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, April 26, 2023

Revisions Went Well

 These past few months, I have been revising, revising, and revising. But not just my five books. My many songs as well. To date, I have completely revised The Vase, John Dunn, Second Chance, Killer of Killers, and I am pretty close to finishing the revisions to Killer Eyes.

Now to submit them to publishers again. They are better than ever, so I am optimistic. That doesn't really mean anything, I've learned, in the publishing world. It seems that so many people fancy themselves as authors, the field is gutted with submissions, and it's a hard-pressed industry to find the gems from the seemingly millions of submissions. Of course, my five books qualify.

I have also enjoyed revising many of my songs to the point that I am emboldened to continue revising even more of them. Mostly I revise songs because I want to improve the vocals. Since I am really not a singer, many of my songs must be re-sung. And the good news is that whenever I do re-sing a song on a recording, it does end up sounding better.

Which means the recordings are vastly improved for that reason. And a great thing about SoundCloud is that you can replace any of the files, (songs) on any of the Playlists (albums) at any time, and as many times as you want, (or need to.) So that is what I've been doing.

On Volume One, Rockin the First Steps, I've revised and replaced the files of the following songs: Tell Me When, It Was a Weight, Tale of Sorrow, I'm Laughing, The Moment, It's a Win, and One Day. And the vocals sound so much better now. That is not to say I'm a good singer now, I'm not. But at least I'm hitting the notes and I stay in key.

On Volume Two, Rockin the Millennium, I've replaced the following files: Demon Dance, Inferno, and Too Late. And ditto on the way they are better. On the song Too Late, I even rearranged  it so that it's about two minutes shorter. And it's better for that reason as well.

On Volume Three, Rockin the Hard Road, I've replaced all the files. Because I re-sang all the songs. And even rearranged some. As a result, the entire album is great. Those songs are some of my all-time favorites. And I'm very happy with that album now.

And the list goes on. As I was getting better every time I recorded, the remaining albums had less songs that needed replacing, but I will still keep on revising and keep on improving. 

That's what artists do.

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