Wandering Wednesday: Amsterdam and the Netherlands + A Giveaway!

By Lisa Harris @heartofafrica 

One of the things our family has been blessed to do is travel together. Sometimes it's for ministry, like language school in Brazil. Other times we've been able to stop in Europe on the way from Africa to the United States, where we usually visit friends. The opportunity to set my stories in some of these locations with my Love Inspired Suspense books has been so much fun for me, and releasing this month is Deadly Exchange which was set in Amsterdam. Several years ago, our family stopped in Holland for a few days to visit friends and see some of Amsterdam. I loved the chance to incorporate some of the things we saw while we were there including a brief mention of Corrie ten Boom, one of the first places we visited just outside of Amsterdam. Her testimony of her family risking their lives to save the Jews during the war has always been so powerful to me, and in my story, my heroine feels the same way. She talks about the impact of visiting her house and her prayer that God would use her.

We also were able to visit the countryside outside of Amsterdam where part of my story takes place, in an older estate. Some of my favorite scenes are the windmills in the background and the fog along the water. We were even able to visit a place where they make the decorative wooden clogs.

And no trip to Amsterdam is complete without trying some raw herring. I love fish and grew up on smoked salmon, so for me it wasn’t bad at all. But I can't say that all of my family felt the same!

Taking a boat ride through the city was a lot of fun, and honestly, one of my favorite ways to see a city. I love all the houseboats and bridges and of course Amsterdam's unique architecture.

And lastly, you can't forget about all the bikes in Amsterdam. I confess, I never tried to ride one, especially in the city, but I love the idea of riding bikes everywhere. In fact, the first scene is of my heroine on her way home on her bike she affectionally named Archie.

While I have such great memories of our time in the Netherlands, I took my heroine through a much different experience in Deadly Exchange. Chased across Amsterdam by a human-trafficking ring, social advocate Kayla Brooks refuses to help them recapture Mercy, the young girl she rescued from their clutches. And there's only one man Kayla can turn to for help: her ex-fiance's brooding older brother, Levi Cummings. Armed with only a few clues, Kayla and Levi must bring down the crime ring. . .or lose their lives in the process.

Giveaway

I'm giving away an ebook copy of Deadly Exchange. To enter the giveaway, please leave a comment on this post and/or on Monday's New Release Post. Receive two entries in the drawing by commenting on both posts! I'll pick the winner from the comments Monday, January 22 at 10pm EST.

Read a FREE sample of Deadly Exchange at Amazon.com

About Lisa Harris

LISA HARRIS is a Christy Award finalist for Blood Ransom and Vendetta, Christy Award winner for Dangerous Passage, and the winner of the Best Inspirational Suspense Novel for 2011 (Blood Covenant) and 2015 (Vendetta) from Romantic Times. She has over thirty novels and novella collections in print. She and her family have spent over thirteen years working as missionaries in Africa. When she's not working she loves hanging out with her family, cooking different ethnic dishes, photography, and heading into the African bush on safari.

Website:  www.lisaharriswrites.com