Characters, THE VASE - The Ghost Hunter

I think a great story, no matter how serious or dramatic, should have an element of comedy. Enter Harvey Holmes, the Sherlock of Haunted Houses and host to the Reality TV show, Harvey's Haunted Hunts. There's only one problem. The show's ratings. They're in the cellar. And as the story unfolds, we learn that the director of Harvey's Haunted Hunts, Melvyn Bloomberg, makes the tough decision. The show is cancelled. Well, this leaves Harvey in a lurch. He's no longer a hot commodity, and despite the recent popularity of Ghost Hunting shows, he finds himself unemployed.

But he gets a lucky break. A particular restaurant in Nazareth's Old City Market experienced an unsettling incident of unexplained apparitions. So what can the restaurant owner, Achmed Arabis, do when his establishment is cursed by the local holy men? Seek out the ghost hunter most likely to bring about a resurgence of his business, that's what. Harvey's show, like so many today, was broadcast across the world via satellite feeds, and Achmed just happened to be a viewer. So off to Hollywood he goes, and since Harvey is now available, the ghost hunter agrees to exorcise the ghosts at the restaurant. It makes for an interesting subplot, and an integral element to the main plot as the different plotlines converge in the story's climax.

Characters, THE VASE - Mary Levin

Today I get to talk about Mary Levin, the beautiful assistant to the director of Mossad. I mean what good is a story without a beautiful girl, right? And Mary Levin is just that; a very beautiful girl. But make no mistake about it she is a capable woman. She’s an army veteran. A former captain in the IDF. But she is retired from the military. And the director of Mossad, Ari Abrams, would rather have a competent and reliable beautiful woman as his assistant, than a competent and reliable old or plain woman, (or man,) as his assistant.

Now Mary is a widow, childless, and has suffered more than her share of loss during the continuous conflicts that plague the region. Her priority is the defense of Israel, and as such, was not averse to a role in Mossad. In fact, one of her jobs is to recruit potential candidates to serve as Mossad, and that’s just what she did with Professor Weiss. Though Weiss is somewhat older, Mary is infatuated with him. Not only is he dedicated to Israel, as is she, he still has what it takes to attract a woman, as he is still in good shape, and he hasn’t lost his hair.

And Mary can have any man she wants, right? Well, Professor Weiss has something else in mind besides romance right now. Revenge. But he might be better off to remember the old adage: if you snooze, you lose, because a much younger and equally handsome man is vying for Mary’s hand: Captain Benny Mathias, the fellow Mossad operative, who is also the head of Kidon.

Characters, THE VASE - The Captain

The potter, his family, and Professor Hiram Weiss may be the premiere characters in THE VASE, but other characters weigh in, as well.

There is the captain, Weiss’s fellow Mossad operative. But Captain Benny Mathias is much more than that. He is an active captain in the IDF, and he also is the head of Kidon, which as some of you may know, is the division of Mossad in charge of assassination. Yes, Captain Benny Mathias is a war veteran, and he is a killer. But his experiences have taken a toll on the man. He has lost all faith in god. What with the rampant killing in the region, that includes innocent women and children losing their lives, he cannot fathom a world with such atrocities being permitted by a higher power. No, Captain Mathias is an atheist, and nothing short of a miracle would ever change his mind on that.

But he’s not looking for any miracle. It is for Israel he fights. His entire life is dedicated to the preservation of Israel, and he has had no time for love, no time for marriage, and no time for a family of his own. But it doesn’t mean he has no feelings. The beautiful assistant to the director of Mossad has caught his eye. And she's been a widow for many years now. Will she return his affections? Or will she reserve her ardor for the professor from Bethel University?

Tomorrow, we’ll talk about Mary Levin, a former IDF captain, herself, and current personal assistant to Ari Abrams, the director of Mossad.

Characters, THE VASE - Professor Weiss

Professor Hiram Weiss is an art historian. He has full tenure at Bethel University in Nazareth. Sure Bethel University is a ficticious university, but I thought it preferable to go that route instead of using a real university. When he lost his wife and son to the region's conflict, he was quick to accept an offer from Mossad. They needed an expert on vases to monitor the pottery shop where the professor's son lost his life to terrorists who were hiding in there.

Weiss is a good man, a dedicated Israeli, and he believes wholeheartedly in the Jewish faith. But he is obsessed with hatred. Hatred for terrorists and anything that has to do with Arabs. That would include Muhsin and his Pottery Shop. You see, not only is the pottery shop run by a Palestinian, but the clay delivery men are the terrorists. At first they are Hamas, but when the Hamas leader negotiates a peace treaty with Israel, the terrorists disavow their leader and go rogue. So, in this story, anyway, the terrorists are a splintered group, no longer a part of Hamas or any other faction in the region.

And Weiss is not going to let any peace agreement interfere with his revenge. In fact, nothing will stop him from attaining it. Not even a special vase, of which he is the only one to figure out why it's so special. But does it cost him his life? Or does it save him?

Main Characters in THE VASE

Unlike KILLER OF KILLERS, my first novel, (yet to be published) which has only one main character, Trent Smith, the greatest martial artist in the world, THE VASE revolves around several main characters.

Today, I’ll talk about Muhsin Muhabi and his son, Naji, because the story begins with them. Muhsin is a hard-working Palestinian who makes a meager living as a potter in the old city market of modern day Nazareth. He’s a Muslim, as Muslims are the majority in Nazareth, but Muhsin doesn’t go to the mosques or bow down at the call for prayer. He knows his heritage, and knows his place in the world. For him, his place is with his son, Naji, a fourteen-year old boy who knows only the pottery shop, since he doesn’t go to school, and their life is in Nazareth, where Muhsin and Naji were born.

Despite the Palestinian unrest in Israel, Muhsin doesn’t protest, nor does he partake in riots or demonstrations, or pickets, or anything that brings any attention to him. All he wants to do is make vases, pots, and amphorae to sell in the market and take care of Naji. He’s a single father, because his wife Sanya had left him and Naji three years prior after their first born son, Ali, was killed by IDF soldiers during what came to be known as the Ramadan Rebellion. Sanya is not Palestinian. She’s Syrian and she returned to her parents in Syria to escape the strife she came to know in Israel.

Naji, like any fourteen year-old boy, is growing fast and is taken by the unrest that surrounds him. He is easily influenced, and much of that influence is from the wrong corners of the town. He questions his father’s simple ways, and hates his mother, Sanya, when she returns to Nazareth to be reunited with her family.

Once they are together again, all they want is to be left alone and be a happy family. Unfortunately for them, others make for a difficult intrusion into their lives, mainly the terrorists who are recruiting Naji to partake in a plot to assassinate the Pope and Israeli prime minister.

But Mushin, Sanya, and Naji are good people. An innocent family caught up in the conflict, and they respond, I believe, as any good family would. One thing that really does impact their circumstances is the very old vase that Muhsin has kept in his basement. It's part of a collection that belonged to his father. You'll have to read the book to find out more about that.

Tomorrow, we’ll talk about Professor Hiram Weiss.

New Text Under Blog Header

You may notice the spiel under my header is more detailed in its description of my novel, THE VASE, and it introduces some of the characters by name. I'm not sure if I should be so wordy right there, but I didn't know where else to put the back cover copy. Maybe I will revert to the more simplistic version I had before. You may remember it went like this:

The Vase, a novel soon to be published by Virtual Tales

featuring:

A simple merchant in the old city market
An art professor who moonlights for Mossad
An IDF veteran, now the head of Kidon
A reality TV host whose ghost-hunting show just flopped

I have another version of back cover copy, but it's on my teacher's website. I like it better actually, but I thought different ones for different sites are preferable because then people won't be reading the same thing all over again. As for which one makes it onto the actual back cover of the book, or onto the Virtual Tales site description of the book, I would think it would be the other one. This one here looks more fit for a bullet type format. But both give the reader a better idea of what THE VASE is about.

On Monday, I'll talk about the characters in more depth.

Time Frame to Print

So how long does it take for a book to get published once a contract has been signed? From what I’ve read and researched, a reputable publisher will get your book published in about a year from the point your contract has been signed. Any less time than that would be indicative of a lesser quality publication. The publisher and author must go through a few rounds of edits, which, in itself may take several months. There is the copy-editing, there is the cover design, there is the proof reading, there is the marketing and promotion strategy. I can see how it will take a year.

And that’s just what Virtual Tales has told me. In about a year is when I will see THE VASE in print. OK, so that jives with my information. So I don’t know if I should keep saying “…soon to be published...” Is a year considered soon? I supposed that’s a relative question. Relative to never, or yet to be sold manuscript, I guess it’s acceptable to say soon. But not so soon as in a couple months. Yet the months do go by quickly, and with that in mind, then, again, soon can be used appropriately in my promotion of the book.

Since I signed in January, I’m hoping THE VASE will be released in time for Christmas. They haven’t made mention of that yet. I am a newbie, after all, one of the latest kids on the Virtual Tales block, so I can’t be pushy. I will go with the flow, and trust the words I have received from other authors at this point. They seem to genuinely love being Virtual Tales authors, and I like what’s happened so far, which really isn’t a lot. I expect the editing to begin shortly, it’s what they said. So, like I’ve said, I will keep every step of the way chronicled right here on this blog. Stay tuned.