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, March 16, 2011

Being a Perfectionist

How much time should you put into a paragraph when it comes to editing or revisions? There was a passage in THE VASE where I discovered the word, “but” appeared in two consecutive sentences. Not that it’s a mortal sin, but to me it didn’t work in that instance. Sometimes I don’t want it appearing twice in the same paragraph, let alone two consecutive sentences.

I rewrote and rewrote and rewrote, and hashed it about, changing sentences, changing the whole paragraph, leaving some sentences alone, changing others, changing them back, and found myself starting over from scratch several times. After a couple hours, it was back to the same original paragraph. Finally I combined a couple of sentences, and deleted some, and it started to work. By that time, four hours had passed!

Today, I went back to reread it, and it still looks good. I have found that if you stick to it, if you don’t give up, eventually you come up with something that not only works, but is a truly superb example of writing. And when you achieve it, you'll know it when you see it.

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