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.




Thursday, August 25, 2011

Zulu War Imminent

So 61,000 words into my WIP, John Dunn, Heart of a Zulu, the year is 1873, and Cetshwayo has just been crowned king of Zululand. But it's a short reign. It's no spoiler, it's history after all. In five years Cetshwayo will find his country being invaded by the British Empire. And it's sad, really, because he had always considered the British as his friends.

It was the Boers on his northern and western borders who were trouble for the Zulus, and Cetshwayo considered the English colonists to the south in Natal the friendlier neighbor.

But although the Boers and Zulus were in constant disputes over land issues which broke into vicious fighting now and then, they never really had an all out war. Leave that to the English who declared war against the Zulus in 1878. Poor Cetshwayo. He tried his best to get along with the English, but they had other ideas: The fall and subsequent annexation of Zululand.
Posted by at
Labels:

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)