Inspiration and Origins
The series first began when HarperCollins asked Vicky Holmes to write a fantasy series about feral cats. Initially, Holmes was not very enthusiastic, since she "couldn't imagine coming up with enough ideas". She worked with the concept, however, expanding the storyline with elements of war, politics, revenge, doomed love, and religious conflict. Although the original plan was a stand-alone novel, enough material was created for several books, and the publisher decided upon a six volume series. The first volume, Into the Wild, was written by Kate Cary, under the pseudonym "Erin Hunter", and was completed in about three months. Holmes then began to work behind the scenes, editing and supervising details. Cherith Baldry joined the Erins to write the third book, Forest of Secrets.
The authors have named several other authors as sources of inspiration when writing the novels. In an online author chat, Cherith Baldry listed the authors that inspire her as including Tolkien, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Shakespeare. In the same chat, Victoria Holmes stated that Jacqueline Wilson, Kathy Reichs and J. K. Rowling are some of the authors that inspire her. According to the official website, other authors who have inspired the writers include Enid Blyton, Lucy Daniels, Ellis Peters, Tess Gerritsen, Kate Ellis, Lisa Gardiner, Jaqueline Wilson and Meg Cabot. The authors have also mentioned several other sources of inspiration. The New Forest in southern England was the base for the forest where the original series took place. Other influential locations include Loch Lomond, and the Scottish Highlands. Nicholas Culpeper, a physician who used materials occurring in the natural world as medicine, has also had an influence on the Warriors series. His book, Culpeper's Herbal, is used as a source by the authors for the herbal remedies that the cats use in the books. In addition, the authors mentioned that they may use some fan-created names in future books. Also mentioned as a source of inspiration was Rambo.
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