Hi everyone,
I'm back! Yes, one more tour survived, a few thousand more books signed (truly, is there a copy of Sunrise that doesn't have my small purple handwriting inside? :) ), and several dozen delicious home-baked cookies consumed in hotel rooms across the country. Huge, huge thank yous to everyone who turned out for an event! Each event has its own wonderfully unique atmosphere and volume level: Books & Books in Miami was serene and full of interesting questions (and some very useful information about the difference between the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, which is something I've wondered about for quite a while); Barnes & Noble in Frisco, TX, was packed to the rafters but managed to produce the most orderly large-scale signing line I've ever seen; and the crowd at Naperville, IL, left my ears ringing all night with their cheers and hoots when I first appeared. You're all really rather fabulous, did you know?
If you would like to catch up with my latest adventures on tour, or came to an event and want to find out if you earned a Special Purr, check out my diary at warriorcats.com. I post daily blogs on all my tours, so you don't need to feel like you're missing out on the cat-and bear-themed mayhem if I don't come close enough to meet you in person.
Do you have your copy of Seekers #3: Smoke Mountain yet? It launched on May 12th, and should be available in bookstores near you NOW. I really can't believe we're halfway through the series already! Actually, I can, because we're working on Seekers #5: Fire in the Sky at the moment, but it still seems not so long ago that we first started talking about branching away from cats. In Smoke Mountain, Toklo, Kallik, Lusa, and Ujurak set out on the first part of their shared journey and find themselves on the very same route that a dying bear warned them not to take – through mountains echoing with legends of bear-eating giants and fire beneath the ground. Well, you didn't think I was going to make it easy for them, did you? :)
The next two Warriors titles come out early in June, so there's not long to wait for all of you who've already finished Sunrise (and by the third day of my tour, that seemed to be about 50% of the crowd!). The new Special Edition, Code of the Clans, reveals how each part of the warrior code came to be, with glimpses of life before the first series in all FIVE of the Clans. We love visiting Warriors prehistory and creating a back story for the modern Clans we know so very well, not least because it allows us to make the world of the cats even more complex and closely woven. If you read Code very closely, you'll even find out what made Tigerstar burn with deadly ambition (and there will be more about that in Bluestar’s Prophecy which launches later this summer).
June also sees the arrival of the final part of the Tigerstar and Sasha's manga trilogy. When a tragic accident forces Sasha to make a heartbreaking decision about the future of her kits – but will the Clans accept them if they know who their father was?
Summer is a'comin', which can mean only one thing: not pool parties or barbecues, but the return of Reading Warriors! You can find all the details at the official website readingwarriors.com, including how to sign up to log your progress from kit to medicine cat or even leader, and lots of ideas about helping your local community, from reading aloud to young children to tidying an elderly person’s backyard. The more books you read, the faster you'll progress through the ranks.
And there's more! The websites are bonus-tastic this month, with new downloadables and an Adventure Pack Sweepstakes on the Seekers mini website, seekerbears.com, and a brand new, fully interactive online game: the Warrior Cats Hunting Game on warriorcats.com. Now is your chance to put into practice everything you’ve learned from reading about the Clan cats stalking through trees, flicking fish out of the river, chasing rabbits across the moor, and springing from the shadows onto a helpless piece of future fresh-kill. Choose your warrior, then hunt prey in the four different territories to feed your fellow warriors.
So much to do, so much to talk about, there is hardly time for a Fact of the Month. But it's a good one…. Did you know that the only two living creatures that can develop leprosy are humans and armadillos? I'm not sure why I find that fact so utterly fascinating, but I've been storing it up for ages, waiting for the Big Reveal so you can share my enthusiasm. Hmmm, maybe just me, then...?
Take care, enjoy the last days of the school year, and remember that reading outside in the fresh air almost counts as exercise. :)
With love and good wishes,
Erin x
