I have so many stories in process and so many characters in my head, that when Barbara M. Hodges, a great writer of suspense and mystery, asked me to be part of this Character Expose, I had trouble figuring out which character to choose! I really wanted to write about Meleia, my YA Heroine, but that series will probably be a while before it sees publication. So, I decided to write about Sabrina Compton, my female protagonist in my latest release, Sins of the Past.
So, here goes:
Name: Sabrina Steves Compton. She is a completely fictional character, born in this slightly twisted mind of mine. The story is set in the 1980s, and shifts between Washington, DC, Buffalo, New York and a barrier island off the coast of South Carolina.
What you need to know about Sabrina is that although she has suffered many losses in her life, and had a less-than-perfect relationship with her mother, there is a core of strength in her that has yet to be fully tested.
Sabrina at the start of the story is a quiet, timid woman who is totally wrapped up in her husband. She believes he had rescued her from obscurity by noticing, and then falling in love with, her. Her entire world is built on him, and she doesn’t understand just how dangerous it is to put oneself so completely in the hands of someone else. When someone else defines who you are, you can never be certain just who you really are.
Sabrina returns from shopping one day (she’s out buying birthday gifts for her husband) to find her house torn apart and her brutally battered husband dead in a pool of blood. Her whole world falls apart and she can’t seem to put in back into any semblance of order. Or logic. She flees to her vacation cottage on Gaffe Island, built for her great-grandmother by her great-grandfather, seeking respite from the horrible memories. What she doesn’t know until it is too late is that there are forces beyond her control that are on a collision course with her.
Sabrina’s main goal at the beginning of the story is to piece her life back together, to somehow discover who she is now that the person who defined her is no longer there, and to find the strength to live on. Subsequent events — and two men — will test her almost beyond her limits. To survive, she must discover that untapped reservoir of strength.
The book is titled Sins of the Past, and was released just three months ago. It’s available on Amazon.com in both print and digital format. Take a look and see what you think of Sabrina’s journey to independence. Thanks for reading about her!
