Sorry for being so late, but I’m back again now!

All your entries were absolutely fantastic, and it was a joy to see them all; picking a winner was hard…

…but after much pondering and thoughtful staring into the near-distance, I’m happy to announce the winner of last week’s fan art contest; and it’s Lilyshine!

Take a look at her brilliant work here:

For Writers:

When do I write?

Any time you like. I’d advise to look at the other chapters to see what they made your character do.

What should I write about?

Stick to the plot idea for your chapter (Trailing Stars Page) but fill in the blanks and do what you like!

Who should I include?

Anyone that has included their personality profile on the post. Search deep, though, many great characters are in the first few pages! Link is here.  Note that, on the last page, Rainsong’s comment holds a large amount that may serve useful!

What do I do when I’m done?

Send it through the fan-art link, then wait for your editor to edit it. I will post it later on in NEW NEW Warriors Fan Fiction (with your name in huge letters so no one thinks it’s mine!) for people to read.

What are my guidelines?

Read them here.

For Editors:

When will I get the chapters I have to edit?

When they get sent to you by e-mail.

How do I edit?

Correct spelling errors, punctuation errors, grammatical errors, all that stuff. In addition, check the personality profiles for the characters in that chapter to see that the descriptions and such were correctly administered.

What do I do when I’m done?

Send it right back through the fan-art link.

For Artists:

When is the deadline for chapter header art?

May 1, 2013.

How do I enter it?

Fan-art, though it will not be posted as fan-art.

What are my guidelines?

Right here.

Thank you for reading this reference material. Please, if you have any more questions, comment and they will be answered.

– Copperclaw

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Service

Entrance

Crypt

Removed

Entrances

That

Cannot

Activate

Must

Perish

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WEB ADDRESS MISCODED

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Aha! Miss me?

Hello again, Blogclan, it’s so very wonderful to see you lot again. And just to say “hellooooooo!” I’ve got another edition of a week’s round-up in cats. Only more mid-week-y. So, good day to you all!

Fan Art Contest

Here we are! Our first fan art competition! The task is as follows:

Create a cover for an imaginary up-and-coming Warriors book. Pick your own title (though it will have no effect on how we judge your work), and anything else you want. The rest is up to you.

Send you entry to contests@katecary.co.uk by Monday 1st April, at 6pm GMT. The winning submission will feature in its on post on the front page!

Good luck and have fun!

Until next time – goodbye!

5 Common Myths About Cats, Debunked

There’s a few interesting things here (click me! Click me! Ccclliiiiccckkkk mmmeeeee!!!)

Bowl Cats

Here’s some happy cats in bowls. ‘Cause cats do love themselves some bowls.

So here’s a jolly cat and dog duo

Oh, come on. This is just sweet:

Return of a lost cat

There’s nothing as heartwarming as a tale of someone being reunited with their cat; and here’s one just to fill that void (CLICK! OR! ELSE!)

The video explains it all

What the title says:

Schröedinger’s Cat (science-y epilogue)

The connection to cats may appear to be relatively non-existent, but, if you’re interested; some funky, brain bending  science; more as a puzzler than anything else.

I found this at catversushuman.com

A Study of Catspeak, and what Leonardo da Vinci has to do with it

Many moons ago, when surfing the blog, I discovered the concept of a Clan named “RuneClan” that wore markings on their flanks to denote their ranking and Clan history. Someone had commented with the claim that the cats had no system of reading and writing, and therefore this concept would never make it into the books. This made me think – was that statement true? Certainly in real life, but considering that the Clans have such a complicated language, as well as the use of the Stick as a tally (which can be seen as a form of reading), made me realise that the Clans could have a writing system if they ever had the need. Not only this, but what about the system of tail signals seen in Battles of the Clans? It seems far too complex for a real-life cat, and is certainly different to the way real cats use their tails to portray emotion. But if a writing system is possible, a richly structured language is needed. In this article, I will be exploring the way the Clans use language, the real-world possibilities of catspeak and how a feline language could coexist with Twoleg English, in-universe or out.

The name system of the Clans clearly shows how much more complex Warriors language is than the communication system of real cats. Not only do cats in Warriors name each other – which is an extraordinarily rare phenomenon in any real animal – but these monikers consist of separate sections relating to both the cat’s characteristics and their rank. As far as scientists know, the only animals that could possibly be capable of this are cetaceans. Dolphins have individual names and a vocabulary of 200 words. Orca use grammar and syntax and have dialects. Whale songs even rhyme, in a sense. However, the Clans surpass this by far with their vast, human-like vocabularies and complex naming system. However, the real question is not “can the warrior cats speak a feline language?” but “do the warrior cats speak English?”

I always used to be confused when Warriors readers said that the books were about “talking cats”. I always thought that the language of the characters was simply cat language, translated into English. I understood that the catspeak was far too complex to be simple, real-life feline mews and purrs, but I assumed that it was some variant of real cat communication changed to be far more subtle and intricate. However, a key piece of information about catspeak comes from Brambleberry’s quote on page 53 of Crookedstar’s Promise:

“Perhaps I should change my name. I could be called Swallowherb. See? Because that’s what I do. I make cats swallow herbs.”

This may seem of little importance, but something very rare has occurred in Warriors. A cat has made a pun. Puns in English will lose their meaning when translated into another language, and vice versa. One example of this is Leonardo da Vinci’s painting Lady with an Ermine. It is a portrait of a girl named Cecilia Gallerani. It has been speculated that this is because the Greek for ermine is galay, a pun on her name. This would be far more obvious to the modern English-speaking world if she was either named Cecilia Ermine, or the English word for ermine was galay. This demonstrates that puns will only work if there is one word with two meanings. Brambleberry has just proved to us that a pun that works in English will work just as well in catspeak – a play on the verb “swallow”, to pass food down the throat, and the noun “swallow”, a small songbird. As far as I know, the only real language this pun works in is English. Therefore, the cats must be speaking English.

If this is true, then one might ask how Twolegs communicate in the novels. If the cats speak English, then what do the Twolegs do? Do they just walk around meowing at each other? Of course not. Although the cats must be speaking English, they’re still described as “purring” and “yowling”, and Twolegs have been explicitly shown to speak English in the mangas. This must mean that both Twoleg and cat speak English, but the languages have evolved until neither can recognise the other, because of their different vocal chords.

Could this exist in real life? Possibly. Definitely not yet, as feline language is far too simple, but evolution happens. It happened to the whales and dolphins, it happened to us and eventually it’ll happen to the cats. In several million years’ time, cats may be able to tell each other wild stories, comfort each other, cry, laugh and sing. Warriors could be truly real.

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