with Vaughn Sherman
We are delighted to welcome novelist Vaughn Sherman to Omnimystery News today, courtesy of Partners in Crime Tours. We encourage you to visit all the participating host sites for his book tour; you can see his schedule here.
Vaughn's new spy thriller is Sasha Plotkin's Deceit (Camel Press, August 2012 trade paperback and ebook formats). We had the pleasure of talking to the author about his book.
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Omnimystery News: In our introduction, we described Sasha Plotkin's Deceit as a "spy thriller". Is that the term you would use as well?
Photo provided courtesy of
Vaughn Sherman
Vaughn Sherman: This novel is hard to categorize. Suspense? Definitely. Espionage? Yes. Family, too. And a love story. As a former career CIA operations officer I wanted to write about what it's really like for a family living abroad with a dad who's a "spook." With a husband who can't share his workday with his wife, nor explain where he was and what he was doing when he left town for three weeks. I wanted the story to be a realistic portrait of their lives, while at the same time telling about CIA operations that mirror real CIA efforts — without revealing secrets, of course. All this while satisfying the needs of the CIA Publication Reviews Board that nothing in the manuscript be classified information.
OMN: You are clearly writing from experience here. Did you base any of the characters in the book on yourself?
VS: There is a great deal of me in the book. The book's CIA protagonist, Chris, was born in Seattle and schooled there as I was, served on work boats as a young man in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, as I did, and joined the CIA. One significant difference is that I am not a Russian linguist, though I am proficient in other languages. Chris's CIA assignments follow my actual assignments rather closely.
OMN: What about the secondary characters? How did they come about?
VS: My emphasis is on relationships, and I tend to look at them from the view of my work as a mediator. I begin with an outline in my head, sketch it out only briefly in writing, then develop the characters as fully as possible. This way I let the characters speak for themselves as they begin the journey outlined in my plot.
OMN: You mentioned that Chris's assignments follow some of your own, though are no doubt fictionalized for the purpose of the book. Give us an example of something that found its way into the story.
VS: As explained briefly in the Author's Notes, I learned about a Swedish village that existed more than a century in what was part of the Russian Empire when it was founded, later in the Ukraine as part of the USSR. I heard about this village from a professor of linguistics at Sweden's Uppsala University while we were both visiting the U.S. Fascinated by the story, I met the professor again in Sweden and researched newspaper morgues for more information. Thinking I might write about it sometime in the future, I put all the results of my research in a file that I opened only decades later, when I sat down to begin writing Sasha Plotkin's Deceit.
OMN: The book takes place in Stockholm. Is that a city with which you are familiar?
VS: Yes. Though I lived in Stockholm about ten years earlier than my book takes place, much of the setting is true to the city. I wrote the descriptions from memory, old pictures and research. When the main character skis across a bridge near his home, he is doing something my family and I had done many times. When my family lived there, this was possible because the roads were not plowed clear of snow. Too late, I learned from a Swedish friend that about the time of the novel's setting, the locals began plowing snow from that bridge every winter. So one could say that I took a liberty with that setting.
OMN: Spy thrillers have proved to be very popular with readers. Give us your view of them as an insider.
VS: Unlike Ian Fleming's 007 series, which are clearly spoofs, the Bourne books by Robert Ludlum portray U.S. intelligence operations in a "shoot-'em-up" fashion that can lead readers to believe that this is what it's really like. They are great stories, but have almost no basis in the reality of U.S. intelligence operations.
On the other hand, John le Carré's espionage novels have a feel of what it's like, concentrating properly on the fact that human intelligence comes from human relationships, not from the barrel of a gun.
The contrast between these two types of the genre gave me a motive to set the record straight.
OMN: What are your interests outside of writing?
VS: I'm interested in reading, photography, and in particular anything having to do with boats. I always have a boat of some kind, currently a 20' Bayliner Trophy used for sightseeing in the San Juan Islands and for crabbing. Readers will find much about this personal interest in my novel.
OMN: You've written two other books. Tell us about those.
VS: Besides Sasha Plotkin's Deceit, the other two are: Walking the Board Walk, advice on improving and enjoying governance of nonprofits; and Sea Travels, Memoirs of a 20th Century Master Mariner, the autobiography of J. Holger Christensen as told to Vaughn Sherman. I am planning a book tour in Alaska next spring for Sea Travels.
OMN: Name a few authors, whose books you enjoy reading.
VS: John le Carré, John Sandford, Michael Connelly, etc. In other words I enjoy novels having to do with espionage, law and order and courtroom dramas. My tastes are eclectic. I also read a variety of nonfiction.
OMN: Will there be a sequel to Sasha Plotkin's Deceit?
VS: I am currently outlining another novel, one that uses some of the characters found in Sasha Plotkin's Deceit but is more of a thriller.
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Vaughn Sherman was born and educated in Seattle, Washington. After working as a fisheries biologist in Alaska and Washington State, he was recruited by the CIA and served as an operations officer for more than twenty years, mostly abroad. Taking early retirement, Vaughn became involved in numerous community activities, mostly involving the governance of non-profit agencies and community colleges. He and his wife, Jan Lind-Sherman, live in the Pacific Northwest.
For more information about the author, visit his website at VaughnSherman.com or find him on Facebook. He is also the founder (with his wife) of Patos Island Press, a publisher of quality fiction and non-fiction, often focusing on Northwest topics and authors.
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Sasha Plotkin's Deceit
Vaughn Sherman
Publisher: Camel Press
It is 1972, and the Soviet Union has succeeded in planting a mole in the top echelons of the Central Intelligence Agency. Three years earlier, CIA officer Chris Holbeck took part in a failed mission to engineer the defection of a Soviet KGB officer who may know the mole's identity. His name is Sasha Plotkin.
When they were both stationed in Stockholm, Sweden, Chris and Sasha connected on a personal level. Then, on the day of the Soviet agent's defection, Sasha was a no-show. Chris would soon discover the full extent of Sasha Plotkin' deceit.
Now Sasha has resurfaced and wishes to make another attempt to defect. Despite the risk to his life and his marriage, Chris answers the call of duty. If Chris succeeds in transporting Sasha to the United States will the Soviet agent reveal the true identity of the mole?
One thing is certain: the lives of the two men will be forever changed.
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