I can't imagine how American readers will react to a novel, but if the story is appealing it doesn't matter much if you don't catch all the detail. I'm not too familiar with the geography of nineteenth century London, for instance, but I still enjoy reading Dickens.

Irrepressible curiosity vied with an instinctive fear.

I go by the gut. I might not appear to have any talent but I've got plenty of gut instinct.

Only where there is disillusionment and depression and sorrow does happiness arise; without the despair of loss, there is no hope.

Exhaustion pays no mind to age or beauty. Like rain and earthquakes and hail and floods.

Writing is fun - at least mostly. I write for four hours every day. After that I go running. As a rule, 10 kilometers (6.2 miles). That's easy to manage.

I never plan. I never know what the next page is going to be..... But that's the fun of writing a novel or a story, because I don't know what's going to happen next.