I love to travel and have been blessed to visited a lot of different countries. Marion's recent post reminded me how much I've enjoyed the opportunity to write stories set internationally. Most recently, I've been writing romantic suspense stories for Love Inspired Suspense--Danger Abroad--all set in different locations around the world. While I haven't visited all the places--like my next one set in the Sahara--most of the settings I've chosen are places that I have visited and loved. The research alone has made me long to visit the places I haven't seen, and revisit the places I have.
I just turned in Fatal Cover-Up that's set in Italy, and now I'm jumping into my next story that will be set in Amsterdam.
Several years ago, while on our way back to the US, our family stopped in Europe to visit friends. Holland was one of those stops. As I work on my story, not only has the research been fun, but I've loved going through the photos from that trip.
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Our wonderful Dutch friends took us on a tour outside the city one day where we visited some of the windmills, a cheese factory, wooden shoe factory, and yes, I even ate raw herring.
We dressed up with our Dutch friends in traditional clothes and had our photos taken together.
One of the most memorable places we visited was the home of Corrie ten Boom who wrote the Hiding Place. The woman who took us on a tour of the watch shop and the home where Corrie and her family hid Jews during the war was passionate about telling the story of the ten Boom family. We were even able to stand in the small space where the Jews would hide when there was a raid.
So what places have you traveled to lately in a good book?
Hi Lisa. Researching while travelling is a lot of fun. Visiting Corrie Ten Boom's home must have been very special. I love how technology allows us to go street-level in our research while sitting at home but nothing beats being in the country and getting a sense of the spirit of a place. Listen to the sounds, admire the colours of the sky and smell the various different aromas.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to reading your Italian adventure.
Thanks for stopping by, Ian. And you're so right about cool it is that we can get a street-level view of a place via the internet, but yes, never like being there in person!
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