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.




Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Word.docs

So I went online and found out what these docx files are, and why my attachment files are labeled as such. As I suspected, it’s a result of the installation of the Office Word 2010 I recently chronicled.

What I learned is that these newer Microsoft Word.docXs are more advanced and efficient in that they take up less space, contain more features and/or tools, and are less prone to corruption. The drawback is that if anyone has versions of Microsoft Word that are dated before 2007, then they won’t be able to open those files.

And so far, at least one publisher has that problem, and wouldn’t you know it’s one of the publishers who might have been more likely to publish my book, KILLER OF KILLERS, because they are looking to publish novels with a Japanese bent.

And as I have written a few times on this blog, the main character in KILLER OF KILLERS lived and trained in Japan for over twenty years. In most martial arts stories, especially movies, the art and the characters are Chinese. In KILLER OF KILLERS, the art is Japanese. Trent Smith’s expertise is a combination of Budo and Ju Jitsu, and I combine them in my story as a type of hybrid art called Budo Ju Jitsu or just Bu Jitsu.

So in my eagerness to submit to this publisher, and being unfamiliar with the new docx format, and failing to heed their request not to submit in that format, it’s exactly what I did.

And that in itself might have ruined any chance for consideration with that publisher. Even though I discovered the mistake and resubmitted with an acceptable format, (and an apology) you never really know, since these publishers, like agents, claim they are swamped with submissions so much so that any deviation from their guidelines means instant rejection.

Man, oh man.

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