Hi. I’m Jocie Müller and I’m almost ten. Well, not really. I’m nine, but I want to be ten. My daddy is Jakob Müller and he’s a Christmas tree farmer and owns a junk store. We got married last year to Jaymie Leighton. I wasn’t sure what to call her at first, but she loves me and I love her and she’s my daddy’s wife, and my mother died a long time ago so. . . I call her Mama now. She gets kind of teary when I call her that, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I think it means she loves me. She tells me so all the time. She makes Daddy happy, too; they kiss a lot. It’s embarrassing, especially in front of my friends.

Anyway, I’m supposed to write about a day in my life. I guess I should explain first that I’m a little little person. There are lots of people like me who will never be very tall. I was born with a condition called – and this is really hard to pronounce – achondroplasia dwarfism. All my friends are taller than me now, but Daddy always said it wasn’t the size of the person, but the size of their heart that mattered. I have some problems, like I get ear aches, and I have to see a special doctor once a year to check how I’m growing, and stuff, but other than that everything is okay. Being short is no big deal, but it does make stairs harder at school, and stuff. And being little means sometimes people pick on you or laugh at you. It hurts my feelings when that happens. And big people think I’m younger than I am and treat me like a baby. I don’t like that.

We live in two houses now, our cabin, and Mama’s house in Queensville, which I like because I’m close to Peyton, one of my best friends. The other friend in Gemma, and she lives in Queensville too. We’re going to have a sleepover for New Year’s Eve this year while Mama and Daddy and their friends have a party. Anyway, I catch the schoolbus if we’re at the cabin, or Mama or Daddy gives me a ride if we’re in town, or if I miss the bus. I like school. I was sick at the beginning of the year and missed two weeks, but I’m pretty much caught up now.

Sometimes after school I have dance class. I was in tumbling, but the doctor said I couldn’t do that anymore, so Mama suggested I take dance class, and I love it! It’s so cool. I’m going to be in the Winter pageant this year.

And then I come home and if I have homework, I do it, but first I play with Hoppy, our cute little doggie, and Lilibet, my kitty. We were worried when Mama married us that Hoppy and Lilibet wouldn’t get along, but they love each other. Mama says that’s cause Hoppy was only used to her old cat, Denver, who used to hiss and swat at Hoppy when he tried to snuggle. But Lilibet loves him and licks him all over, then they curl up together. Denver now lives with Auntie Val, in Queensville. He’s happier now, Mama says.

This was fun. I might be a writer when I grow up. Mama says my book I wrote last month was really good. I like reading and writing. But I’d also like to be a veterinarian or a dancer, or. . . I’m not sure what else.

So that’s a day in MY life.

Giveaway: Victoria Hamilton is giving away THREE e-book (Kindle or Nook) copies of Breaking The Mould. Leave a comment below for your chance to win. The giveaway ends December 27, 2018. Good luck everyone!

You can read more about Jocie in Breaking The Mould, the eighth book in the “Vintage Kitchen” mystery series.

Breaking the Mould: In the new Vintage Kitchen Mystery from the author of No Grater Danger, when the town’s resident Scrooge is found dead, Jaymie says Bah humbug! to murder . . .

Now that Thanksgiving’s behind her, vintage cookware enthusiast Jaymie Leighton Müller is excitedly making plans for the upcoming Dickens Days festival—the town’s month-long celebration leading up to Christmas. With a hot cider booth on the village green to warm the hearts and bodies of the townsfolk and a diorama featuring a scene from A Christmas Carol, things are shaping up for a festive season—until the town’s local Scrooge is found murdered, a vintage pudding mould covering his cracked skull.

Nearly everyone had a reason to dislike Evan Nezer—either for his bullying ways or his obnoxious arrogance—but with his body being found in Jaymie’s diorama, she’ll have to figure out who hated him enough to see him dead. With many suspects and even more secrets coming to the surface as she investigates, Jaymie feels buried by a blizzard of clues. But with Dickens Days on hold until the police can nab the killer, she’s determined to catch the culprit so the ghost of Evan Nezer doesn’t cast a pall over the whole Christmas season.

Includes a vintage recipe!

Purchase Link
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About the author
Victoria Hamilton is the pseudonym of nationally bestselling romance author Donna Lea Simpson. Victoria is the national bestselling author of two mystery series, the Vintage Kitchen Mysteries and Merry Muffin Mysteries, as well as the Teapot Collector Mysteries as Amanda Cooper. She is also the bestselling author of Regency and historical romance as Donna Lea Simpson.

Victoria loves to cook and collects vintage kitchen paraphernalia, teacups and teapots, and almost anything that catches her fancy! She loves to read, especially mystery novels, and enjoys good tea and cheap wine, the company of friends, and has a newfound appreciation for opera. She enjoys crocheting and beading, but a good book can tempt her away from almost anything. . . except writing!

She now happily writes about vintage kitchen collecting, muffin baking and dead bodies for publisher Beyond the Page for the Vintage Kitchen Mysteries (the first five books of the series were published by Berkley Prime Crime) and Merry Muffin Mystery series, published by Berkley. Besides writing about murder and mayhem, and blogging at Killer Characters, Victoria collects vintage kitchen wares and old cookbooks, as well as teapots and teacups.

Visit Victoria at victoriahamiltonmysteries.com or on Facebook!

All comments are welcomed.