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.




Wednesday, November 23, 2022

Revisions Continue

 Well, I talked about revising. As in revising many of the 145 songs I've written. (Contained in the 14 albums I've "dropped" at this time.) This revising includes re-singing many of them as well. And of course, the result is better songs.  

But at the same time, I've been revising my novels. I have the rights to all of them now, and I have focused on improving them. It makes sense. I'm older now, and more experienced now. I have a better understanding of how to write a novel.

So after doing so, I have resubmitted John Dunn, The Vase, and Second Chance for publication with different publishers. Each book is submitted to a different publisher, that is. (As well as different publishers than the original publishers.) It will be a long wait, but the time goes by whether you submit or not. I had revised each of those three books countless times over the past couple years, so it goes without saying they are all vastly improved at this point.

As for Killer of Killers and Killer Eyes? When I got the rights back I went right to work on revising them too. I found a publisher in the UK who specializes in the genre of Crime Fiction and Thrillers. Just right for my Martial Arts Thrillers. This publisher also noted that in his view a thriller novel should be around 72,000 words or so. So I promptly revised Killer of Killers, which stood at 88,000 words, down to 72,000 words. That's 16,000 words I cut out. And you know what? It's a lot better for doing that.

As for Killer Eyes? It was a novel with 96,000 words. And I'm just now finishing my first pass through it and I've already cut out 12,000 words. So, it's at 84,000 words now, but I'm not finished. I will give it another pass and then another, and if need be another until I'm in the 72,000 range. Can't wait. Because then, I'll submit that one too.

As for my music? I'm not quite done revising my songs yet. I still have to redo the percussion on Looking Back and maybe re-sing parts of Volume 12 and 13. Maybe I'll have time over Christmas break. The good news is I'm pretty much done revising and re-singing Volumes 1 - 11, and 14 too at this point. And those songs are all sounding great right now, even with my less-than-ideal singing voice. But I'm cool with that. Hope you are too. Hope you have time to give some of them a listen. 

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