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.

Even if you live in a big city, everybody lives in a small town. We identify ourselves by our neighborhoods - 'I live in the Village, or in Chelsea.'

These days I live in a magical little village on Dartmoor in Devon, England, and my "special spot" is a moss-covered rock in a circle of trees in the woods behind my house.

I often go into the woods, or walk through the fields and hills nearby, when I need inspiration, or to work out a plot problem, or come up with an idea. I think better on my feet, particularly when there is beautiful countryside around me and a dog at my side.

When I was younger and lived in big cities, I had special places there too. There's magic everywhere, if you look.

It would be difficult to write a convincing ghost story set on a sunny day in a big city.

I like it when it's nice and quiet. I'm not a big city person.

On the Web we all become small-town visitors lost in the big city.