I realised that I had been exclusively visual in describing the setting. surprise! Oggie and Ferdz were staying at my homestay! Turned out the reason they were constantly mentioning Maligcong was because they had a real passion for the place.īeing physically there was wonderful. Soon after I finished a first draft, I finally visited Maligcong and. The blogs were Lagalog by Oggie Ramos and Ironwulf by Ferdz Decena. It sounded like the perfect location for my story. I noticed that two travel blogs kept mentioning Maligcong, a quiet village off the tourist trail.

I also read a lot of Filipino travel blogs to see if I could get a more vivid picture of how the region looked now. Photo: Richard Gourlayįrom faraway London, I used Google Earth, old maps and the diaries of turn of the century travellers to research the place. Me posing next to a sacred tree at the Maligcong Rice Terraces. Kunig the mountain dog, herding my husband on the trails of the rice terraces. Kunig had a herding instinct and herded us along the narrow trails of the paddy fields. Kunig (who gets a mention in the Acknowledgements), a mountain dog I met in Bontoc while researching the book.but FYI, I also dedicated it to my dad, and Dad's name came first! When my children first opened early proofs of the book, they exclaimed, 'You dedicated it to YOUR DOG?' You can't hide things from a good librarian!

When I announced the title on social media, my fellow Filipinos got the joke immediately! Librarian Matt Imrie smelled the rat too. Bontoc is not an easy word for the Western tongue to wrap around and invading Americans pronounced it 'Bone Talk' ! The setting of my story is a village in a place called Bontoc, in the highlands of the Philippines. It makes sense in terms of the narrative, but it's also a secret joke for Filipinos. I was relieved and happy when my agent and I thought up Bone Talk.

The first I knew that Kerby was doing the cover was when my editors sent me the rough on the left! The final version is on the right.įor a long time, the working title of the book was The Tree of Bones, which somehow didn't feel right. When it turned out that they'd commissioned Kerby to do the cover, I was over the moon! I emailed the team at my publisher DFB, hinting strongly that Bone Talk should be fully illustrated by Kerby. and his glorious colouring books have made it to the New York Times bestselling lists! I first heard about Kerby Rosanes when I appeared at the Emirates Literary Festival in Dubai. is illustrated by a Filipino artist named Kerby Rosanes. On this auspicious day, here are some fun facts about the book and its making!

Bone talk by candy gourlay