Erin Hunter at Cover to Cover

One of the three authors who write as Erin Hunter, author of the Warriors series, Victoria Holmes, visited Cover to Cover on Friday. I have never seen so many people at Cover to Cover. The audience was predominantly tween/teen girls and their moms, but there were some boys and dads there, too. The audience was very animated and interactive, cheering when Holmes announced that a big book about Bluestar is forthcoming, and gasping when she revealed that Firestar will die.

All of the displays and bookshelves from the middle of the store were moved to the back room.

After the talk, they called groups of 25 in for autographing. Rumor has it there was someone with autograph number 258. Luckily the rain held off.

Here's a report about the afternoon by longtime Warriors fan, occasional guest blogger (here and here), and my former student, Victoria:

I got an email from Ms.Hahn telling me that on September 5 at 4:30 PM I could meet Victoria Holmes (the main Warrior writer) and listen to her talk and that she was signing books. That alone was a miracle, just to hear I could meet her. I have read every single one of her books and I always buy the new ones the day of their releases, so this experience was going to be amazing. She was to be at a little book shop which I had never heard of called Cover to Cover.

To my first surprise Victoria (which is also my name) had a nice British accent, which just made everything else five times funnier. For many who have read her books this may also be a surprise: she doesn't own any cats and actually she doesn't like cats. She owns one dog (a bull terrier) named Missy, who is utterly spoiled.

If anyone is interested in knowing why cats die it isn't because she doesn't like them or they're bad, NO she kills cats when they get boring (LOL). Also there are no perfect relationships in the books, because she says they get too boring and therefore she kills someone.

When time came around for questions some little kid asked her, "Who is your least favorite cat?" Victoria answered, " I don't have least favorite cats and if I do they die, then become my favorite cat." Victoria is just such a funny person.

For anyone asking how devoted is she to Warriors, well, she is getting married in November and she will still be on tour so their honeymoon will be wherever they go on the last week of her tour.

Future books coming out:
Long Shadows: Power of Three: Book Five- Dec. 1
Tigerstar and Sasha: Escaping the Forest- Jan. 1

There will be another volume of six books coming out also and several more special edition books coming out on Bluestar and Skyclan.

This was just an amazing experience to be there in the hot and crowded little book shop and to meet Victoria Holmes! You can't describe it until you've met her for yourself, so I have a question: Are you a Warriors fan yet????

Victoria certainly is a fan, and has been from the beginning! Here she is with Victoria Holmes.

Maybe this is a future Warriors fan? He made good use of his time in the board books while Victoria Holmes was speaking.

WARRIORS: THE LOST WARRIOR

Her love affair with the WARRIORS series began when she was in 4th or 5th grade. Upon her recommendation, I read one of them back then. (It's pretty powerful when the teacher reads the student's recommendation, rather than vice versa.) I brought her ARCs from NCTE. (Getting the next book in a favorite series before it's out in the bookstore? Priceless.)

She's in 7th grade now, but when TokyoPop sent the uncorrected proof of the new graphic novel parallel series, I knew she was the expert I would need to call on for an opinion.

Her life had been taken over by the middle school theater production when I dropped the book off at her house, but we had a good chat about it when she brought me my Girl Scout Cookies.

The graphic novel is not exactly the same as the novels, she was quick to point out. "You wonder when Greystripe is coming back, and the graphic novel shows what happened to him. It also shows how he motivated to leave house cat life."

She sees the graphic novels as companion books to the regular series. They have a mixture of new story lines and they fill in between the parts of the series. And she is absolutely savvy to the marketing of the graphic novels, "They will lure in young readers and get them ready for the series."

Nevertheless, she plans to own all of the graphic novels, because they will "complete my collection...my library."

She recommends the Warrior Cats website and writes: "The field guide comes out May 29. I have the new book and after today and a little of yesterday reading I am on page 167. It is so good. Also Graystripe the lost warrior (cough title of cough manga cough book cough cough cough) comes back with Millie (cough another cough cat from cough manga). There is already another book coming after this called Dark River. Now I can't wait until September because an extra book called Firestars Quest comes out. I love when you get the unedited versions when I can read them. I wish I could meet Erin Hunter it would be so cool.




According to her book this is how the books go in order:

Warriors

Into the Wild
Fire and Ice
Forest of Secrets
Rising Storm
A Dangerous Path
The Darkest Hour

Warriors: The New Prophecy

Midnight
Moonrise
Dawn
Starlight
Twilight
Sunset

Warriors: Manga

The Lost Warrior

Warriors: The Power of Three

The Sight
Dark River- not out in stores yet

Warriors: Extra

Field Guide: Secrets of the Clans