Today is the big day! To Sweet Beginnings in Sycamore Hill releases! This is the first fiction title for Grace and Love Publishing, and I am giddy with excitement. To Sweet Beginnings in Sycamore Hill is a short story sequence (also known as a short story cycle). This is different than a short story.
A short story sequence is a collection of short stories, but each story can stand alone while also building to an ending best understood and appreciated when you read the stories as a collection or group. There is an increasing tension as the reader makes story connections. This is the first short story sequence I’ve written, and it was a fun challenge.
In the sequence, To Sweet Beginnings in Sycamore Hill, you’ll meet Owen and Gloria, Ethan and Kathryn, Ben and Emma, Eli and Meg, and Jackson and Kim. (Each couple has an entire short novel dedicated to them that will release within the next 12 months. The first, The Sycamore Standoff, is up for preorder now!)
During a time when life feels a bit chaotic and out of control, I find escaping to Sycamore Hill a sweet reprieve. A few second chance romances develop that warm your heart, some family drama plays out, the past resurfaces, and tensions get high, but—SPOILER—every couple finds their happy ending because right now, we could all use a happy ending.
Read To Sweet Beginnings in Sycamore Hill, be encouraged, entertained, and filled with hope. Not hope in the right earthly relationship but hope in the Lord.
Owen and Gloria: Thursday 2:00 p.m.
Sycamore Hill’s prodigal daughter returns, shaking up the small town, righting a wrong, and finding the faith and family she’d lost along the way.
Gloria hasn’t returned to Sycamore Hill since her university declared her guilty of cheating. She’d lost more than her home that day; she’d lost her faith in humanity. But when a questionable drug study with ties to the university endangers the residents of a Sycamore Hill ministry, Gloria can no longer remain quiet. She returns to town, and Owen—the town’s unmarried pastor and the only person who believed in her innocence—helps her to finally and truly come home.
Ethan and Kathryn: Thursday 11:59 p.m.
When you mix two former sweethearts, one missing recipe, and a dash of secrecy, what do you get? A recipe for romance!
Kathryn took something that belongs to Ethan. Correction. It belongs to his family. Taking it back isn’t stealing, and letting himself into Kathryn’s house to get it is not breaking and entering if he has a key. However, Kathryn’s not a thief. She’d found Ethan’s recipe. But when her actions threaten to spoil Ethan’s bakery, they whip up a solution on Kathryn’s internet morning show, Sycamore Hill at Sunrise.
Ben and Emma: Friday 3:00 a.m.
God closes a door, but He opens a skylight, entwining Ben and Emma’s future in the twilight hours of a winter’s eve.
Nursing school made dating impossible for Emma, and now that she finally had time to think about a relationship, the pickings were slim, especially in a small town like Sycamore Hill. She’d begun petitioning the Lord to drop Mr. Right into her life, ideally before a black-tie gala fundraiser. She couldn’t bear the idea of attending alone—again.
When Ben—a local reporter—chases the scoop of a lifetime, he falls painfully into Emma’s kitchen. With a whistleblower about to rip the lid off a scandal that’ll put the small town on the map, Ben needs Emma’s help to follow the career-making lead and protect the residents of Sycamore Hill.
Eli and Meg: Friday 7:35 a.m.
At some point, a girl has to stop running and fight. Eli is willing to help Meg, but how can he fight an unknown enemy?
Eli and Meg trained together every morning to prepare for an annual road race. When Meg is uncharacteristically late on race day, Eli knows in his gut that something is wrong. He finds Meg facing her greatest fear, and Eli thrusts himself between her and an aggressive dog. However, when Meg passes up an opportunity to escape to safety, he realizes no one in Sycamore Hill really knows Meg at all.
Jackson and Kim: Friday, 6:00 p.m. and Saturday morning
Kim didn’t want to like her ex’s twin brother, but how could she not like the man returning her son?
Kim doesn’t have the mental headspace to host the black-tie gala on the eve of her abducted son’s homecoming, but she must. As she grapples with conflicting emotions about the morning reunion, she clings to the message of Christmas: God with us.
Returning his nephew to Canada destroyed Jackson’s relationship with his twin brother. And after all his brother had put Kim through, she might not welcome the continued presence of Jackson or his parents in Sycamore Hill. Sorting out the legalities won’t be easy, but the right thing rarely is. Jackson will do what is right, whatever the personal cost, trusting the message of the season.