by Bill LaBrie | Oct 17, 2014 | Culture, Literature, Music, Poetry
“Self-Cannibalism” You’ve freeze-dried the joy heard First from a crackling car speaker, Packaging your life’s magic inside A Lucite puck for modern display. A million’s not a million as time goes by And villas in Nice don’t get...
by Bill LaBrie | Oct 13, 2014 | Careers, Coping, Culture, Essays, Literature, Writing, Writing-Publishing
Instead of using a Facebook book promo forum to do a BUY BUY BUY on my new book this weekend, I pulled a fast one: I asked the participants what they didn’t like about modern fiction. Fellow authors: These people are your market. They’re the...
by Bill LaBrie | Sep 19, 2014 | Coping, Culture, Education, Essays, Humor, Literature, Writing
Story time. I was on a train in Spain crossing the plain eating plantains maintaining my brain. Ok, that last part was wrong. I was on a train in Spain, but it was going along the Mediterranean coast. It was somewhere between the French border and Barcelona. And I was...
by Bill LaBrie | Sep 11, 2014 | Culture, Essays, Literature, Writing
Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve My rating: 4 of 5 stars I don’t frequently read in the YA (young adult) genre, but when I hear other grown-ups call it their favorite, I understand why. YA authors know that kids respond to obscurity with boredom. Most kids in that...
by Bill LaBrie | Sep 8, 2014 | Culture, Humor, Literature, Politics
Read us a poem mister funny man Said the snarling brute while His gun pressed against my cheek. You got your book and it says ‘poem.’ Clearing my throat, I paged to one I thought apropos, about a man So hurt he had to hurt others. The brute nodded,...
by Bill LaBrie | Sep 3, 2014 | Coping, Culture, Faith, Literature, personal development, Poetry, Psychology
“Would Then I Finally?” When I can finally write a poem That doesn’t make nice people cringe And turn away with faint disgust and piteous condescension: Will then I finally be healed? When I can finally write a song That’s not about petty...