New Zealand is the only country I know well enough to write about. It can sometimes lead to complications. Editors then insist that I explain the driving license situation instead of simply taking it for granted. It sometimes makes me more self conscious about details than I really want to be. At the moment I am reading two books, a biography of the New Zealand novelist Janet Frame and a novel by John Le Carre who, roughly speaking, writes spy stories.
Every writer has to find their own way into writing.
My general advice would be to read a great deal and to know within yourself why certain books work well for you. And I think aspiring writers often need to be reminded how important it is to be persistent. Every now and then a young writer has a first book published, and the book is well-reviewed, widely read and successful. However, this is rare. Most people have to go through a stage of putting a lot of work into their books and then having them turned down.