Hi all!
This week I'm going to talk about the book series that made me want to write, and to have a career as an author. For those of you who know me, I'm sure you already know what I'm about to say.
Yes, it was Warriors (or Warriors Cats) by Erin Hunter.
As a cat lover, the premise of feline characters drew me in, but the storylines kept me interested. I loved the idea of cats having their own society out in the forest, with their hierarchy and ways of living. They also have a lot of drama, which makes for great reading. I've cried at so many character deaths and laughed at so many of their blunders across the years. I even contributed my own Warriors fanfiction on their forums, which ended up being pretty popular on their site for a while.
Yes, the stories were bad.
But people loved them, and it made me want to write more.
It didn't start there however, it started when I was about nine or ten, when I had just finished reading my first few Warriors books. I decided that I would re-write the entire first book with the same plot line and characters, but add in my own character as well. She was terrible, she was a prissy Mary-Sue who could shoot lightning, but it got me into writing. My grandfather used to read what I had written after every chapter and pushed me to keep going, so I did.
I had a whole host of favourite characters, but the one that stood out to me the most was Russetfur. I loved her attitude and her loyalty. Over the years she would gradually pop up in more books, but I always wanted to read more of her. So, at sixteen I went on the Warrior Cats forums and started writing 'poll stories' where your fans could decide what happens next with a character based off Russetfur. Although the cats couldn't shoot lightning bolts, they were representative of five elements: fire, water, air, earth and poison. (Now do you see where the elements for Elemental Dragons are starting to come in?)
Although I loved writing about cats, I didn't think people would take me seriously if I was solely a cat author. So, I decided that I would write about broad subjects, but every book that I write will have a cat or a feline in it. So far, the cats are:
Elemental Dragons - Normie (cat)
Celestial Plague - Raya (panther shifter)
Mute - Solaris (cat)
Years - unnamed (cat made of solar flares)
Curse of Anubis - Bastet (cat goddess)
I still read books in the Warriors series now, and have an entire bookshelf dedicated to displaying my collection. If I hadn't started reading the books, I may never have got into writing. Without them, I'm not sure where I'd be today.
That's it for this week, I hope you enjoyed reading! Next week I'm going to collect all my quotes from Halfway that I've been posting Twitter throughout the month to give everyone a chance to read the ones they may have missed.
See you next week!
