Linda G. Barrett is the author of Save the Sinner, winner of the 2022 Feathered Quill Book Awards bronze medal in the Short Story/Anthology category.
Save the Sinner is a collection of poetry and five short stories, for which she has received excellent reviews from judges and readers alike.
These stories include intriguing tales of soul-stealing Gypsies, a quiet café lunch resulting in a dire circumstance, passionate vampires, a dying forest that only one man can save, leaves that bleed, and a dazzling, beautiful woman who was created to be untouched by mortal men.
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Linda's first book, Release Me, a small book of poetry, was published in 2019.
She states, “These poems delve into the darker psyche of internal emotional struggles. They show the desperate yearning through heartache and sorrow, looking for peace of the soul.
“At different times of our lives, many of us suffer some level of sorrow, the pain of heartbreak, and the darkness of our inner personal thoughts. But as we contemplate these, we learn that we can search within our heart to find the delicate compassion of hope, finally finding joy, passion, and peace.”
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A passage from "The Forest," a short story from her second book, Save the Sinner, published in 2020:
“Your heart has become covered by thick layers of darkness -- cold, black, and dead, seeking only revenge,” said Shadow. “And yet, there is this part that Genevieve still holds, that can still feel love and pain.”
“I know what love is and the pain of loss,” said Crow. “I will destroy everything that is beautiful so I will have no more reminders of Genevive’s beauty, my love lost, or what could have been.”
Shadow looked at Crow and said, “I remind you once again, my king, that to kill all beauty will include Genevieve.”
Will Genevieve be found in time? The forest is dying and he’s the only one that can save it.
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From the soon-to-be-released novel, Soul Collector, based on the short story of the same name in Save the Sinner:
Just outside a small farming village in 1850, a Gypsy family decides to park their vardo and put down roots. While many of the villagers welcome the friendly newcomers, there is one man who has sworn vengeance upon them. He is the most powerful and feared man in town, and when his son Patrin falls in love with Breena, the beautiful young Gypsy girl, unspeakable violence erupts.
Breena then makes a dark pact with the spirit world to seek her revenge. Under the tutelage of Nipkin, a man whose life and mystical powers span centuries, Breena masters the secrets of ancient magick, learning to twist the minds, reality, and dreams of men, driving them into utter madness.
More than a hundred years later, an anthropologist named Mary stumbles into a New Orleans voodoo shop . . . and unknowingly into Breena’s web. But why is she the one Breena has been waiting for all these years?
When Mary’s inner circle becomes plagued by strange illnesses, disappearances, and even death, she and her son Jack know they must bury their fears and find answers in a cabin hidden in the depths of the bayou, the home of the powerful and dangerous witch doctor.
