Two novels, Both equally Great

I have two completed manuscripts, and both are great stories, but they are not related to each other at all, other than the fact that the same author wrote them. (Me) My first book, KILLER OF KILLERS, I would describe as an action thriller. More specifically a martial arts action thriller. It revolves around one main character, but of course it's embellished by several supporting characters.

But it's the story of Trent Smith, who was also known as Midori no Me no Tora in Asia. It means the Green-eyed Tiger in Japanese. That was his "nom de guerre" in the fighting circuits of Japan. It has a lot of martial arts action, a lot of thrills, thus the genre, but it also is a love story. Trent happens to fall in love. It was weird that he did, because when I started writing it, I had the idea that he was running away from love. Not that he had anything against his Japanese fiancee, but he had a greater agenda. In pursuing that agenda, he falls in love all over again. Still, I wouldn't classify it as a love story. Well, maybe a little.

Yet the story has tragedy, and complications, and loads of tension; all the things that Donald Maass would have in a novel, as he explained in his book Writing the Breakout Novel, which I read during the writing process of KOK.

THE VASE is nothing like KILLER OF KILLERS. It's not an action story at all, and really doesn't have a lot of action, though it has some. It's a suspense novel, as far as genre goes. At least, that's what I would call it. Although it revolves around a Palestinian potter whose marriage is on the mend, I wouldn't call it a love story. It has a lot of tragedy though, most of which is revealed in scenes from three years prior. That's when the potter lost his eldest son to the conflict that plagues the region. Another main character, a Jewish Art Professor also lost his son to the same conflict.

But both men react in different ways. The Palestinian, a poor man who works in a pottery shop in the Old City Market of Nazareth, simply tries to survive as a single father to his remaining son, due to the fact that his Syrian wife abandoned them. He rejects his religion, he ignores the conflict, and concentrates on his business and remaining son.

The Israeli professor is consumed with hatred. He wants revenge and goes about the process of seeing it through, no matter what else happens around him. In my story, a peace treaty is finally signed between Israel and Palestine. But the professor is only enraged further. He goes about fulfilling his agenda. I don't want to give away the crux of the storyline, but it's the vase that has a major impact on how everything turns out. A simple ceramic vase. How can that be? Well, you'll have to read the story. Suffice it to say that it's an original idea. I don't believe it's ever been in any other story, be it a book, a movie, or a TV show. That's the thing I'm hoping will attract the interest of publishers.

And so far, it's working. Fingers crossed, but it might get published before KOK. What's weird is that KOK is the one that is agented. I'm on my own with THE VASE, and I'm thinking I'll find a home for it very soon.