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That's why I write fiction, because I want to write these stories that people will read and find universal.

I use the setting of a small rural Norwegian community - the kind of place that I know so intimately. I could never write a novel set in a big city, because, frankly, I don't know what it would be like.

I think by writing about a place with great specificity, you manage to make it universal.

However, the difficulties and pleasures of the writing itself are similar for a novel with a historical setting and a novel with a contemporary setting, as far as I'm concerned.

I write contemporary fiction, and that is what my readers want to read.

I must be honest here; I don't think there's such a thing as 'unconventional' when it comes to YA. YA readers are the most open-minded in the literary world. They'll read anything.

I write the kinds of novels I like to read, where the setting is rendered with love and care.

My own writing has perhaps more of an American flavor than a British one, but that's because the stories I've so far written have needed it. 'Empire State,' 'Seven Wonders' and 'The Age Atomic' are all very place-centric, where the setting itself is almost a character. But there is a universality to story that isn't just limited to science fiction.

Wherever I am, I take books, not novels.

I always love novels that open up a subject to me - like raising a window to a beautiful, mysterious world outside.