When I was reading books for 'Seesaw Girl,' I came across several references to the fact that in the 11th and 12th centuries, Korean pottery was considered the finest in the world. I liked that - the idea of a little tiny country being the best at something.

Most writers adore their editors, and I'm no exception.

I often have trouble falling asleep at night, so when I'm lying in bed I think up stories. That's where I do a lot of my thinking. I also get a lot of ideas while I'm reading - sometimes reading someone else's stories will make me think of one of my own.

What I like most: Reading well-written sources that take me to another world for hours at a time - and being able to call that 'work!' Also, of course, finding a gem of information that is either exactly what I was looking for, or else fits perfectly into the story in some way.

My iPhone stays on. All my friends and family know that I hate the phone, so no one calls me on it. I just use it to play Words With Friends and take pictures of cute shoes.

Here in California, a lot of people are just kinda rude, and they're really impatient, especially on the freeways and stuff. And in Texas it's not like that. Here, it's kinda like a 'dog eat dog' world. But in Texas, it's really friendly. And all my family is in Texas, so we would visit family more if we lived in Texas.

My mother came from a generation that did not want nannies. She had her first child at 24 and her last - me - at 42.

I was six when the war started. It was terrible. My house was destroyed, so we went to live with my grandparents. The whole family was there, maybe 15 people all staying in an apartment about 35m square. It was very hard.