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.




Friday, October 29, 2010

Writing Contest Again

I usually don't participate in these, but I mentioned before that I like to participate in the ones held by Literary Agent Janet Reid. I like hers, as I've said, because they are short ones. 100 words or less. I even like the part about requiring five preselected words. You have to use them in the paragraph and make them all tie in.

This time the words were Paris, Temple, Kids, Loathing, and Cullen. At first, my reaction was...WHAT?? They didn't grab me like some of the preselected words in her prior contests, but she hinted that they all had something in common, and whoever guessed what they were would get bonus points.

So, OK. My entry is as follows:

Paris, 2099. Two decades since the Eiffel Tower fell. Matt Cullen viewed the temple that replaced it, and he barely remembered the once-great, metal-laced landmark. Kids threw rocks in the pits where studded concrete bared ambition, greed, and glorified decadence. He considered the good times when people cared, but those days were done. Now, just a loathing of anything capital drew societal nods. In a few short years, the world had plunged from the heights of private self-sufficiency to the lower depths of state-run depravity. But the reavers in the street didn’t mind. Their time had come.

No, I don't expect to win, but that's OK. My satisfaction comes from putting the five words into a paragraph that, to me, anyway, tells a great story in one hundred words or less.

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