Meet the Characters of The Secret Sand Circle: Week One Pt. 3
Dr. Jo” Harkins — accomplished psychologist specializing in cases of abuse. Creator of The Secret Sand Circle Therapy Tool.
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As the central character of The Secret Sand Circle, Jo's storyline runs through all twenty-seven chapters of the book and the Epilogue.
Yet, it's the way her story unfolds that sets this novel apart from others you have read.
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The first twenty chapters of The Secret Sand Circle are divided into two timelines of Jo’s life: “Now” and “Then.”
Each “Now” section is a single page in length. Collectively, they span a twenty-four–hour period in Jo’s life. At the top of each page there is an advancing timestamp, marking the exact hour and minute of the day, grounding the reader in real time.
Throughout these brief chapters it is revealed that Jo is staying at a retreat center, working on a book about five patients who deeply shaped her career. However, as time passes and she continues her work, a growing unease begins to whisper that this is far from a peaceful writing retreat—both in her surroundings and within her self.
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In the “Then” sections of the first twenty chapters, readers are drawn into the lives and counseling journeys of the patients Jo is writing about.
Though these individuals differ in age, gender, and cultural backgrounds, they are connected by the abuses that have seared their minds and scarred their souls and bodies—and by Jo’s compassionate, empathetic efforts to reach into their pain and help them heal.
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By chapters twenty-one through twenty-five, the “Now” sections have swelled to five pages in length. Jo’s time at the retreat center becomes more about herself than her book, blurring the storylines between the healer and those needing to be healed.
Meanwhile, the “Then” sections continue to follow the five patients as they reach pivotal, often painful turning points in their therapeutic relationships with Jo.
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By the final two chapters of the book, only the “Now” sections remain. Within them, Jo is forced to face the reality that, by giving herself so completely to the healing of others—listening to their pain, absorbing their trauma, and carrying their stories—she has reached a breaking point.
It is within that reckoning that Jo discovers the only space where she can safely survive—The Secret Sand Circle.
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Book Launch: The Secret Sand Circle
November 14th, 6–8 PM
The Twentieth Century Club
Purchase launch tix / preorder signed copies: https://www.christinaabt.com/secret-sand-circle-launch/preorder
#TheSecretSandCircle #HeartandSoulWriter #FictionThatHeals
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