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.




Friday, July 20, 2012

THE VASE Better Than Ever

After making KILLER OF KILLERS better than ever, now I've made THE VASE better than ever, too. I fixed all the ellipses and em dashes, by reducing how many are in there and making no spaces on either side of them. I've reduced the frequency of exclamation points, too.

And like I knew I would, I improved the writing while I was at it. Just like I did for KILLER OF KILLERS. It came down to a final read through for KOK, because it was crunch time. My editor was all set to send it in for publication. But as I posted at the time, I was waiting for one more round of edits. I was mildly surprised when my editor told me it didn't need another round. But I insisted. I knew I could make the writing even better, and I wanted to do it. You know, the last chance type of thing.

And I did. But THE VASE hasn't had that crunch time moment. I'm going to submit it to at least three more publishers, and I just finished reading through it, fixing those ellipses, em dashes and exclamation points.

But since it's not crunch time yet, I think I'll read through it still one more time. And this time will be for the specific purpose of addressing POV.

For KILLER OF KILLERS, my editors, (I had two of them) insisted to not have any POV switching occur during the same scene. And that was a major fix that I put it through, but it got done. In THE VASE during that last read through, I noted some places where that happened. I will have that in mind, now, since everything else in that manuscript is so polished, it's gleaming off the monitor.

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