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, July 18, 2016

Gregg Rolie's Concert Inspired

After seeing and thinking about Gregg Rolie's concert last Friday night, I am finding myself inspired. After all, I aspired to be a song writer in the not too distant past. I did write over a hundred songs, mostly rock songs that I had saved on several floppy discs and cassette tapes. That right there shows you how long ago I did that. It was twenty years ago.

Since then, I've been focused on being a father, a husband, and a school teacher. And now a book writer. But I was inspired by a rock band before. It was the return of Black Sabbath twenty years ago, which prompted the composition of most of my songs. Then I got into writing books the last ten years, and I've found a little bit of success at that. But now with Gregg Rolie's concert so fresh in my mind, I'm thinking about going back to my music.

When I started this blog, I posted the lyrics to the last music "album" I wrote. It was my"volume 13" and I called it Rockin' the Afterlife. I had no clue as to how to post the music to go with it, so I just stopped at that point. But now that I'm inspired again, I posted the lyrics today to the second to the last album I wrote. I had never named it, I just called it "volume 12" but in the spirit of giving albums names, I'll call it Rockin' the Cosmos. The lyrics will explain why, just as the lyrics explain the title Rockin' the Afterlife.

But I know that somehow it's possible to put the music on there too. I'm still figuring out how to put the music on my computer, and when I finally got that figured out, my next step will be to copyright it and then post it onto the blog. That way, I'll have another of my creative products accessible to the public. All of the music was written and performed by me. Which is not necessarily a good thing, because all of the instruments were simulated on a keyboard.

Overall, I think it sounds good enough. My dream would be for a live band to perform it, but playing in a live band is not so easy as it sounds. For now, the simulated instrumentation will have to do, and my own singing will have to do. Don't worry. I do hit the notes and I do stay in key. Obviously, I'm no Gregg Rolie. Not even close. But like I said. I do stay in key. I had a friend a long time ago who used to sing the Black Sabbath tunes while I played them on the piano. I remember that was a blast. He was good enough to stay in key, and he hit the notes, even though he was no singer. That's what made me think I could do it. Like him, I'm no singer, but I hit the notes. Stay tuned.

No comments:

Post a Comment