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, June 1, 2011

Behind Blue Eyes

No one knows what it's like... Yeah, that was a great song by The Who. Behind Bue Eyes. Well, I don't have blue eyes. They're green. And a lot of people, actually, do know what it's like. But I'm not talking about eyes. And I'm not talking about "bad" guys, either. I'm talking about writers. They know what it's like to be waiting on a submission.

The funny thing about exclusive submissions is that they make sense and they don't make sense. They make sense because you gotta understand where a publisher is coming from when they are reviewing a manuscript. They don't want to take several weeks deciding whether they will publish it or not, and then, right when they're on the verge of going for it, they get a call from the author saying, "Uhm, you know that manuscript I sent you? Well, I just signed a contract with another publisher."

But on the other side of the coin, exclusive submissions don't make sense. Not for the writer, anyway, because his or her manuscript is being held up for what, a month, two months, sometimes three months, and even up to four. And if that publisher at the end of those months decides, "Naahh... it's not for us..." then damn, all those months are wasted. And yeah, completely wasted. You can't get that time back. All those months you could have been submitting to several other publishers, one of whom may have actually decided to accept it. But because it was held up with someone else instead... someone who didn't want it afterall, it didn't happen.

It's true. For writers, it just doesn't make sense. Agreeing to exclusive submissions could take several years to find a publisher at that rate. Whereas, mulitple submissions might have found a publisher in a fraction of that time.

So when a reputable publisher asks for an exclusive submission, what do you say? You say yes. That's what you say!

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