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, September 9, 2015

Inside the Outhouse creeping along

My WIP, Inside the Outhouse is a slowly developing story. I hate using the first person narrative, but for the YA genre, I've found most POVs are first person, so I'm going with it. One thing for sure. I'm never writing in first person again. This will be my only time. I don't understand why so many authors write in first person. It's a very limited POV. You can't switch to anywhere else in the story, or write anything other than what the main character is experiencing.

So I'll ride this one out, if for no other reason, to see how it goes. But even if it goes well, I'm still not going to write in first person again. I remember HG Wells and Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote some first person books. I read Well's War of the Worlds and one of Burroughs' Venus books as a teenager, and the first person narrative in those books didn't bother me.

But lately, any  book that's first person is a book I will put down and never pick up again. As for Inside the Outhouse, it's a good thing most people are not like me. After all, I wouldn't want anyone to pick up my book and then, after learning it's first person, put it back down. Nevertheless, I'll proceed and keep everyone posted here on the blog how it's coming along. RIght now, I'm only on chapter two, so like I said, it's creeping along. Slowly.

No comments:

Post a Comment