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.




Sunday, April 18, 2021

Volume 1 - Rockin' the First Steps

Finally, the long awaited release of Volume 1 - Rockin' the First Steps is now on Sound Cloud. I had written these songs long before I had written any of the songs on Volumes 2 - 13. (That might be obvious, considering it's Volume 1.) But I decided to release Volumes 2 - 13 first because I believed they were better songs.

After all, the songs on Volume 1 were my "first steps" in writing songs. So I thought they might not be as good. But they are. They're different, to be sure. Whereas Volumes 2 - 13 are Rock songs for the most part, the Volume 1 songs are more like ballads. That's not to say they are love ballads, (well, three or four of them are.)



But seeing as how I'm a rocker at heart, I didn't think I would ever put these songs on a CD, but here they are. Fifteen songs in all. I began writing these songs when I was just 14 or 15. I remembered them from playing them once in a while on the piano. I had written songs before that, but I forget those, since I had no means of recording at that point in time. But these are the ones I remembered.

The song list is as follows:

01 - Tell Me When
02 - First Love
03 - Deja Vu
04 - It Was a Weight
05 - Lies Don't Last
06 - Two Hearts
07 - I'm Laughing
08 - Tale of Sorrow
09 - The Moment
10 - It's a Win
11 - One Day
12 - Good Times
13 - Cherub
14 - A New Deal
15 - Theme Song

Yes, I did rename most of these songs. When I wrote them as a teenager, I didn't really write the lyrics to the songs. I might have to a limited degree, but not entirely and not for all. So when I went back and rearranged the songs, like I did for Volumes 2 -13, I also rewrote the lyrics. Except for Theme Song, which has no lyrics, and thus, no real title. I was writing a story back then and so I came up with an instrumental "theme song" for it. As for the lyrics for the rest of the songs, they turned out pretty well. Click on the album cover in the right margin and have a listen. 

(Warning: As I did for the other albums, I will advise you to remember that I do not consider myself a singer. I only sang these songs because I didn't know anyone else who could.)

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