Will iconic images recorded in the grooves of an ancient vase unite the Holy Land or rip it further apart?

THE VASE

A novel by Mark M. DeRobertis

Muhsin Muhabi is a Palestinian potter, descended from a long line of potters. His business is run from the same shop owned by his ancestors since the day his forebears moved to Nazareth. The region's conflict saw the death of his oldest son, and rogue terrorists are in the process of recruiting his youngest in their plot to assassinate the Pope and Israeli prime minister.

Professor Hiram Weiss is an art historian at Nazareth’s Bethel University. He is also a Shin Bet operative on special assignment. With the help of fellow agent, Captain Benny Mathias, he plans to destroy the gang responsible for the death of his wife and only child. He puts a bomb in the ancient vase he takes on loan from Muhsin’s Pottery Shop.

Mary Levin, the charming assistant to the director of Shin Bet, has lost a husband and most of her extended family to recurring wars and never-ending terrorism. She dedicates her life to the preservation of Israel, but to whom will she dedicate her heart? The brilliant professor from Bethel University? Or the gallant captain who now leads Kidon?

Harvey Holmes, the Sherlock of Haunted Houses, is a Hollywood TV host whose reality show just flopped. When a Lebanese restaurant owner requests his ghost-hunting services, he believes the opportunity will resurrect his career. All he has to do is exorcise the ghosts that are haunting the restaurant. It happens to be located right across the street from Muhsin’s Pottery Shop.




Thursday, October 7, 2010

Time

I wish I had more time to write. Being a teacher is a great career, but I really wish I had more time to write. I wish a lot of things. I wish I began writing much sooner. With these computers, I might have started writing in the nineties. But I was slow to even get a computer.

I mentioned that I began writing my first novel when I was about eight years old. My brother was about ten, and he gave me the inspiration because he was writing his own stories. Now, he’s a lawyer, and he writes legal stuff. I’ve been writing teacher stuff for twenty years, but only in the new millennium have I been on a computer.

I would love to quit this day job, like most aspiring writers and put all my time into writing. I have a rough draft to clean up, KILLER EYES, as I had documented on this blog while I wrote it. I have other ideas for other novels, and I wish I could just bury myself in writing them, and revise what I’ve written.

You know, I probably would if I was still single. But that’s not an option anymore. The biggest problem is that when I come home from work, I am not in the mood to write. I find myself in the right mindset in the evening, after I’ve unwound and settled in to being home again.

But then the kids are home, and the wife gets home, and for the distractions, I am hard-pressed to make progress. Still, KOK and TV got done. So too will KE. As long as I get something done each day, I can feel contented to a degree. It’s when I get nothing done, that’s when I can’t shake that empty feeling. Writing a daily blog helps that feeling to produce. It’s writing, after all.

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