Fall Tour Coverage - 3 October, Haverford, PA by Nagini

I'm back from the event sans signed books (you had to buy them), but I've got news I think you'll like.

- There will be two more special edition books.
- Bluestar's got the second and the color of her cover is silver.
- The first Clan cats have the third
- There is a working title for Book 4 of PoT (I'm afraid I missed it in the cheers of the kids around me; what I heard was something like "Something of something Sun" but it's probably wrong).
- There will be 7 more manga books
- Scourge will have a manga
- There'll be another guide book, Code of the Clans, explaining what the warrior code means
- Brambleclaw will be in the final scene of Book 24
- The cat who succeeds Firestar will not be the obvious choice
- Vicky wants to leave Brambleclaw's allegiances (good or evil) ambiguous
- The fold-out map of SotC does not have SkyClan's territory on it; their territory is more up-river and it's off the map, going onto the next page
- Vicky imagines that the founder of SkyClan was named Sky, and he was in the origins scene in SotC, just unmentioned
- The publishers originally wanted SkyClan in SotC, but that didn't work with Vicky
- There were originally supposed to be just three books in TNP
- TNP was first called The Next Generation, Erin Hunter calls the other series G3 and G4
- As a joke, Onestar is sometimes called the low-grade fuel cat, after the fuel program that the U.K. has, and Vicky wants to call the fourth series Fourstar
-Vicky's favorite animals are otters and horses

Oh, and don't get the foil covers of Firestar's Quest wet and then rub them, because the gold comes off... We found that out when the condensation from Vicky's water bottle was on the table, and Vicky wiped it up with a tissue, found that it was yellow-tinted, and then looked to see that her copy of Firestar's Quest was wet.

Fall Tour Coverage - 2 October, New York, NY by Autumn

Immediately after school, Ember and I made our way down to the Bank Street Bookstore near Columbia University, excited to greet the gathered tourgoers from Warrior's Wish coming to meet Victoria Holmes. We arrived around roughly 3:45pm, fifteen minutes earlier-- Pinefur, Shadowstorm, Mistytail, and Thornheart (and her sister) had beaten us there! We excitedly awaited for Erin Hunter [masquerading as Vicky Holmes, of course. (;] Introductions aside, it was only minutes before she pushed her way through crowds of hyperactive seven year olds, and... us. There were about fifty fans in total there in the tiny bookstore, about 90% female, 10% male, 85% over thirteen, and 15% under. I quickly took out my random notebook and prepared to document the occurrences.

...My first observation was as follows: "CREEPY LITTLE CHILDREN." [regarding the hordes of little kids around, of course.]

Vicky began with reading a passage from Firestar's Quest, which was the following bit:

Firestar's Quest Spoiler:

She read the passage of the dream sent to Firestar by Cloudstar while he was resting at Ravenpaw and Barley's home. The true history of SkyClan is unveiled by Cloudstar and Firestar's quest is initiated.

After reading this, she asked the younger readers questions about the reading, testing their understanding of it as well as asking for a little bit of analysis. The kiddies responded well to this, with much waving of upraised hands, and choruses of "Me! Pick me! I know!"

After this, she polled the audience: What would YOU do in Firestar's position? Would you stay with your Clan, or take up the quest? Most of the audience answered that they would embark on the journey... people like me answered that they would remain at home.

After this, the floor was opened to questions. Most of the questions were small questions asked by little kids who didn't read carefully enough, or were WAY too obsessed. One of them went as follows:

Q: WHAT IF THIS HAPPENED? WHAT IF THAT HAPPENED? WHAT IF THIS HAPPENED? WHAT ABOUT FIRESTAR? WHAT IF THAT HAPPENED? WHAT IF THIS HAPPENED? WHAT IF THAT HAPPENED?
...So on and so forth. [seriously, a little girl was YELLING that. Ask Ember or Pinefur or Shadowstorm or Mistytail or Thornheart. NO JOKE.]

Some of the more useful tidbits we gleaned from Vicky at the tour...

Q: What is your warrior name according to warriorcats.com?
A: Mousepaw.

Q: Will Firestar die?
A: Of course he will.

Q: When?
A: I already have it all planned out-- he will die in the last book of the fourth series, which will also be the last Warriors book. [that will be book 24]

Q: These books are aimed with children but cover very mature topics-- what do you think of this?
A: My readers are very mature as well. [WTF? There were screaming seven year olds at the tour... not all of the readers are that mature I guess.]

Q: What about the series Seekers?
A: Seekers will be a standalone Erin Hunter series about bears, spanning across six books.

Q: What do you think about Warrior's Wish?
A: I love all the fansites out there-- Warrior's Wish is definitely the best. [<333 THANKS VICKY! :DDDD]

After this, we gathered in line to wait to get our books signed, and waited. And waited. And waited. At last, [you see, us Ww members were at the back of the line...] we got our chance to get our books signed and to have a personal word with Vicky. I got her to draw me a sheep in my battered copy of Into the Wild. :D After getting our pictures taken, we all went our separate ways, eager for the next tour.