You may or may not have heard of the Warriors series before, often times referred to as “Warrior Cats” by the fandom. The series has approximately nine major story arcs, each consisting of six novels, following the story of feral clans of cats in the forest. With such a large amount of novels, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to wonder how one person could manage to write all this without losing their mind.

Here’s the secret: the author of Warriors, Erin Hunter, is a pseudonym used by a conglomerate of several authors. The “Erin Hunter” name first came about when Victoria Holmes was hired by HarperCollins to write about these feral cats. Holmes wrote out the plot and characters, then brought on Kate Cary to write the books. Later, Cherith Baldry and Tui T. Sutherland would join the team, followed by Gillian Philip.

Victoria Holmes was responsible for mapping out the storyline, characters and other details. She then hands the outline off to one of the authors to pen. Holmes acts as an editor, going through the final drafts and editing them to ensure the Erin Hunter voice remains consistent. Outside of Warriors, Holmes has also written children’s books Rider in the Dark (2004), The Horse from the Sea (2005) and Heart of Fire (2006).

Kate Cary, the first author to join the Erin team, wrote Into the Wild and Fire and Ice, the first two books of the Warriors series. She is also responsible for later novels, including Fading Echoes. Under her own name, she is the author of two vampire YA romance novels: Bloodline (2005) and Reckoning (2007).

Cherith Baldry has written for both the Warriors and the Seekers series (Seekers is another series under the Erin Hunter name). Some of the Warriors books she wrote include Forest of Secrets, Twilight and Outcast. Baldry is also the author of numerous science fiction, fantasy, and mystery novels; The Emerald Throne (2001), The Scarlet Spring (2004) and The Buried Cross (2004), to name a few.

Tui T. Sutherland originally began as an editor for the Warriors series, then asked to join the team of Erin authors. She’s written some of the Warriors field guides, as well as several of the Seekers books. On her own, Sutherland’s name is arguably just as famous as the pseudonym she shares, due the popularity of her Wings of Fire series, which focuses on dragons.

Gillian Philip was brought on to write for the Survivors series. Under her own name, she’s written over 20 novels, her better known ones being Crossing the Line (2009), Bad Faith (2008), The Opposite of Amber (2011) and the Rebel Angels series.