Exclusive farewell interview with Kate Cary
BY KATE CARY
Goodbyes are never easy, but after 21 years of wonderful stories for our furry friends, it’s time for us to say farewell to Kate Cary as she moves on to other projects – but not before a final Q&A to dive into the mind of the writer who helped bring the world of Warriors to life!
1. How did you first start writing for Warriors?
I’d wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember and even as a child I used to scribble stories in notebooks. In my 20s, I worked with a few small publishing houses, producing children’s fiction but I was always looking for new avenues into writing. At the beginning of the millennium, I discovered a packaging company called Working Partners Limited in the Writers and Artists Yearbook and, through their website, submitted my CV, and filled in their questionnaire in which I happened to mention my love of cats. Working Partners happened at the time to be looking for writers to for a new project; HarperCollins US had commissioned them to produce a middle-grade fantasy series about cats so, on the strength of my writing experience and love of cats, they asked me to try out for the series. Along with several other writers, I submitted my sample and was overjoyed to learn that Working Partners thought my voice was perfect for the series. They commissioned me to write the first two books in the new Warriors series, and then kept commissioning me to write more. It was a wonderful opportunity, but I had no idea it would go on to be so successful and so long-running. I feel truly blessed.
2. Which book are you most particularly proud of how it turned out?
Bluestar’s Prophecy will always have the most special place in my heart. It was my first Super Edition and I relished the opportunity to devote a whole book to a single character. Bluestar was a cat I’d grown to love in the first Warriors series, so fleshing out her story was deeply satisfying. Her story, as a mother and a mate and a leader, touched me and, because I wrote it from my heart, I believe it touched our readers too.
More lately, A Light in the Mist has become the book I’m most proud of. It encompassed some very difficult scenes. I tried my best to write them with a balance of emotion, compassion and tenderness that would affect our readers without breaking their hearts entirely.
3. Which character or story arc was one of your favourites to write
Frostpaw’s arc has definitely been my favourite. I suspect many of us identify with her – her lack of confidence, her uncertainty, her eagerness to do the right thing. So often, she faced a hostile world entirely alone and unsupported, and so I relished carrying Frostpaw through her difficult journey, helping her keep going through fear and suffering and watching her grow stronger and braver with every step. I like to think I helped her become the courageous apprentice who faced her fate nobly right through to the end.
4. What is one of your favourite memories of interacting with the fans?
I have a box of fan memorabilia in my office, much of it collected in the early days of writing Warriors. But I am still adding to it. It’s full of stories and artwork and badges and bookmarks our fans have made. There’s even a card game a fan designed and made, drawing each card by hand. When I sift through it, I admire all the attention and care that has gone into the various works, and I always smile, impressed by the creativity and energy our readers had always put into their love of Warriors. I love to read the comments on my blog and, although, I don’t often join in, it makes me happy to see fans sharing their thoughts and experiences with each other about reading Warriors. Whenever I come across a young person in real life who is in the middle of reading the Warriors series, I always get the same rush of happiness and pride and feel honoured that I had the chance to be part of creating a world that has swept them up and filled their thoughts and hearts for part of their childhood.
6. What is your favourite thing about Warriors as a series?
As soon as I started writing Warriors, I felt a rush of excitement at creating a completely new world – one with its own rules and culture and ways of being. As much as writing the characters’ stories, I loved filling out the details – describing the camps, with their apprentices’ dens and elders’ dens, working out hierarchies, adding and embellishing traditions – like having apprentices pull out elders’ ticks because elders were too stiff to do it themselves, like reinforcing the camp walls against the weather before leafbare and patching up dens after storms. Outside the action-packed storylines, I loved most making the Warriors world feel real. I adored drawing side-characters into the scenes, relishing the quiet richness they could add to a story simply by being in the background – by commenting, reacting, getting on with Clan business, giving their own personal take on a situation.
I also loved the way the cats’ lives were shaped by the weather and by their environment – how WindClan cats were fast and lithe because they hunted rabbits and birds on the open moorland; how ShadowClan had a subtle, secretive edge because they were used to hunting in the shadows of the pine forest. The fact that our stories was not just a series of events but were woven into a rich world that would stand alone, even without the narrative actions – this is the part of Warriors that makes it feel more than simply stories.
7. What advice would you give to any aspiring young writers out there?
As with anything, the secret is to just do it. The more you write, the better you will become. The better you become, the more you will write. It may surprise you to know that inspiration comes while you are writing, not before you begin. So, make a habit of writing regularly, even when you have nothing to say. Give yourself a daily target, even if it’s only a few words a day. And if you want to be a published author, seek out any opportunity you can. There are endless ways into writing, not all of them will be successful, but the more ways you try the more likely you are to find a way that works for you. Have confidence in yourself and don’t let rejection put you off. Learn from it and remember that, a lot of the time, a good idea needs only to find the right place to be heard.
