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Today on Salty Inspirations, I’m sharing a guest post from Victoria Hamilton, author of Masher of Ceremonies (Vintage Kitchen Mysteries #13). She takes us into a personal reflection tied to birthdays, tea traditions, and inspiration behind her latest cozy mystery.
A Birthday Tea Party for Me!
By Victoria Hamilton
My birthday happens to fall at a lovely time of year, late May. When I was a child that meant a fun party outdoors on the lawn. And kittens, apparently!
When I was older – much older – my beloved sister Mickey often took me to teashops or other special places for my birthday, including a local inn, much like the Queensville Inn, where they celebrate tea in a truly lovely way. It’s an expensive treat. My darling sister took me and a couple of friends there and it was a memorable experience.
But for my 50th birthday, she really went the extra mile. She conspired with my friends and put together a Tea on the Thames party! Friends brought balloons, treats, sandwiches and even teacups! Though it was just a few blocks away we drove, me wearing a blindfold until my motion sickness took over and I had to take it off or risk ruining a car seat. We descended into a park along the Thames where we celebrated on a very iffy day weather wise! Like Jaymie in Masher of Ceremonies, I did worry about being rained out at one point, but the weather held, and we indulged.
I’ll never forget that day. I have the best friends.
As I reminisced though, I started thinking about the ‘tradition’ of celebrating my birthday with a tea party of sorts. How did that happen?
I suppose it all started with my long love affair with tea itself. When I was really young at my grandparents’ my ‘tea’ was a splash of tea in a cup of milk, just enough to color it a bit. I had two cups for my tea, one was a Hazel Atlas milk glass mug with a red cavorting clown on it – it broke during a move – but the other I still have. It shows an image of Peter Piper playing a merry tune, and was brought back from England for me by family friends.
Perhaps that’s where I got the notion of tea being celebratory, special, grown-up… a ritual of sorts, the brewing of the tea, the pouring of the steaming brew from a big pot. At my other grandmother’s house – she was English – there was always a pot of tea brewing, left to steep on the stove until it was so black and strong you could stand a spoon up in it.
Maybe that’s a slight exaggeration.
But not so much.
And now I have become a collector of all things tea: I have a dozen or so teapots of various sizes and shapes, even a cat teapot my sister bought me many years ago. That blends two of my favorite things, cats and teapots!
How do you celebrate your birthday? Are there any rituals or favorite things you indulge in? Do you let the day pass without comment, or make a big deal out of it, a birthday week, perhaps?
Join Jaymie in Masher of Ceremonies (Vintage Kitchen Mysteries #13 – May 19th, 2026 – Beyond the Page Publishing) as she tries to create the perfect tea event for her community!
About Masher of Ceremonies
Cozy Mystery
13th in Series
Setting – Michigan
Publisher : Beyond the Page
Publication date : May 19, 2026
Print length : 254 pages
Digital
ISBN-13 : 978-1966322535
ASIN : B0GXGQV1L4
More formats coming soon.
A fundraiser for the local historical society nearly goes bust when someone fills the coffers with blackmail and murder . . .
The annual Tea With the Queen fundraiser always makes for a festive weekend in Queensville, drawing visitors from far and wide and giving local shops a welcome boost. This year, vintage kitchenware collector Jaymie Müller is running the event, and she’s got her hands full organizing old and new volunteers along with a surly catering crew. Then her master of ceremonies tells her he’s being blackmailed but can’t go to the police, and before Jaymie can sort that out she stumbles over a dead body at the tea.
Despite the demands of keeping the event up and running, Jaymie can’t help puzzling over the murder. There’s no concrete evidence linking the cretin behind the blackmail scheme to the dead body, so she begins questioning everyone connected to the blackmail, hoping to expose the killer. And just as she discovers a web of relationships that leads her to the culprit, she realizes that the Tea With the Queen may have been a royal pain, but outwitting a blackmailer and catching a killer may be the death of her . . .
Includes a vintage recipe!
About Victoria Hamilton
Victoria Hamilton is the pseudonym of nationally bestselling romance author Donna Lea Simpson. Victoria is the bestselling author of three mystery series, the Lady Anne Addison Mysteries, the Vintage Kitchen Mysteries, and the Merry Muffin Mysteries. She also writes a Regency-set historical mystery series, starting with A Gentlewoman’s Guide to Murder. Visit her website at victoriahamiltonmysteries.com.Social Details:
Website – Website
Substack – Subscribe
Facebook – Facebook
BlueSky – BlueSky
Instagram – Instagram
Goodreads – Goodreads
Amazon – Amazon
Purchase Links
Ebooks – AmazonCA – AmazonUS – Kobo – Barnes&Noble – Smashwords – GooglePlay
Paperback – AmazonUS – Barnes&Noble
TOUR PARTICIPANTS
May 16 – Christy’s Cozy Corners – CHARACTER GUEST POST
May 16 – Twirling Book Princess – RECIPE
May 16 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – SPOTLIGHT
May 17 – Jody’s Bookish Haven – SPOTLIGHT
May 17 – Guatemala Paula Loves to Read – SPOTLIGHT
May 18 – Read Your Writes Book Reviews – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
May 18 – Boys’ Mom Reads! – RECIPE
May 18 – Sarandipity’s – AUTHOR GUEST POST
May 19 – Ascroft, eh? – CHARACTER INTERVIEW
May 19 – Sapphyria’s Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
May 20 – Sarcastically Yours, Jen – RECIPE
May 20 – Books, Ramblings, and Tea – SPOTLIGHT
May 21 – Cozy Up With Kathy – CHARACTER GUEST POST
May 21 – Salty Inspirations – AUTHOR GUEST POST
May 21 – Sarah Can’t Stop Reading Books – SPOTLIGHT
May 22 – Melina’s Book Blog – REVIEW
May 22 – View from the Birdhouse – REVIEW
May 22 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT
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Thank you so much to Victoria Hamilton for joining me here on Salty Inspirations and sharing a lovely glimpse into the inspiration behind Masher of Ceremonies. Be sure to add this cozy mystery to your TBR and check out the other stops on the tour for more fun content.
As always, thanks for stopping by for some Salty Inspirations! —Michelle❤️
