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, January 24, 2011

Premise for THE VASE

One of the points I made in my queries for THE VASE is that there is a completely unique and original idea incorporated in the storyline. But I have never said just what it is in my blog. So now that a contract is signed, and THE VASE is on the road to publication I will reveal just what is so original and unique about it.

My novel, THE VASE, features actual video recordings from antiquity! But how can that be, you may ask, since the technology of making recordings wasn't invented until the late 1800s, right?

Well, that’s right. Thomas Edison managed to record sound onto tin foil wrapped around a spinning cylinder. People my age remember our first experiences with like devices as spinning vinyl discs we called records. But spinning technology is nothing new. Potters make vases by spinning clay on what they call a throwing wheel, and it's been done since way back when. And a lot of those vases have grooves encircling them. Yeah, grooves like in vinyl disks.

Since the technology involves electromagnetic fluctuation, powered by electricity, does that mean in ancient times, it wasn't available? Certainly not, as we all know that Benjamin Franklin proved that electricity is a natural occurrence, and scientists also know that electromagnetic fluctuation is another natural phenomenon. With the greatest source of electromagnetism being the sun, and since magnetic storms have bombarded earth throughout history, my story includes a natural recording of events onto spinning vases during periods of unusual solar activity that penetrated our atmosphere.

It begins with the accidental release of an ancient recording during an unusual geomagnetic storm focused over the Middle East. Imagine the history that could be recorded onto spinning ceramic vases throughout time. It's the idea a few publishers found intriguing, and now Virtual Tales has bought in. Look for THE VASE soon.

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