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, September 13, 2012

The Blogging Phase Dying Out?

A lot of bloggers are no longer blogging. Even the most famous one, whose name I shall not mention now, even though I've mentioned it before, has become an infrequent poster on the blogosphere. Several bloggers whose blogs I used to read no longer blog at all.

So is the phase dying out? Is Twitter the next phase? I never twittered and don't expect to any time soon. I don't even know how to do it. The reason I blogged at all was to make an effort to establish a "platform" which, I had learned from reading blogs, was something an author needed if they wanted to be successful.

And now that I have a book published, I'm not even sure that this blog has led to a single sale of a single book. Or even a digital file. Two of the bloggers who had followed my blog are no longer blogging. Which, to me anyway is unfortunate, because I read their blogs and looked forward to buying their books when they became available.

So what happened to them? I don't know if their books were ever published, don't know if they just gave up, or what. It's kind of sad to me. I had hoped that one of them would be a beta reader for my fourth novel, John Dunn, Heart of a Zulu. But I guess that won't happen.

Speaking of which, it's time to get back to these other books I wrote. John Dunn is one of them, of course, but the book I should really start concentrating on is Killer Eyes, the sequel to Killer of Killers. And then the third and final entry into the Trent Smith story, The Killers Guild. But I haven't even outlined that one yet. But I'm getting some good ideas for it. Stay tuned.
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