An Interview with Cheryl Rees-Price

The Write Way Café welcomes author Cheryl Rees-Price, who discusses her latest book, The Silent Quarry, and her interest in cooking up ways to kill off characters.


Tell us a little about your DI Winter Meadows series.
     The DI Winter Meadows series follows Detective Meadows and his partner DC Edris as they solve crimes in the Welsh Valleys. Meadows is not your typical detective, he was born to hippy parents and raised on a commune. He is charismatic, intuitive and always likes to see the best in people. Meadows partner DC Edris is young, attractive and a bit of a lady’s man. He’s full of mischief and is always trying to set up Meadows with a date.
     While parts of the book deals with some of the darker side of human nature there is also humour and a growing love interest as the series progresses.

If The Silent Quarry was made into a movie, who would play your main characters, and why?
     The characters from my book are very lifelike in my imagination. I know what they look like, but it is sometimes difficult to portray them to the reader. I would love to be an artist so I could bring them to life. With this in mind it is very hard to choose an actor that would play the part of the main characters. For most of the characters I would be happy just to see the book on screen. The only character I would be selective about is Winter Meadows. I would possibly go for Santiago Cabrera or Misha Collins. Both have the same dark good looks and it is what I imagine Winter to look like. They would have to put on a good Welsh accent.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve been given?  What’s your best writing advice for others?
     The best writing advice I’ve been given was to watch out for ‘head hopping’ I write in third person P.O.V and it was an easy mistake to slip in another characters thought. Now I tend to become the character and write as if I was sitting on their shoulder.
     My advice would be to always keep good notes on your character descriptions. Before I start writing I create a cast and each member has a profile. This way when I start on the first draft I can refer back to a character’s description so I don’t make a mistake.

What “keepers” are in your home library?
     I have over 400 hundred books in my library. Among them is the whole collection of Roald Dahl books. I read them several times to my daughters when they were young. I love the dark humour and morals in each book.

If you could be a character in any book you’ve read (or written), which character would you be and why?
     I would like to be Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple. All the juicy gossip and solving murders while pretending to be an innocent old lady. I guess life would never be dull!

What book do you wish you could have written?
     I would have loved to have written The Lord of The Rings. It would be fantastic to have an imagination like Tolkien. I think it’s awesome to be able to create a fantasy world with such diverse characters. I love Gollum with his duel personality.

We’re adding books to our Café menu.  Would your book be a drink, an appetizer, an entrée or a dessert?  What would you call it?
     I think my book would be a dessert. Something warm and filling, perfect for a dark cold winter’s night. I’d call it Death by Indulgence.

What is your favorite social media?  Why?
     I’m a bit of a dinosaur when it comes to social media but have managed to master Facebook. It’s easy to use and I love keeping up to date with friends and family and looking at their pictures. I have a personal and public profile. I love getting notifications of likes.

Do you have any compulsions you must do for no particular reason?
     I love to clean. My daughters accuse me of being OCD but I find cleaning helps me think and I can’t work in chaos.

Tell us about the book in your closet.
     The book in my closet would be the Twilight series. I love YA books, they are my guilty pleasure. I was hooked on Twilight.


And now for the fun stuff! 

If you were a punctuation mark, what would you be?
     I would be a question mark as I can be a little bit quirky.

If you aren’t a full-time writer, what is your day job?
     My day job is a little boring. I’m a finance director for a project management company. My day involves spreadsheets, budgets and tax returns. I much prefer cooking up ways to kill off characters.

What is your biggest shopping downfall?
     It has to be chocolate. I can’t resist buying a few bars each time I go out. I keep a stock in my study.

Are you a dog/cat/other person?
     I’m a cat person. I share my home with four cats. Two black and white gentlemen who curl up on my lap in the evenings. A ginger Maine coon, who is a large fella but scared of his own shadow and a mad Bengal who is boss cat. She struts around the house voicing her displeasure and knocking paper and pens off my desk while I try to work.

If you had to write with a pen instead of a computer, what type of pen would be your preference?
     I prefer writing with a pen instead of a computer. I find all the red lines on the screen distract me. (I’m not a good typist.) I always write the first drafts of my books on paper then transfer it to computer. My preferred pen is a frixion, great for rubbing out errors.

In 1987 a quiet Welsh village was devastated by a brutal attack on two schoolgirls, Bethan Hopkins and Gwen Collier. Only Gwen survived, with horrific injuries and no memory of the attack. The killer was never caught.

Now, nearly thirty years later, Gwen has gone missing and DI Winter Meadows is assigned to the case. Charismatic and intuitive, he has an uncanny gift for finding the truth. But in this small and close-knit community, the past is never far away, and those who have secrets will go to any lengths to keep them. Tensions run high as old feelings and accusations are stirred. And DI Meadows has to battle his own demons as he uncovers a truth he wished had stayed in the past …

Amazon


Cheryl Rees-Price was born in Cardiff and moved as a young child to a small ex-mining village on the edge of the Black Mountains, South Wales, where she still lives with her husband, daughters and cats.  After leaving school she worked as a legal clerk for several years before leaving to raise her two daughters.
     Cheryl returned to education, studying philosophy, sociology and accountancy whilst working as a part time book keeper. She now works as a finance director for a company that delivers project management and accounting services and sits on the board of a local circus company.
     In her spare time Cheryl indulges in her passion for writing. The success of writing plays for local performances gave her the confidence to write her first novel. Her other hobbies include walking and gardening. which free her mind to develop plots and create colourful characters.

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