Quilling Me Softly by Nigel May - Book Tour + Giveaway
Quilling Me Softly
Meet the craft group swapping decoupage for deception and glues for
clues…
Violet Brewer is the owner of Rooney-at-Burrow’s charming wool shop,
Brewer’s Loop, and the organiser of its weekly crafting group. Nothing much
usually happens in the sleepy little English village. Until now.
But when Sir Buster Burniston, much-loved owner of nearby Burrow Hall, is
found dead, a cloud of mystery lingers in the village air. Or at least it
does for Violet and her fellow craft mates in Team C.R.A.B – the Crafters of
Rooney-at-Burrow. They are certain that the old man’s death might not be as
cut and dried as Violet’s police officer nephew, Samuel, seems to think.
Violet has lived in the village for over sixty years, and something tells
her and her creative pals that there is more behind Sir Buster’s sad demise.
Violet and her friends are determined to turn detective, despite what her
nephew says. And soon murder is on the cards at their meet and make sessions
as they discover a mystery that needs to be unpicked stitch by stitch…
Purchase Links
Amazon UK -
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Quilling-Me-Softly-completely-addictive-ebook/dp/B0BTLXF6LZ/
Amazon US -
https://www.amazon.com/Quilling-Me-Softly-completely-addictive-ebook/dp/B0BTLXF6LZ/
Excerpt
“Hello everyone and thanks
for reading! It’s Nigel here and I thought you might like to read an excerpt
from my new book, Quilling Me Softly. This is actually the opening of the first
chapter of the book. The reason I picked this is because I hope it gives a
perfect opening look at how close some of the characters in the village of
Rooney-at-Burrow really are, despite age differences and backgrounds. Sheena is
singing in the village pub and taking in the crowd before her, which is full of
her friends. Hopefully it makes you want to carry on and read the entire novel.
Let me know what you think, love Nigel x”
Sheena Pollett elongated the last note of the song as much as she could to milk every glorious nanosecond from her pitch-perfect singing. It was how they did it on those telly talent shows, so it was definitely how she was going to do it in front of a small but appreciative audience at Rooney-at-Burrow’s number one pub, The Six Pennies. The fact that it was the sleepy village’s only pub was neither here nor there.
Sheena took a bow as those gathered around the tables and fruit machines in front of her clapped loudly and whooped in her direction. A few of the local lads wolf-whistled and did that thing where they whipped the fingers of one hand together in waggly appreciation. At twenty years of age, Sheena thought that it was really something that perhaps she should be able to do herself by now. She’d tried with no luck. But then her talents lay in her vocals, not her finger whipping. Hopefully one day her golden-noted singing might be her ticket out of Rooney-at-Burrow, the village that had been her home since birth.
Not that she disliked the village. Far from it. She loved the people she had grown up with, but surely there had to be more to life than just her weekly singing spot at The Six Pennies. Although the £25 she pocketed came in very handy when it came to buying make-up and the gossip magazines she loved to read about the celebrities she loved to watch on the telly. It was a world that she wanted to be part of, but on her own terms. Sheena knew she could probably go on one of those TV dating shows and become famous overnight. Everybody said so. She had the looks. You weren’t named Ravishing Rooney Queen at the annual village pageant five times on the trot if you weren’t blessed with a natural beauty. But that wasn’t her style. She wanted to be winning Grammys and music awards, not preparing a speech for her award as Best Cleavage Of The Year In A Reality Show. Sheena knew she had the looks and the talent and one day she would use it. She just hadn’t as yet.
Sheena looked at the array of smiley faces in front of her and felt a surge of warmth and love run through her as the crowd heckled for an encore. They were a huge part of the reason she was still loving village life. These people were her friends. An odd but deeply likable bunch of villagers who all held a special place in her heart.
Sitting cosily around a small circular table to her left were Violet Brewer, Margaret Millsop and Pearl Wheeler. She could tell that Violet, the sixty-something owner of the village wool shop where Sheena liked to help out, had maybe had one too many sherries as her cheeks were flushed the colour of beetroot and her smile, adorable though it was, now seemed a little wonky across her features. Margaret, also in her sixties, was Violet’s best friend and had a heart of gold. She was stinking rich, so people said, as she had fleeced her ex-husband for every penny in the divorce courts after he had run off with Cheryl, the twenty-something barmaid who used to work here at The Six Pennies. Apparently, their affair had started during one of the pub’s infamous lock-ins. A simple spot of after-hours poker had become so much more, when Margaret’s hubby found he had more than just a royal flush in his hands. Margaret now owned a few cottages in the village and rented them out to people that she liked. Pearl, just slightly younger than the two other women, was one of her tenants. She shared a cottage with her husband Noah. They were originally from Barbados and Sheena loved to listen to their tales of life growing up in the Caribbean. She’d love to go one day. The closest she had experienced to tropical was taking aim at the coconut shy at the village fayre.
Author Bio –
Nigel to no stranger to the worlds of both publishing and crafting. He has
published seven previous novels - six glam fiction blockbusters such as
Trinity, Addicted and Revenge, which saw him gain fabulous reviews and
nicknamed as the 'UK's male Jackie Collins', and a gripping psychological
thriller called The Girl Unknown. Quilling Me Softly is his first foray into
the cosy crime world. Crafting is very close to his heart as he has been
working as a TV presenter on the UK's biggest crafting TV channel, Create
& Craft, for over 16 years, and he has launched his own successful craft
range, A-May-Zing, as well. He was named top Male Personality Of The Year in
the Crafts Beautiful Awards in 2021.
Social Media Links – Twitter
@Nigel_May
Insta:
https://www.instagram.com/nigelmay/
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/nigel.may
THE HUGE QUILLING ME SOFTLY CRAFT GIVEAWAY (Open Int)
Seeing as Quilling Me Softly is based around the members of a fabulous
craft group and Nigel also works in the world of craft it only seems right
that the launch of Quilling Me Softly should come with a massive crafty
prize giveaway! Nigel has teamed up with one of the craft world's most
inventive companies, the incredible Lisa Horton Crafts to give away a bumper
bundle of crafting goodies worth over £150. Included in the prize bundle are
loads of inspirational layering stencils and embossing folders plus the
worldwide crafting smash that is the Ulti-Mate Multi Tool - it's the perfect
crafting tool for everyone when it comes to stamping, stencilling and
blending.
0 Comments
Please try not to spam posts with the same comments over and over again. Authors like seeing thoughtful comments about their books, not the same old, "I like the cover" or "sounds good" comments. While that is nice, putting some real thought and effort in is appreciated. Thank you.