hidden Enemy, the first two books in the Survivors series. She lives in the northeast Scottish Highlands with her husband, two children, three dogs, two cats, and hamster.^[14] Philip has toured the United States twice as the face of the Erin Hunter responsible for "Survivors". In addition to Survivors, she has written the Rebel Angels series (Firebrand, Bloodstone, Wolfsbane and the forthcoming Icefall); the Darke Academy series, and young adult novels including Bad Faith, Crossing The Line and The Opposite of Amber.

Works

Warriors

Seekers

Seekers (Original Series)

1. The Quest Begins (2008) (Tui Sutherland)
2. Great Bear Lake (2009) (Cherith Baldry)
3. Smoke Mountain (2009) (Tui Sutherland)
4. The Last Wilderness (2010) (Cherith Baldry)
5. Fire in the Sky (2010) (Tui Sutherland)
6. Spirits in the Stars (2011) (Cherith Baldry)

Seekers (Return to the Wild)

1. Island of Shadows (2012) (Cherith Baldry)
2. The Melting Sea (2012) (Tui Sutherland)
3. Rivers of Lost Bears (2013) (Cherith Baldry)
4. Forest of Wolves (2014)
5. The Burning Horizon (2015)

Seekers Manga

1. Toklo's Story (2010)
2. Kallik's Adventure (2011)
3. "Lusa's Tale" (cancelled)

Survivors

1. The Empty City (2012) (Gillian Philip)
2. A Hidden Enemy (2013) (Gillian Philip)
3. Darkness Falls (2013) (Inbali Iserles)
4. The Broken Path (2014)^[18]
5. The Endless Lake (2014)
6. Storm of Dogs (February 10, 2015)

Book development

With four authors, there are specific roles with each author. First, Holmes, who acts as the editor sends in the preliminary script and outline to Cary, Baldry, or Sutherland, depending on who writes the book. Then, the author develops Holmes' ideas into a single book which is sent back to Holmes for one last check over and edit. After she finishes, the author fixes it up and gets ready to publish it.^[19]

For the Survivors series, there is a different approach taken. The whole team creates a detailed story outline and develops the characters together, and then the actual writing gets done by a single author, who is allowed to change something significant about the plot or characters if they feel that a certain character would not act a specific way.^[20]

Writing style

With four different authors, Holmes has said that "[the book] "sounds" like Erin, because she has a very distinctive voice". She compares the style of the authors to a different language where a stray line or word can stick out. Holmes says that she is in charge of editing and making sure that the book sounds correct.^[19] The books are all told in a third person narrative though the point of view changes with each series. The first series, the original Warriors series, followed Firepaw. Then in the second series, The New Prophecy, the view switched between Firepaw's, now Firestar's, two daughters, Squirrelpaw and Leafpaw, in addition to Tigerstar's son, Brambleclaw, and Graystripe's son and daughter Stormfur and Feathertail in Moonrise.^[5] In the Power of Three series, it goes back between Firestar's grandchildren Lionblaze, Jayfeather, and Hollyleaf. In the Omen of the Stars series, it goes between Lionblaze, Jayfeather, Dovepaw, and Ivypaw. In Night Whispers, it also includes the perspective of Flametail of ShadowClan, which is the only time it has been out of ThunderClan in the four main series since Moonrise. In the Seekers series, the point of view alternates between the three bears, Lusa, Kallik and Toklo until The Last Wilderness, where Ujurak's point of view is added in with the other three.^[21] In the Survivors series, the point of view is focused on Lucky, the Lone Dog turned Pack leader.

References

v t e Erin Hunter's Warriors series Main series Warriors: The Original Series Into the Wild (2003) Fire and Ice (2003) Forest of Secrets (2003) Rising Storm (2004) A Dangerous Path (2004) The Darkest Hour (2004) Warriors: The New Prophecy Midnight (2005) Moonrise (2005) Dawn (2005) Starlight (2006) Twilight (2006) Sunset (2007) Warriors: Power of Three The Sight (2007) Dark River (2007) Outcast (2008) Eclipse (2008) Long Shadows (2008) Sunrise (2009) Warriors: Omen of the Stars The Fourth Apprentice (2009) Fading Echoes (2010) Night Whispers (2010) Sign of the Moon (2011) The Forgotten Warrior (2011) The Last Hope (2012) Warriors: Dawn of the Clans The Sun Trail (2013) Thunder Rising (2013) The First Battle (2014) The Blazing Star (2014) Other literature Super Editions Firestar's Quest (2007) Bluestar's Prophecy (2009) SkyClan's Destiny (2010) Crookedstar's Promise (2011) Yellowfang's Secret (2012) Tallstar's Revenge (2013) Bramblestar's Storm (2014) Field Guides Secrets of the Clans (2007) Cats of the Clans (2008) Code of the Clans (2009) Battles of the Clans (2010) Enter the Clans (2012) The Ultimate Guide (2013) OEL Manga Graystripe's trilogy The Lost Warrior (2007) Warrior's Refuge (2007) Warrior's Return (2008) Tigerstar and Sasha Into the Woods (2008) Escape from the Forest (2009) Return to the Clans (2009) Ravenpaw's Path Shattered Peace (2009) A Clan in Need (2010) The Heart of a Warrior (2010) SkyClan and the Stranger The Rescue (2011) Beyond the Code (2011) After the Flood (2012) Other The Rise of Scourge (2008) Plays After Sunset: We Need to Talk (2007) Brightspirit's Mercy (2007) Short stories Spottedleaf's Honest Answer The Clans Decide After Sunset: The Right Choice? The Elders' Concern The Clans Decide Novellas Hollyleaf's Story (2012) Mistystar's Omen (2012) Cloudstar's Journey (2013) The Untold Stories (2013) Tigerclaw's Fury (2013) Leafpool's Wish (2013) Clans/Characters ThunderClan RiverClan WindClan ShadowClan SkyClan Tribe of Rushing Water BloodClan Ancient Cats Characters outside clans Authors Erin Hunter Kate Cary Cherith Baldry Tui Sutherland Victoria Holmes Related people Wayne McLoughlin Dan Jolley James L. Barry Related series Seekers Survivors WikiProject

v t e Erin Hunter's Seekers series Main series Seekers: The Original Series The Quest Begins Great Bear Lake Smoke Mountain The Last Wilderness Fire In The Sky Spirits in the Stars Seekers: Return To The Wild Island Of Shadows The Melting Sea River Of Lost Bears Forest of Wolves Other literature OEL Manga Toklo's Story Kallik's Adventure Lusa's Tale Authors Erin Hunter Kate Cary Cherith Baldry Tui Sutherland Victoria Holmes Related series Warriors Survivors WikiProject

v t e Erin Hunter's Survivors series Survivors: The Original Series The Empty City (2012) A Hidden Enemy (2013) Darkness Falls (2013) The Broken Path (2014) Authors Erin Hunter Kate Cary Cherith Baldry Tui Sutherland Victoria Holmes Related series Warriors Seekers WikiProject