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.




Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Back to School Night Tonight

Yes, tonight is Back to School Night, which means I'll be busy here at work until about nine o'clock tonight. Maybe I'll have a chance to go home for an hour or two, but I won't have much time to work on my books.

But taking a one day break is okay. Sometimes you get too close to a book and you don't see the errors or the clunkers in it. (Clunkers are spots of shoddy prose.) And when you come back to it and you see them, you wonder how you missed them in the first place.

It's happened a lot to me. So you just keep on going, that's all. Eventually, all the errors get fixed, and the clunkers, too. It's called time. It takes time to perfect a novel. A lot of time.
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