Tuesday, February 28, 2023

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”

‘Killing me softly with his song, with his sonnnnng…’
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.

 As well as writing and telly hosting, Nigel presents a weekly national radio show on Gaydio, interviewing celebrities from the worlds of TV, film and music. He lives in Brighton and his obsessions include Eurovision, all things 80s, flea markets and juicy reality TV. 

 

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.

 *Terms and Conditions –Worldwide entries welcome.  Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below.  The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over.  Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data.  I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.


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