The idea for the Named began not with a story, but with a sketch. I like to work back and forth between images and written words. In my early 20's, in the mid-to late 1970's, I did a drawing to explore how a pointy-eared alien (such as Star Trek's Vulcans) could arise from a feline ancestor. I was and still aman unabashed fan of the original and later TV series and movies.

Hi people!

This is a sample of an RP that has been running on the Ratha Series forum site.

http://forum.rathascourage.com

Some of the participants are WW members, others aren't.

I thought this might be intriguing because I'm the series author, and I'm in the RP (playing the herding teacher, Thakur)

I just thought I'd post an intro and some links for the new members of Wands and Worlds.

I'm an author, Clare Bell, and I write a series about intelligent prehistoric big cats struggling to survive and create a society. I thought Warriors readers and fans might enjoy the Ratha series, so that is why I came to WW.

(For Spirit, who loves raptors. Also, anyone who has read Courage, please skip to the middle for the paleontological stuff.)

Using Children's Nonfiction For Research - See Inside an Aztec Town.

For purposes of fun and silliness, I have given the Named clan cat characters the ability to temporarily teleport from their home in the California Miocene so that they can peek into our human world and remark upon what they see. This, of course is not to be regarded as 'canon', i.e. in the storyline of the actual books. Think of it as sort of an alternate universe version.

Hi Wands and Worlds,

I've been caught up in doing publicity for Ratha's Courage and by the drama of the US Presidential election.
I am so glad that Obama won.

Anyway, I'm glad to be back and I'll stick around.
I took a break and did some just-for-fun reading, so, without further ado, here's:

Solo's Journey by Joy Smith Aiken

Well, Sheila's playing with Twitter, so I thought I'd jump in too. I'm on as (guess what) rathacat, so check out my ClanChirps.
Yes the name may change, but I'm just experimenting....
Sheila's right. Twitter is fun.

If you think of a better title for Named Twitter, let me know.

Courage is at the printer (*does crazy Ratha-dance*), Courage is at the printer!

Thank you Sheila!

Hi guys,

Thought you might be interested in this. SpaceEx is launching their Falcon 1 rocket from Kwajelein Island at 5 PM Pacific time TODAY. I downloaded the press kit.

Launch is scheduled for today (Aug02) at 5pm (PDT)/8pm
(EDT)/23:00 (UTC).

Webcast live feed starts up half an hour before at http://www.spacex.com

Ratha's Challenge and Ratha's Courage introduce a mammoth-hunting cat tribe. These hunters are very different from the Named, as they are not fully conscious, as the Named and modern humans are. Instead they walk around in a a sort of dream-state, guided by their leader, True-of-voice, who is the source of something called "The Song"

Well, I've been clicking like mad on the various dragons and eggs, so I thought I'd snag one of my own.

Since you guys post so many pix from the I Haz Cheezeburger site, I thought you'd enjoy this YouTube video. The song uses the Cheeze-talk and it's very clever.

http://lj-toys.com/?journalid=7638106&moduleid=2&preview=&auth_token=ses...

LOLWarriorcatz!

Thought you'd enjoy this.

CB

I just thought I'd post an intro and some links for the new members of Wands and Worlds.

I'm an author, Clare Bell, and I write a series about intelligent prehistoric big cats struggling to survive and create a society. I thought Warriors readers and fans might enjoy the Ratha series, so that is why I came to WW.

Hi guys,

I just got back from an unexpected trip to the Bay Area. We had to take Chuck's daughter Cadie to San Jose airport so she could fly to Las Vegas to see her mother. I didn't know I was going until the hubby asked me to come for moral support. He doesn't like driving in San Jose, and particularly the airport.

Hi WW folks,

For those who may be a little tongue-tied during the chat, I thought I'd provide some sample questions to spark the imagination. We certainly won't get to all of these in the time allowed. They are just to give some food for thought.

Here are the questions:

What other authors inspired you?

Ratha's Courage introduces several new creatures to the series, including a larger horse called a “striper” and the two “rumblers”, Grunt and Belch.

In answer to the parent of a 4th grade Warriors fan, about other books to read,
Horn Book Magazine columnist Claire E Gross recommended the Ratha series as a good follow-on for older Warriors fans.

Here's a quote from the May 2008 Ask the Horn Book feature:

You meet them in the first few pages of Ratha's Challenge, trumpeting, stamping and flapping their ears. Even a half-grown face-tail is too much for the Named and after the youngster launches the young herder Khushi into a thornbush, Ratha and the others give up, although only temporarily.

Hi Ratha fans and WW-ers,

Thank you Sheila, for that wonderful and insightful review of Ratha's Creature. You and the people here at WW have helped keep my spirits up during the long and difficult process of getting Ratha's Courage to publication.

And it's here, as Sheila said, in her links in the review.

I can hardly believe it, but the book is out on Baen Books Webscriptions.

Before our little heroine in Ratha and Thistle-chaser meets Splayfoot the seamare, Newt/Thistle encounters another sea-beast that puzzles her. This one actually helps Newt, although she doesn't realize it at first, and probably wouldn't admit it later. By stealing this animal's leavings of clams and other shellfish, Newt learns to eat seafood.

Dear patient and devoted Ratha fans,

I am pleased to announce that Ratha's Courage will be released, both as an E-book and a physically published book. I got some projected dates from my agent, Richard Curtis, in an email this morning.

In Ratha and Thistle-chaser, Book 3 of the Named, Newt (later called Thistle-chaser), fights a brief but intense battle with a pack of "barking raiders" who attack Splayfoot, the seamare (Paleoparadoxia - see previous post.) What are these creatures? Are they also based on fossil animals or is the author making things up?

You thought you knew all the prehistoric creatures, even the really strange ones. And then, up from the pages of Ratha and Thistle-chaser pops an real oddball.

Well, even I didn't know for a long time, and even now I'm not sure of all the details. All I can say right now is that the book has been delayed due to a publishing mistake.

So please don't bash your heads against the wall trying to find the book just yet.

However, I am committed to making sure that every reader who wants a copy of Ratha's Courage can get one.

Originally (in the early 1980's) I based Ratha and the Named on the leopard-like Nimravus. At that time, researchers thought that nimravids were directly ancestral to modern cats and called them "paleofelids". A recent re-examination of nimravid fossil skulls revealed that the bony structure (bulla) of the middle ear is slightly different than in true cats.