Oddity Media (2011)
ISBN 9780615505442
Reviewed by Richard R. Blake for Reader Views (8/11)

Today, Tyler R. Tichelaar of Reader Views is pleased to interview Henry Mosquera about his new book “Sleeper’s Run.”

Henry Mosquera is a writer and artist born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela. He attended the University of Miami, Florida, where he obtained a double major in Graphic Design and Film. As a writer, he enjoys researching his novels extensively, including gaining firsthand knowledge of some of his characters’ skills. He currently resides in Los Angeles with his wife, dog, and cat. “Sleeper’s Run” is his first novel.

Tyler: Welcome, Henry. Will you begin by telling us about the title “Sleeper’s Run” and what it signifies?

Henry: Thank you. Sure, in essence “sleepers” are undercover agents who are not engaged in acts of intrigue until they are activated by their controllers. “Run” is pretty self-explanatory. As for the significance, that’s for the readers to find out.

Tyler: The main character, Eric Caine, is found wandering the streets of Miami without remembering the car accident that left him there. Will you tell us a little about him and how severe his memory loss is?

Henry: It’s not severe. In that particular case, a concussion from the accident affected Eric’s memory. He also experiences blackouts due to continuous heavy drinking. The guy is a complete mess when we first meet him.

Tyler: I understand Eric has been fighting the War on Terror. Will you tell us more about his role?

Henry: I’d rather let the readers discover that for themselves. It’s not that it’s a really big mystery, but the book was designed to unfold at a certain pace. Like any good storyteller, I want to take people on a journey; the path is as interesting as the destination, sometimes even more. Eric is one fun and remarkable guy to get to know. It was a real pleasure writing him. All I will say is I’m very proud and honored to give a tip of the hat to the amazing men he represents. These professionals are rarely acknowledged by the media, if ever, but they are always there, quietly doing an incredible job while others unwittingly take the lion’s share of the credit.

Tyler: How does Eric’s PTSD affect him?

Henry: Basically, it has hindered his re-acclimatization into society and this prevents his life from moving forward. Eric has a gamut of symptoms: irritability, outbursts of anger, nightmares, loss of interest in life, a sense of a limited future; my boy is a mess! I wanted to shed some light into the issues of our returning veterans and the fact that little has been done or said about their psychological needs. There’s a whole generation of young American soldiers out there with this problem, and little has been done to help them. I ran into a few veterans in my research. They served in conflicts like Vietnam, the first Gulf War, and Iraq, and I drew from their experiences to craft Eric’s malady.

Tyler: I understand Eric also has to escape some CIA assassins—are the CIA the bad guys in the novel?

Henry: No, I don’t believe in good or bad guys. We live in a society that tries very hard to over-simplify everything, and the fact is our world cannot be synthesized into a few news bites. I don’t write in black and white; fans of John le Carré will be familiar with this style of presenting a story. Due to storytelling dynamics, “Sleeper’s Run” has protagonists and antagonists, but I leave the qualifiers to the reader. The way I see it, these are all people making choices based on their ideals, history and idiosyncrasies. The CIA is tasked to provide foreign intelligence to protect the citizens of the United States and help its allies. Their participation in the hunt for Bin Laden is a good example of this. On the other hand, there’s a long documented history of political assassinations, coup d’états, sabotage and other questionable practices. You can’t treat geopolitics like a Saturday morning cartoon.

Tyler: Eric is originally from Venezuela. Will you tell us how that affects the story and what made you decide to have Venezuela as his home, besides the fact that you are from Venezuela yourself?

Henry: I thought the current political climate in Venezuela would make for an interesting story. It is also an original setting. To my knowledge, no one has written fiction about Venezuela in this genre or has a native protagonist. I also wanted to present a Latin America free of the usual clichés we find in pop-culture. Readers will get to see my country through my point of view, both the positive and the negative.

As for how Venezuela affects the story, I have never encountered a protagonist in this genre that comes from a multi-ethnic background. Eric is a character informed by two nations. He understands both from the inside and at the same time, has a personal stake in each one; this also makes him an outsider in both cultures. This gives Eric a chance to see things from a more objective perspective. Nationality and its definition is certainly an undercurrent theme in the book.

Tyler: Henry, what do you consider those clichés of Latin America in pop-culture, and how did you strive not to repeat them since you come from a more informed perspective?

Henry: Every time you see Latin America in pop-culture, it usually focuses on the negative side: violence, corruption, drugs, totalitarian regimes, etc. They never show the other part of the equation. You rarely see modern infrastructure, racial pluralism, contemporary lifestyles, or degrees of education.

Even though Latin American countries share common cultural and historical aspects, they aren’t one indistinguishable entity as presented by the media. In movies, it is common to see an Argentinean character with a northern Mexican accent for example. That would be as realistic as having a Texan character speaking like an Australian. Also, for some strange reason, perfectly bilingual characters feel the need to throw in trivial Spanish words when they speak English. I’m sure it is done to add “flavor” to the dialog, but there are more accurate ways of portraying a non-English speaker.

I don’t fall for those clichés by virtue of being born and raised in a Latin American country. I present Venezuela the way I knew it, with its merits and faults. I also strive to do the same with every country in the book. I don’t want them to be just interesting backdrops, but real places inhabited by real people.

Tyler: Can you tell us how Eric comes to the U.S. from Venezuela—why and how old he was, for example?

Henry: In the book, we learn that Eric’s father is an American Petrochemical Engineer, who was assigned to work in Caracas where he met Eric’s mother, a Venezuelan. So right from the beginning, Eric is a child of two worlds. Due to his father’s job and upbringing, Eric gets to travel a lot, but Venezuela is his home until he graduates from high school at the tender age of sixteen. He goes to college in the U.S. and basically remains there until the events of the novel.

Tyler: Am I correct that there’s also a bit of romance in the novel? Will you tell us about that?

Henry: Yes, there’s definitely a great relationship in the novel, but I don’t want to spoil it for the readers. This is perhaps an unusual move for this type of thriller, but then again, I’m trying to do things differently or at least go down the less-traveled path. On the outside, “Sleeper’s Run” might seem like a very guy-oriented story. Yet women have been avid readers and supporters of my work even before it was published. A good story is gender-blind.

Tyler: One thing our reviewer here at Reader Views liked about the novel was how you juggle the present with the back-story and flashbacks. Will you tell us a little about your writing process and how you organized the timeframe of the novel?

Henry: Even though my book is a work of fiction, it is based on non-fiction sources, so research plays a huge role in my writing. For this novel, I even underwent some interesting training in order to understand the psychology and mechanics of some of the skills presented in the plot. Everything is grounded in reality; that’s very important to me. I also draw from my own experiences and those around me. After I assimilate enough information, I let it marinate in my head until it’s distilled into the plot. The idea is to display knowledge without bogging down the story with technical details.

I don’t write a lot of notes, except for a plot synopsis, a loose breakdown of the chapters and the main characters’ timelines. Basically, I take them from their birth to the present and every important point in their lives: graduations, time in the service, relevant training, previous jobs, etc. This gives me a thorough understanding of the main players and becomes priceless when it comes down to weaving their stories into the plot. The reason I juggled with the past and present was to give the reader an in-depth understanding of each character without interrupting the flow of the book. I enjoy experimenting with these different ways to present a story. The reader experiences the story as it unfolds along with the characters.

Tyler: Henry, when I introduced you I also mentioned that you came to the U.S. to study film and graphic design. What led you to decide to write a novel then?

Henry: Some people have a knack for science, sports, music, etc. I’m a born creator with a natural inclination for storytelling. When other children played with Batman, I was creating my own superheroes and telling my own adventures. To me, the medium is just a tool to tell a story; each art form offers unique strengths and weaknesses. What I love about novels is the freedom they give me. There’s practically no constraint in time, budget or character development. It’s just me toying with my ideas in a seemingly endless playground.

Tyler: Have film or graphic design influenced your writing at all?

Henry: Definitely. I’m a very visual person. My writing process is more akin to court reporting. I sit down and try to type down the scenes in my head as they play out. Sometimes I struggle to keep up with the pace. You could sit me in front of a bunch of producers right now and I could layout how this novel can be adapted into film in great detail. With that said, I’m quite aware that I’m writing a novel, not a film adaptation. If I wanted to do that, I would have written “Sleeper’s Run” as a script.

There’s also an innate aesthetic sense to the story; that’s the influence of my graphic artist side. You can see it in the choice of settings, decoration, cars, clothes; even weapons (although there’s an important performance component to these). There are stylistic preferences. Those who are familiar with these things will add to their experience; those who aren’t, are not missing out on anything important.

Tyler: Did you always envision “Sleeper’s Run” as a novel, or did you think of writing a film script of it first—do you foresee adapting it to a film in the future? And I saw on your website you also have an interest in comic books—is that a possibility down the road for new adaptations of the novel?

Henry: “Sleeper’s Run” was always meant to be a novel. I wanted to take advantage of the unique strengths of the literary format to tell the story. A good example of this is the use of Eric’s peculiar inner narrative, which makes it stand out from other works in the genre; you can’t really pull that off effectively in film.

As far as being adapted, it can be easily turned into a movie, but the key word is “adaptation.” I think some elements would be lost in the translation between the two mediums, yet others could be brought forward or enhanced. The question would be, how much of the book’s uniqueness, voice and soul would remain? That is the eternal conundrum with film adaptations.

Making a comic book version would be amazing. I even have a few artists in mind that could do wonders with the novel. I love the medium; it’s how I first really started to learn English as a kid. Originally, I wanted to be a comic book writer and artist, but talk about a highly impenetrable industry, especially for writers. I have my comic book plans as well, which are by no way limited to adaptations. Like I said before, I like to create regardless of the medium.

Tyler: Our reviewer here commented about your knowledge of weapons and martial arts. Do you have an interest in these things anyway, or did you just research them for your novel? Do you ever find yourself bored with things you research that point you toward or away from including something—I guess as stylistic preferences?

Henry: When other kids wanted to play baseball, soccer, etc. I wanted to throw punches and kicks. So martial arts have been part of my life from a very early age. I knew that martial arts were going to be a prominent element in “Sleeper’s Run” from the beginning. I took great care in making the fights in the book technically correct and realistic, both physically and psychologically. In the novel, there’s a clear defining line between self-defense, combat and martial arts. The situations change between facing trained or untrained opponents; and between someone who is good in the gym or in the ring, versus a person who fights to kill. Intent makes a world of difference in a real fight.

I also have a fascination with the military, technology, history, languages and travel. So, I pulled from those experiences to inform the novel. Hobbies like scuba diving, climbing and motorcycle riding also helped. On top of that, I underwent a few courses as research for the book, which included urban survival, flying, first aid and handling guns and knives. You can say I have both a personal interest and a professional curiosity for those things.

I love research; it’s one of the great things about being a writer. I enjoyed each book I read, every class I took and all the people whose brains I got to pick. I aim for accuracy; the only time I didn’t include something I researched was in pro of the flow of the story. There’s a delicate balance between displaying knowledge and bogging down the plot with technical minutia. In the end, I’m telling a story, not writing a how-to manual.

Tyler: This is your first novel, so what did you find most challenging or what about writing a novel did you not expect when you set out to write it?

Henry: The challenge was how to include all the themes I wanted to touch on into a clear, easy to read story. I had to write a fictional novel heavily influenced by non-fiction sources, which had to be entertaining without losing its substance. It also had to be accurate and able to speak to an American, Latino and international audience on equal grounds.

The one thing I wasn’t expecting was what I call “writer’s flow,” which is the opposite of “writer’s block.” Many times I found myself in a crossroads trying to find the best path to take. I had many answers to the same question and I had to be intuitive as to which would be the most suitable. I guess that’s just the nature of how I write. My style is very improvisational; I do my homework before I begin to type and then I just go wherever the story and the characters take me. Sometimes they pull me in different directions at the same time.

Tyler: You mentioned John le Carré earlier. Would you say you have any other literary influences upon your writing style, either that you are emulating or that you are reacting against?

Henry: Emulate, none. I’m very concerned about having my own voice. That’s why I resisted reading thrillers when I took on this project. I had to concede at the insistence of one of my editor’s, but even then I made it a point to be unique every time I could.

Influences, yes. Le Carré not only is a great writer, but he walked the walk as a member of MI6 and MI5. Frederick Forsyth is definitely someone I look up to and so is Arturo Pérez-Reverte, my favorite fiction author. Although not on purpose or directly, James Grady’s “Six Days of the Condor” is a spiritual influence and so are David Morell’s “First Blood,” and Richard Condon’s “The Manchurian Candidate.” Of course, no one writing in what can be deemed as a “techno-thriller” can ignore the stamp of its pioneers, Michael Crichton and Tom Clancy, as well the fathers of the hyper-competent tough guy, Robert Ludlum and Ian Fleming. Interestingly enough, the biggest literary influence in “Sleeper’s Run” came from Junot Díaz. The narrative, humor and humanity of his book “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” was really inspiring to me.

As far as reacting against something, it’s not a particular writer, but a permeating trend in political thrillers. The genre is dominated by national, ethnic-centric protagonists who have limited worldviews. These characters are usually proficient killing machines that we might fantasize about, but with whom we really can’t relate. I wanted Eric to be fallible, to have a sense of humor, to experience awkwardness, fears and confusion just like the rest of us. I wanted a guy who watched the same movies or listened to the same music that readers have watched or heard. He might be extremely good at certain things, but you can still see the shy computer geek he would have turned out to be if it weren’t for his time in the military. More importantly, I wanted to show a world that is a little more complex; where there are no easy answers, cozy resolutions or well-defined sides. In short, it is a world closer to the one we live in.

Tyler: What is next for you? Do you plan to write any more novels, or do you have other artistic projects on hand?

Henry: Right now I’m devoting all of my time and effort to promote “Sleeper’s Run,” but I’m always working on something. Book-wise, I have other novels in the pipeline, but they aren’t thrillers. As much as I love the genre, I would like to try my hand at science fiction, gothic horror, and other styles.

Tyler: Thank you for the opportunity to interview you today, Henry. Before we go, will you tell us about your website and what additional information our readers can find there about “Sleeper’s Run”?

Henry: It has been my pleasure. They can follow my blog at: www.sleepers-run.com where I talk about my process, influences and adventures (or misadventures) in the world of self-publishing. People can watch the trailer (I promise you it’s not your typical book preview) and find links where they can buy the novel. They can also follow me on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sleepers-Run/135379323206432?sk=wall&filter=1, and on Twitter under user name “sleepersrun” for up-to-date news. I hope people enjoy my work, which in the end is meant to be utterly engaging and entertaining. Keep on running!