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.




Friday, March 28, 2025

Happy Birthday to an Old Friend

I am working diligently on revising my novel, The Vase, so as to resubmit it for publication, this time with an independent press. I am confident that once my latest revisions are done, it will be worthy, once again, for publication. But as I paused to consider this day, I remembered that this day, March 28th, is the birthday of an old friend. A friend I had lost contact with long ago. Actually, it's the childhood friend I had when we used to play the Black Sabbath songs. I had posted once that I would play the Black Sabbath songs on the piano, and he would sing the lyrics. No, he wasn't a singer. What he was, was a drummer. But he sang the songs in tune, and hit every note. Those were enjoyable times for me. Because, at the time, Black Sabbath was my favorite rock band. Flash forward years later, to now: I have written my own music, and as I had posted before, it was when I remembered that this childhood friend was singing the Sabbath songs well enough, even though he wasn't a singer, that I too could sing songs, especially when those songs were my own songs that I had written! So hats off to this old friend, because it was those memories that convinced me that I could sing my own songs which I do now, and you and anyone else can listen to one or all of them by clicking on any of the links to the right of this post that feature the 14 albums of original songs I have written over the years. And yes, I plan on dropping my fifteenth album this coming summer.

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