Inside THE DEVIL GAVE THEM BLACK WINGS Character/Conflicts

Inside “The Devil Gave Them Black Wings” Characters/Conflicts

I’m doing a series of fun insider posts on my novel THE DEVIL GAVE THEM BLACK WINGS which will be released March 17th, 2015. I’ll share why the setting is personal and unique to me; I’ll share about the main characters and their conflicts; my beliefs on Grief and Healing—which is essential to moving on with our lives after tragedy strikes us; I’ll share the inspirations for segments of the storyline; how racism isolates a small black family when their daughter is kidnapped; and we’ll hit the points of curses and blessings, how each can pivot into the realm of the other.

I hope you find this interesting, and I’m glad to give you a look inside my head and the inner mechanics of one of my latest novels.

Please feel free to share the posts. And if you have any questions you can ask me on my Goodreads Q & A here. 

Happy reading!

Lee

 

In THE DEVIL GAVE THEM BLACK WINGS a cursed angel battling a paternal complex shadows an abducted child with a vengeful father who will do anything to get her back… He mourns the loss of innocence in the young neighbor girl who is determined to find the kidnapped child… And he seeks to offer peace to a despondent husband returning to his wife’s childhood home after her death on 9/11…

Through triumphs and setbacks, unlikely friends forge an unbreakable bond, and find a way to always remember the value of love and courage.

*****

Welcome to the second post about the inner mechanics of my forthcoming Supernatural Thriller THE DEVIL GAVE THEM BLACK WINGS. If you missed the first post, you can read it here.

There are a number of major characters in this novel, which I like because they’re all connected and are irrevocably so by the end. Having multiple POVs offers a lot of room for contrasts and misunderstandings between characters. I’d like to share a quick sketch of each character, what they want and need, and the major dilemmas they face.

Sebastian: A doomed angel, he takes his charges very seriously, and it drives him crazy that all the girls he guards are cursed with tragic lives. He can do very little to protect them, since he is unable to communicate with them. Until the end of this book he sees the human story as one large tragedy.

Jacob Elder: Wants to be left alone to deal with his grief (he tends to wallow in it for a while until the angel Sebastian begins bothering him.) When a local black girl is kidnapped from the park where Jacob has been sitting and watching children play for the last three days, a policeman puts Jacob at the top of his list of suspects.

Nina Kunis: Wants a purpose for her life, wants to matter, wants to clear Jacob’s name and find out who really kidnapped young Robin Stark. When she begins to suspect that her older boyfriend, who is not shy of his attraction to young girls, is behind Robin’s disappearance, she isn’t sure what to do. A local reporter named Caitlain Reno also interviews her because Nina lives across the street from the park and Robin Stark’s father works with Nina’s mother. Caitlain is upset when Nina says the reporter is exploiting Robin and her family to make her career. But Caitlain tells her little black girls have been taken for the past decade and no one with any power has done anything because there is still a deep-seated racism permeating the town.

Victor: Jacob’s brother-in-law. Wants to bring Jacob home, back to New York, afraid that Jacob will hurt himself due to depression and hopelessness. He tracks Jacob down using his credit card purchases, and ends up knocking on doors until he finds Nina, who he believes has seen Jacob from the way her face changes when Victor shows her Jacob’s photograph. Nina’s stepfather Rick calls the police but Victor has ties to the mob in New York, and doesn’t tolerate much from small town law enforcement. His contempt for them only gets him and Jacob into more trouble.

Caitlain Reno: A reporter whose main goal is to write a book about the abductions of ten young black girls (over the past decade) in a town that tries to appear spic and span. She doesn’t realize the danger she’s in until the child murderer visits her home.

Richard Stark: Robin Stark’s father. More than anything he wants his daughter back. He was there at the park with her the day she was taken, had left her on the merry-go-round while he ran to the ice cream truck to get each of them their favorites. When he thinks the police are taking too long to save his daughter, and under his wife’s demands that he do something, he compiles a list of local sexual predators and begins knocking on doors, hoping he can shake his daughter’s kidnapper out of his nest. He has always been a law-abiding man, but fully accepts he will have to break laws, and live with the consequences, once he finds Robin and the man who took her from him.

Thanks for taking the time to read and share this. If you’d like to pre-order a copy of THE DEVIL GAVE THEM BLACK WINGS, you can do so here.