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, March 9, 2015

Meanwhile, Second Chance Over 55,000 Words

I was talking about how John Dunn was over 123,000 words, well I've still been working on Second Chance, and it's over 55,000 words now. I suspect it may reach 75,000 words, which will be a good enough amount of words for a book like that.

And what kind of book like that is it? I call it a sports story. More specifically a football story. There's no sex, practically no violence, as almost all of the action is on a football field. In fact you might have to be a football player to understand a lot of what's going on. Maybe not.

Yes, it's character driven. And like all my books, there's a lot of characters, and the POV does change to follow some different characters. Of course I use the scene break when I change POV, as I've learned that lesson by now. It flows well, I think. But I'm still on the first draft, and like all books, it will be revised who knows how many times.

I'm still involved in my agent search too. And I've got a couple agent rejections by now. I'm thinking that a historical novel like John Dunn would have more of a chance of attracting an agent. I've queried about a dozen or so by now. And I'm only a week into it, so those two responses came pretty quickly. Still I hope I do land an agent. Agents can get you into the Big Six and get your books made into movies too. Hope it happens. Fingers crossed.

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