In an endeavor to find a fresh way into the scriptural text upon which I would be preaching, I began to develop an imaginary world, populated primarily by wee folk. I found that the characters I developed and the way that they evolved in my mind and on the page served me well as a consideration of how I sensed things happening in the scriptural text at hand. I want to make these stories and the world they represent newly accessible, and so I bring them to book form fifty at a time.

This is the last book in the series of Inn-by-the-Bye stories. It includes not only the final stories of the sequence but also a Prequel in that a related and prior set of stories, which had a different and unfulfilled purpose, provided groundwork for the eventual series itself. The Prequel stories are publicly available now for the first time at any scale. Among the principal stories, I found that these wee folk, the characters I developed and the way they evolved in my mind and on the page, served me well as a consideration of how I sensed things happening in the scriptural text at hand. I am glad to have the entire sweep of the project available now. The cover drawing is done by Eve Sullivan, the author’s granddaughter. The drawing is the artist’s conception of Anna, a young girl living in the Crossed Hills.

James: My assignment is simple: go to the Cape and seal the real estate deal for my most important client. No problem. I'm good at my job, I know how to close a sale, and this time won't be any different. Until I meet Sawyer, the sexy young bartender I accidentally kiss in the broom closet. Turns out, he's one of the owners I'm here to negotiate with. Okay, so that complicates things. As does the fact that he doesn't want to sell. Or that we can't keep our hands off each other despite being on opposite sides. And most of all... that I might be falling for him even though I know better. I've made the mistake of falling for a younger man before and I won't do it again. Sawyer: For me, family is everything, and nothing represents ours more than the Sea Sprite, the motel that's been in my family for eighty years. Sure, others (*cough*James*cough*) may describe it as rundown or derelict or in desperate need of a wrecking ball. But I call it our legacy. I've got plans -- big plans to renovate the motel back to its vintage glory. The only thing standing in my way is James Allen, the fancy-schmancy lawyer from New York with his adorable smile, jaw-dropping assets, and his client's millions of dollars. James seems hellbent on destroying my future. But maybe there's a way for us to build a new one together...