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.




Monday, May 16, 2011

Ultimate Achievement from Thursday

Something happened to Google Blogs Friday, and the Thursday posts from several bloggers (including mine) disappeared. But I think my Thursday post was worth salvaging, so I am going to repost it. It's not word for word, but it was about what might be considered the ultimate achievement for an author. I made the point last Wednesday that getting your book made into a movie would be a great event. And for many authors that is true. But I don't believe it's an ultimate achievement.

So what might be considered an ultimate achievement for an author? Some people might say that being considered the greatest writer of your time is the ultimate achievement, or perhaps writing a book that is considered a truly great book which catapults an author into the ranks of great writers is the ultimate achievement. And who could argue that if you were considered an equal to the likes of Melville, Dickens, Hemingway, Wilde, Dostoyevsky, and Tolsoy, that it wouldn't be an ultimate achievement?

Sure writing books like War and Peace and Moby Dick might be just the achievement needed to qualify, but is there anything else? How about creating a new ideology? Ayn Rand did that. How about creating a new genre? Robert E. Howard did that.

How about changing the world for the better? How about writing a book that made people change their negative behavior? A book that made society change for the better? Is it possible for a book to bring peace to the world? You would think that religious books, like the Bible or the Qur'an would bring peace to the world. Nope. Is it possible? I wonder.

It would be nice if it was possible. Don't you think?

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