Post by Austin (eulalia) on Aug 31, 2009 19:34:05 GMT -5
AuthorTracker :: Erin Hunter
Hi everyone,
I'm going to start with What I Have Learned this month: Alas, it is that I possess neither the grace nor the coordination to ride a mountain-board down a steep hill. My brother persuaded me to try out his kite-board (minus the kite, which makes it a giant all-terrain skateboard) over the weekend. I made it halfway down the hill and felt inordinately proud of myself, but then the wheels hit a bump and my brain instructed me to step off. In fact, I cartwheeled spectacularly through the air and landed on my back with the board careering to the bottom of the hill without me. Humiliating, much? And far more painful than it should have been, which makes me feel terribly old. I'm covered in bruises, I've wrenched my left shoulder, and my neck feels like it's in a grip of steel. I used to fall off horses all the time and bounce straight back to my feet. I guess I'm just not cut off for cool wheel-based sports.
So it's quite a relief to be back home, tapping away at the storyline for SkyClan's Destiny (next year's Super Edition) and thinking about the final book in this series of Seekers. I'm sitting on a nice soft cushion and have some soothing herbal cream to apply when my bruises get too sore. The gorgeous sunshine of July has vanished so I'm not even tempted to flop on the grass outside. In fact, we've had so much rain that I'm back to washing Missy's paws every time we've been for a walk. Who stole my summer?!
Okay, who's read Bluestar's Prophecy already? I've forced myself to peek at Amazon and other bookselling websites to check out the reviews and so far there are lots of gold stars, PHEW. My expectations are far, far higher with this book because I truly believe it's one of our best ever. It was a joy to work on with Kate, and I think we've ended up with exactly the book that I wanted, which doesn't always happen, believe me. I always know a story is going well when the characters start to speak for themselves, which is what happened with Thrushpelt in this instance. I'm not going to give away any details, but his role was so minor as to be almost unnoticeable when I first bashed out the storyline. Only when he stepped up to the plate and made Bluefur an incredibly generous offer (you'll know what I mean if you've read the book!) did I suspect that he should have been more important right from the start. I went back and changed several of the earlier scenes so that we'd be aware of him throughout Bluefur's career, and he turned out to be a really remarkable cat.
Luckily, Kate is beyond patient when I fiddle with bits of the story that she's already written. So I make a start on the storyline, send it to her so she can begin the first draft, then I keep adding bits more every day, hopefully keeping just ahead of her. Which means of course that if I change my mind about something in the first part of the story, or want to add more information in an early chapter, she has to go back and rewrite. The fact that Kate, Cherith and Tui are so willing to work in this fluid, back-and-forth way is a major part of Erin's success!
I've also been taking peeks at the Official Warriors and Seekers Message Boards at www.forums.warriorcats.com
, and it's great to see that so many of you have already taken part in a discussion or raised a question on the Q&A forum. We're thrilled to be able to provide this safe environment for all your chat. And we're listening, I promise!
Keep visiting the www.warriorscats.com
site because next month you'll finally get to see and download the rules, character sheets, and a practice mission for the Warriors Adventure Game! In the game, you'll get to create your own cat, choose a Clan, and, along with your friends, play through various missions. I've had a sneak preview of the Warriors Adventure Game and I know you're going to love it.
If you're on summer vacation at the moment, have a happy, safe time. And if you could parcel up some sunshine and mail it to me in the dreary UK, that would be lovely!
With love and good wishes,
Erin x
Hi everyone,
I'm going to start with What I Have Learned this month: Alas, it is that I possess neither the grace nor the coordination to ride a mountain-board down a steep hill. My brother persuaded me to try out his kite-board (minus the kite, which makes it a giant all-terrain skateboard) over the weekend. I made it halfway down the hill and felt inordinately proud of myself, but then the wheels hit a bump and my brain instructed me to step off. In fact, I cartwheeled spectacularly through the air and landed on my back with the board careering to the bottom of the hill without me. Humiliating, much? And far more painful than it should have been, which makes me feel terribly old. I'm covered in bruises, I've wrenched my left shoulder, and my neck feels like it's in a grip of steel. I used to fall off horses all the time and bounce straight back to my feet. I guess I'm just not cut off for cool wheel-based sports.
So it's quite a relief to be back home, tapping away at the storyline for SkyClan's Destiny (next year's Super Edition) and thinking about the final book in this series of Seekers. I'm sitting on a nice soft cushion and have some soothing herbal cream to apply when my bruises get too sore. The gorgeous sunshine of July has vanished so I'm not even tempted to flop on the grass outside. In fact, we've had so much rain that I'm back to washing Missy's paws every time we've been for a walk. Who stole my summer?!
Okay, who's read Bluestar's Prophecy already? I've forced myself to peek at Amazon and other bookselling websites to check out the reviews and so far there are lots of gold stars, PHEW. My expectations are far, far higher with this book because I truly believe it's one of our best ever. It was a joy to work on with Kate, and I think we've ended up with exactly the book that I wanted, which doesn't always happen, believe me. I always know a story is going well when the characters start to speak for themselves, which is what happened with Thrushpelt in this instance. I'm not going to give away any details, but his role was so minor as to be almost unnoticeable when I first bashed out the storyline. Only when he stepped up to the plate and made Bluefur an incredibly generous offer (you'll know what I mean if you've read the book!) did I suspect that he should have been more important right from the start. I went back and changed several of the earlier scenes so that we'd be aware of him throughout Bluefur's career, and he turned out to be a really remarkable cat.
Luckily, Kate is beyond patient when I fiddle with bits of the story that she's already written. So I make a start on the storyline, send it to her so she can begin the first draft, then I keep adding bits more every day, hopefully keeping just ahead of her. Which means of course that if I change my mind about something in the first part of the story, or want to add more information in an early chapter, she has to go back and rewrite. The fact that Kate, Cherith and Tui are so willing to work in this fluid, back-and-forth way is a major part of Erin's success!
I've also been taking peeks at the Official Warriors and Seekers Message Boards at www.forums.warriorcats.com
, and it's great to see that so many of you have already taken part in a discussion or raised a question on the Q&A forum. We're thrilled to be able to provide this safe environment for all your chat. And we're listening, I promise!
Keep visiting the www.warriorscats.com
site because next month you'll finally get to see and download the rules, character sheets, and a practice mission for the Warriors Adventure Game! In the game, you'll get to create your own cat, choose a Clan, and, along with your friends, play through various missions. I've had a sneak preview of the Warriors Adventure Game and I know you're going to love it.
If you're on summer vacation at the moment, have a happy, safe time. And if you could parcel up some sunshine and mail it to me in the dreary UK, that would be lovely!
With love and good wishes,
Erin x