Dave Harvey and I met through a mutual acquaintance. We both write science fiction.
Author Bio
David Harvey has seven books published on Amazon. The first three books are a Trilogy, a fictional / science fictional series. He started writing in June 2014 and long before conclusion was reached, realized it was better suited to a Trilogy.
A lover of animals, his life is managed by two very active, very large dogs and every morning at 05:30 they drag him to the beach individually. It was a painful learning curve to find out that individually, they react differently to other dogs on the beach, but collectively they ‘pack’ and have managed to cram enough stress into his life to last several lifetimes.
Tell us about yourself.
I was born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1951. I spent my early years in Linbro Park, a suburb of Johannesburg, on a small holding of peach trees, asparagus and rhubarb, exploring the long disused next-door cemetery, avoiding snakes and grandpa’s beady eyes. (And they were eyes that missed nothing). From there the family relocated to a farm in Chingola, Northern Rhodesia (later Zambia). Given the farm was carved out of virgin forest, it was back to avoiding snakes and other denizens of the thick bush – but all good learning curves. From Zambia the family relocated to Rhodesia (later Zimbabwe) and from there I attended university in South Africa. Somehow it seemed that all my school years were spent at isolated boarding schools, buried deep in the bush in both Northern Rhodesia and Rhodesia. After University I was called up for military service and essentially spent the next five years involved in the Rhodesian bush war. When it finished, when Rhodesia became Zimbabwe, I emigrated back to South Africa where I now live in Cape Town.
When did you know you wanted to be an author?
In 2006 a series of traumatic events occurred in my life which turned it completely upside down. It took several years to recover and one way of coming to terms with it was, I believed, to write about it. That never really happened but in 2014, I decided to write a novel and somehow incorporate my life story into the novel. That thought turned into a Trilogy, “When the Sun Blinked” in which I am one of the characters who survives the devastating plane crash.
What genres do you like to read? Are these the same genres you write in?
I only read fiction. My Trilogy, “When the Sun Blinked” is a partial science fiction/fiction. My second series, the Retribution books are fiction.
Is your book for adults, young adults or children?
“When the Sun Blinked” Trilogy is open to young adults and adults, with some very mild sex and very little bad language, but the Retribution series is really only aimed at adults. We’re talking here about a drug Cartel after all. Language for them is as it comes.
What is your current release or project?
Book 5 of the Retribution series.
Tell us about the key characters
Mmm. The key characters range from Benito Alfieri who is the psychopathic head of a drug and poaching Cartel in Cape Town, South Africa. With him is his equally psychopathic nephew Dimitri who looks after cocaine distribution through the Night Clubs in Cape Town they provide security to. Then there is Cesar Quevedo who is an out and out killer and is responsible for the poaching operation. They poach abalone and export it to China. However, Cesar has discovered love and a softer side to him has emerged. He still kills without even thinking about it, but he is in love.
On the other side are three main characters who collectively own a muscle car restoration business in Hout Bay, just down the road so to speak from Cape Town. They ran afoul of the Cartel very early in Book 1 and have been fighting a low-intensity war with them ever since. They have made it their mission to bring the cartel down, as a result.
What is your blurb or synopsis of the book?
For the current work in progress, I don’t have one yet, so I have included the blurb for Book 1 Seeds of Revenge as that sums up the start of the trouble between the two groups.
Retribution Book 1 – Seeds of Revenge
Hout Bay and Camps Bay, two suburbs along the beautiful Atlantic seaboard next to Cape Town, South Africa, become the setting of three childhood friends, now adults who, relocating from America thanks to a dual American and South African heritage, establish their long- cherished dream business in Hout Bay, a short distance away from Camps Bay.
With ready cash from early investments in Bitcoin they pay for their business, their cars, houses and lifestyle up front, in full, using their profits. Which in turn unwittingly attracts the attention of a family kicked out of Colombia by authorities cleaning up the drug trade. They re-establish themselves in Camps Bay, taking aim at the growing heroin trade in the Western Cape.
The Colombians believe the Hout Bay business is a front for drugs and therefore competition and an initial low-scale approach to establish their version of the truth escalates when abalone poaching is thrown into the mix.
Sucked into something totally at odds with their world, the Hout Bay dream is threatened by the Camps Bay drug and abalone world.
Because the Colombians have their own dream – a world of drugs, violence and now abalone poaching. They don’t care who gets hurt or what it involves to grow their empire. After all, they’ve been doing it for a long time and no-one is going to stop them.
Share an excerpt.
Ivan Lipsky took his hands from the table, reached behind him and in a swift movement, placed both hands back on the table, this time holding a Glock pistol, on its side and mostly hidden by his hands. His movements suggested he’d had some experience in the heavy stuff.
Oscar looked at the gun and then at him and said. ‘Seriously?’
Paulie meanwhile leaned forward slightly and placed his huge hands on the table, relaxed but alert and waiting to see how Oscar wanted to go forward.
‘Please understand,’ Ivan Lipsky said. ‘This is nothing personal but,’ he shrugged, ‘business is business.’
‘So where exactly are you going with the gun thing? I mean you heard my phone conversation with my boss. He wants nothing to do with you, so how does …’ Oscar bent his head sideways and leaned it close to the edge of the table, looking to see where the Glock barrel was pointing, then sat up straight again, ‘ … pointing a gun between myself and Paulie help you achieve what you can’t. I mean you could sneeze and accidently shoot us, not so?’ He looked at Paulie for confirmation.
‘He could yes. Probably be very noisy and messy though.’
‘Exactly, so what does shooting one or both of us do to advance your cause here?’
‘You don’t think we’re serious, do you? I mean, are you two are like the local comic act? If I shoot you, then maybe Tom and Jerry and Trevor downstairs understand that their happy little cushy life here is over. Then we move to the next establishment and the next until we control Stellenbosch.’
‘The two of you?’ Paulie asked.
‘We’ll get the understanding settled for now yes, and then others will follow.’
‘Okay,’ Oscar sighed. He looked at the time and said. ‘Look, I really do need to get back to Cape Town, so here’s what I think.’ He leaned forward slightly and looking at Ivan Lipsky, beckoned him closer. ‘I reckon you have about a ten percent chance of pulling the trigger before there’s a hundred percent chance of my hurting you very badly. And of course then there’s Paulie. So that’s where we are.’
Ivan Lipsky’s face whitened in anger and he started to say something as Oscar’s right hand moved in a blur to his pocket, he pulled out the collapsible baton and as it came forward and snapped out, the solid heavy steel pipe hit Ivan Lipsky’s gun hand and smashed it. As he screamed in agony, Paulie’s hands snaked out, wrapped themselves around Victor’s head and smashed his face into the table. Then he stood up abruptly, lifting the table and pushed it over, on top of the two hapless men.
‘Should we?’ He looked at Oscar who nodded and both men jumped on the overturned table further crushing the two men underneath. Then they stepped off, lifted the table and pulled the two unconscious men out.
Do you have a favorite scene?
When my ‘good’ characters are practicing a deception act that will enable them to place a bomb behind the petrol tank of a truck filled with a ton of cocaine. They have already ambushed two of the Cartel trucks, destroying the contents. This time they want the Cartel to discover the bomb, so they know they are being very specifically targeted.
What advice would you give a beginner?
It is hard, hard work. You create make-believe worlds, fill them with make-believe people who have make-believe conversations in make-believe situations. Then, as if that is not bad enough, you have to sell it.
If you are serious, keep plugging away and never give up. It is not an instant road to success, but you can keep the dream alive by believing and working and believing some more and working even more. Readers will review your work, if you are lucky. Some will like it, some will ate it and some will pan you in reviews. Suck it up and keep believing. Keep the faith!!
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