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 30, 2015

Ruined Shows Patched Up

A week ago I was not feeling good about a couple of my favorite shows. A week later it seems that the two shows made a comeback. Particularly the one show. Which I won't name. It took a turn for the better this weekend, and oh heck, I'll just name it. Black Sails. My two favorite pirate captains ended up teaming up. They had been uneasy allies in the past, then they became mortal enemies, and now they are fighting side by side and are allies again.

The two actors who play them, Toby Stephens as Captain Flint and Zach McGowan as Captain Vane, really do look like great pirate captains. Toby Stephens looks just like what a former British naval commander turned pirate captain should look like, and Zach McGowan looks just like what a former slave turned pirate captain should look like. (In case you are not familiar with Black Sails, Captain Vane is not black even though he's a former slave. There were some flashbacks to when he was a slave, but it seemed that his slavery days were when he was a young boy.)

Just how Vane overcame all of that is still not clear, but he's a pirate captain now, and it suits him. Just like Captain Flint. And even though the second season just ended, there seems to be a lot to look forward to, meaning another favorite actor of mine, Ray Stevenson will be coming to the show. From what I saw in the preview for next season, it looks like Stevenson will be playing the part of Blackbeard the pirate. At least he looked like Blackbeard, with a black beard and all.

As for the other show, The Walking Dead, it made a comeback for me, at least somewhat. Rick is back form acting weird, and the show explained, or rather he explained that he was right in everything he said, (if not what he did,) and the show made it so that everyone else could see he was right. So everyone seems to be on the same page as Rick now, except for the reappearance of Morgan, a guy who lets cold blooded killers live, even after they attempted to kill him, and then of course the cold blooded killers go on to kill someone else.

It seems that Morgan needs a lesson from my own character, Trent Smith in Killer of Killers. You kill the killers so they won't go on killing other innocent people. Or he could learn the same lesson from the guy in the same show. Rick. He believes, as does Trent Smith, that you gotta get rid of the bad guys. They'll only keep on being bad. And no one is the better for having bad guys living amongst them. You know what? That's true in real life too. How about that.

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