Today my guest is Dave Sivers, co-founder of BeaconLit and author of the popular crime series featuring the Aylesbury Vale detectives, DI Lizzie Archer and DS Dan Baines. Dave’s latest novel In Ink introducing DI Nathan Quarrel is just published.
Hi Dave what better way to celebrate In Ink’s launch than in my virtual cocktail lounge. What can I get you at the bar?
Hi Anne, and thanks for having me. I think I’ll start with a mojito, please.
So where did we first meet in real life?
D: It was at BeaconLit, the book festival in Ivinghoe, Bucks that I co-founded. 2014, our second festival, and the first full-day event after a half-day pilot the year before.
As long ago as that? I remember it was Lesley Lodge who invited me. First impressions?
D: Well, we’d known each other on social media for a couple of years by then. I can’t now remember who found who first online, or whether it was Twitter or Facebook, but you’d come across as a friendly, bouncy person who’s interested in what people have to say, and that was the person I met in real life. Apart from that, maybe I noticed you weren’t particularly tall.
Obviously not an attribute we have in common but we do have some similar interests?
D: Well, we’re both interested in books, writing, and crime fiction in particular, and I’d say we both like and care about people. We like a glass of wine, too!
Very true and in the past we’ve enjoyed a glass or two at many a book launch. Sadly those have all been cancelled for the time being so tell me about In Ink.
D: In Ink, which has just come out, introduces DI Nathan Quarrel and is set in West Hertfordshire, in particular Hemel Hempstead and Tring. It’s a serial killer chiller and, after five Archer and Baines books, it’s been great fun creating and getting to know a whole new cast of characters and research a new area. I do know West Herts – I lived there for 15 years – but I enjoyed delving into some of the details to give my setting a bit of added depth.
Thinking about festivals, what would be your dream panel – subject, fellow panelists or a Q&A with someone you have met or would love to meet?
D: I’m going to moderate a panel on biographies, whether my panelists have actually written one or not – it’s my dream, so we’ll say they have. So I’m choosing Nelson Mandela, William Shakespeare, Bruce Springsteen, Elizabeth I and Marilyn Monroe. It doesn’t matter that all except the Boss are dead, right?
That’s an amazing panel. In the meantime what are you working on?
D: In between finalising and promoting In Ink, I’m working on the sixth in my Archer and Baines crime series, set in Buckinghamshire’s Aylesbury Vale. I’m hoping to release it in the first half of 2021. Hate crime is one of the themes. I’m still wrestling with a title.
What are you most looking forward to when lockdown is finally lifted?
D: Two things. The first is seeing my dad again. I last saw him at the beginning of March and, although we speak on the phone regularly, we miss actually seeing each other. The second is really trivial, but I’ve reached a point where I’d (almost) kill to go out for a cappuccino and a cinnamon bun in Costa. Although one positive to come out of all this is I’ve got more into baking and have found I can knock up a pretty mean cinnamon bun myself!
Is there anything lockdown has made you think about or want to do?
D: I guess it’s made me think about the duality of human nature quite a lot. Lockdown has brought out some great good in people – neighbours looking out for each other, more friendliness and consideration when you encounter other people, and the wonderful, hard working people in the NHS, in supermarkets and other essential shops, the posties and other delivery people, all of whom have kept things going and done it with a smile. But then you see the stockpiling and groups of people not social distancing. I try not to judge them without knowing the facts, but even then you get the odd fool who really thinks the rules don’t apply to them, and you read some awful stories.
D: I guess any crisis can bring out the worst in people as well as the best. I was struck the other week by a little story of a family who put a teddy bear display in their front garden to cheer up their neighbours. They regularly changed the scene. Then someone stole the lot. But you know what? Neighbours rallied round and contributed cuddlies to new display. The best and worst of humanity in microcosm.
D: The other thing I’ve really become aware of, living in a fairly rural area, is how much traffic and aircraft noise really obliterates the sounds of nature. We’ve been for walks when all you can hear is birdsong and the buzz of insects, but the silence is already becoming eroded now. It will be interesting to see what the so-called New Normal looks like when we settle into it.
Dave thank you so much for joining me. I look forward to raising a glass in real life in the not too distant future.
Thanks for inviting me to the Cocktail Lounge, Anne – it’s been great to chat. Another mojito for the road, perhaps?
You can find out more about Dave’s books on his website as well as follow him on Twitter: @davesivers and Facebook: davesiversauthor1