characters are conflations and amalgams of people and times shared over many
visits the author has made to this most unique port city. If names of characters
happen to be similar or identical to real living beings, it was purely chance and has
nothing to do with the real person (if indeed there actually is one,) who may also
share the name of a character. Next, know that this is completely irrelevant with
respect to almost everything. The year 2007 was chosen for no good reason
either, except that it had to be sometime.
In 2007, a bit of good fortune came my way after 3 hard years. I decided to celebrate by taking a nice vacation. I chose my favorite place in the world, Amsterdam.
I had booked a great hotel for a month and a half, outside the canal circle, away from the red light district, etc....however events beyond my wildest imagination (and believe me, it's pretty wild!) occurred that more or less made it nearly, well, practically impossible for me to leave after my "vacation" was up.
First, there were the sightings........not U.F.O.'s but, those would hardly be noticed in Amsterdam anyway....I mean sightings of "familiar people." Some of these happened to be rock musicians, some were actors from TV shows I'd seen in the US. I was amused, but paid no real attention, at first, to this, as I figured correctly that the Dutch, in general would recognize them less and "swarm" them not, having more sensibility for a person's privacy (even if that person is CUR-SED enough to be a "celebrity.")--so the stars I saw there seemed totally at ease. Just "like" regular people walking down the street, taking snapshots of the canals. Some very, very famous ones sometimes walked with bodyguards, but not in any fashion that hinted at worry or nervousness.
After experiencing the many charms of the city for 1.5 months, I decided I should perhaps stay a little longer. Problem was, tourist season was beginning and lots of hotels were booked in advance....so I had to hunt around and move around the city fairly frequently. Partially, this was a drag but it also helped me "get the feel" of living in various parts of A'dam (Amsterdam). Somewhere into the second month, I started noticing a certain woman "often" around town (an American actress from a TV show)--methinks a bit too often to be mere chance. At each "pop in," she made lots of eye contact and smiled dazzlingly.....I became intrigued....the "pop ins" occurred not infrequently....increasing gradually to twice, thrice a day!....I became more and more bewildered by her...why would someone like her pick someone like me to stalk? Lots of bizarre and exquisitely improbable things began to happen.
Suddenly, in a flash I realized I was not there by accident, and I was not there just to take a vacation--I was not there just to write a book, I was there to change my life radically and this beautiful and unusual woman would have something to do
with it! Indeed, my original idea was simply to travel to several cities and towns and make notes, meeting as many Dutch folks as I could and to interview them, about anything!
I interviewed people about their jobs, their past, whatever they wanted to talk about that they felt was interesting. Many of their stories are in this book, but alas, there was not room to use all the interviews. Thus, I have more material for future fictional Amsterdamic sagas!...(should this novel be kindly-received.) My name is Dr. Andre S. Lange and I practiced Psychiatry in the San Francisco Bay area for about 15 years before several sequential, terrible, twisted events came to pass. But, those were in the "hard years" I mentioned above, 2004 through 2006. They will be described in later chapters. The idea came to me that perhaps this lovely creature knew I was interviewing people, and was "being around," hoping I would interview her. The notion filled me with glee.
Suddenly, in a flash I realized I was not there by accident, and I was not there just to take a vacation--I was not there just to write a book, I was there to change my life radically and this beautiful and unusual woman would have something to do
with it! Indeed, my original idea was simply to travel to several cities and towns and make notes, meeting as many Dutch folks as I could and to interview them, about anything!
I interviewed people about their jobs, their past, whatever they wanted to talk about that they felt was interesting. Many of their stories are in this book, but alas, there was not room to use all the interviews. Thus, I have more material for future fictional Amsterdamic sagas!...(should this novel be kindly-received.) My name is Dr. Andre S. Lange and I practiced Psychiatry in the San Francisco Bay area for about 15 years before several sequential, terrible, twisted events came to pass. But, those were in the "hard years" I mentioned above, 2004 through 2006. They will be described in later chapters. The idea came to me that perhaps this lovely creature knew I was interviewing people, and was "being around," hoping I would interview her. The notion filled me with glee.
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