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.




Tuesday, November 2, 2010

November

I understand from everything I've read on agent blogs that November is the month to get your submissions in, because over December most people have the holidays in mind. Not that everything comes to a stand still, but with vacations, shopping, family reunions, etc, other things are happening and it all makes sense. Things will get back to normal in January.

So things are cracking with my query process for THE VASE, and wouldn't you know that my Word Program suddenly quit. Yeah, this past weekend, day before Halloween, and a publisher replied to a query asking for some sample writing to be pasted into an email. Then my file wouldn't open, and none of my files would open. I got the pop up window telling me that my Microsoft Word, 2010 had expired, and I had to uninstall the software.

I am not a computer geek or anything resembling a computer savvy person. In fact, I am only the next step above a computer illiterate. I know how to write on word docs and use email, I can research stuff on the internet, but that's about as far as it goes. Whenever my wife wants me to download, or even view photos she receives, or has taken, it's a major deal just to make that happen. I'm mostly guessing, and if I succeed, it's because I was in a hit or miss mode, and I don't even know what I did to make it happen.

Anyway, it seems that when my friend downloaded the Word Professional 2010 last December, it was only a temporary trial run thing, which neither of us realized. I happened to have one more download of Home and Student Word 2007 available so I managed to download that. But then the pop up windows kept telling me to uninstall the Word 2010. On the phone with my friend, I got it done, but then all my documents got fouled up.

Thank goodness, I didn't lose the information, that would have been a disaster. But then I noticed my word counts were significantly lower on all my manuscripts. After closer inspection, I discovered it was because at random locations in the manuscripts, the words got scrunched together on most of my files. Now, if I need to send attachments or cut and paste for submissions, I'm screwed. So my friend said he'd come by on Friday and reinstall the Word 2010 in the hope or making all the files right again. Sheesh. It's one of those WTF moments. Hope it works.
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