The Backbone

Or How I Came To Write The Book


 I wrote Bones in 1999.
Patch popped into my head carrying a bone.

I looked at Patch in my mind and asked some questions.
Where did you get that bone? What kind of bone is it?
The answers... from a skeleton, human.

Then the famous question that starts all my books...What if...
a dog brought home a human bone?

I rang a writer friend and described the idea.
She said "Ooh Yuck!...Great Story!"-
"That's what I thought," I replied.

I knew that the dog would need owners and a family arrived.
Two kids, Nicky and Danny, and a mum and a dad, Mr and Mrs Cooper.

As I was writing the book, I needed information so I went to talk to the police sergeant at the Johnsonville police station. I got lots of ideas and some gruesome details I did not want to know.

I talked to the Wellington pathologist, again I got lots of ideas.
Did you know that a human skeleton fits inside a box as long as your thigh bone and as deep as your skull....It's not a big box.
I also found out that the pathologist likes horror films...

Then I talked to the Te Papa museum specialist about preserving human skeletons. They are usually coated with a preservative. Most museums are giving human remains back to the country of origin. He had a normal sense of humour...

I love being a writer, the research is lots of fun!