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, July 20, 2011

Best photo yet of John Dunn in prime


Well, here he is. The MC of my WIP. It's actually a lithograph of a portrait photo, but regardless, it's a much better version of the poor quality photo I posted a week ago, and therefore a better opportunity to see what he looked like before he got old and lost his hair.

So does this guy look like he could have 49 or 65 wives? I'll leave that to the ladies to decide. But aside from being a lady's man, he was a father of many, many children. Sources vary, as I wrote about yesterday, but some say he had 117, and other sources say over 150!

The strange thing about it is that none of these sources, not even his own notes, mention much about his family life. I mean the different books and websites confirm that he had all the wives and all those kids, but none of them say much about them, except that he built each wife her own house, and provided for all of them.

But there is one episode where he mentions that his eldest son was ill, and that the Zulu king sent his witchdoctors to cure him, (and they did!) But that's pretty much it.

Oh well, it's things like this that make me glad this is a NOVEL I'm writing.

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