How does a warrior cat become a leader? How do the cats of StarClan confer their nine lives? Those were the questions Vicky Holmes and I had to answer when I was writing The Darkest Hour, in which the ThunderClan deputy, Fireheart—who had begun life as the kittypet Rusty—was about to become Clan leader.

We knew that we didn’t want the transition to be quick and impersonal. “Nine lives? Check. New name? Check. Okay, off you go, you’re Clan leader.” No, there had to be a ceremony, and it had to be something fabulous, something that would always be remembered by the new leader, and, we hoped, by our readers too.

Vicky and I discussed this for a long time, and eventually we came up with the idea that Fireheart would dream himself into StarClan by touching the Moonstone. Here, nine spirits of StarClan, who were significant to Fireheart when they were alive, would each give him a life. And each life would stand for a particular quality that would help him along the tough path his paws were destined to follow.

In addition, the ceremony would be difficult. Depending on the quality that each life represented, receiving it could be agonizing. And as the number of lives mounted, the leader would feel full to overflowing, as if they simply couldn’t take any more.

I found as I was writing this scene that as Fireheart encountered each of the StarClan warriors, he was being taken through a kind of summary of his time in the forest. Some of the cats who gave him a life, like Bluestar and Spottedleaf, had been important to him when they were alive, while others like Lionheart he had known only slightly; he had never even met Redtail, who was the deputy murdered by Tigerstar before Fireheart came to the forest, yet Fireheart’s discovery of the murder had given them a connection. This gave me a great opportunity to show Firestar’s emotions: not only the stress of the ceremony itself, but the grief and love he feels for the cats who are lost to him in the living world.

The ceremony also gave me scope to show more of StarClan than had been possible up till then, as this was the first time Firestar had interacted with large numbers of them at once. I loved doing this! I’m especially proud of the writing at the point where the stars move and “the cats of StarClan came stalking down the sky.”

It was only later I realized that the choice of cats and the qualities they give along with the lives could be used in many different ways. In Vicky’s ebook where Bramblestar and Tigerstar receive their nine lives, we learn a lot about the characters of the two leaders, and we can imagine what their leadership will be like. In the scene from Firestar’s Quest, where Leafdapple receives her lives, we see her belief growing with each life and we’re given a reminder of the whole history of SkyClan, from the time they left the forest to the present when the Clan is restored.

Fans often ask me to reveal my favourite parts of the Warriors books. I usually answer that I love writing about StarClan, and about the spiritual dimensions of the Warriors world. These scenes, the making of a new leader, allowed me to bring out the mystery and wonder of the moment when the leader-to-be has their old life stripped away and faces the whole majesty of StarClan to receive their new lives. I hope my readers enjoy these scenes as much as I enjoyed writing them.