Chicken Soup and a Shot of Jack by Clarence 'Poet 402' Barbee (VNBtM, guest post and GIVEAWAY) GFT

I have the pleasure of having a guest post from author Clarence Barbee, who answers the question...


 

What do you think is the strongest attraction about the genre(s) you like to write in?

CB:  The genres that I mostly write in are literary fiction and poetry.  I love literary fiction because there is a story that has to be told.  Usually it’s of a personal nature, or experience, and honest experience tells the greatest story.  I’m not sure if poetry fits into the same genre, but it’s different with poetry.  Poetry allows for language to be explored, to be tasted, to be performed with all the feeling and emotion the language allows.

There is something magical about a story.  It takes us on a journey, and who doesn’t enjoy sitting down and hearing a story?  The best stories are always honest; it has the grit of the unknown, the waves of suspense, and the cleansing last breath of completion.  Literary fiction is also about learning lessons.  Through many experiences we as authors, (and moreover humans) go through things in life, which are tragic or triumphant.  In going through these things, we learn about ourselves, how we interact with others, how to better interact, and what not to do in certain situations.  Literary fiction becomes the handbook in some instances, with much better language, better emotion, and better understanding.

Poetry has been called the language of love, but can easily be the language of frustration, hate, misunderstanding or information gaining.  I’ve been writing poetry for around…20 years (but I’m really not that old).  The thing that keeps me writing it is that it captures “the instant” so well.  Poetry is emotional if nothing else; it defines our feeling within words chose, how they fit onto and into the page.  The arrangement is like musical notes, showing what good architecture sounds like.  Sometimes I think we forget the aesthetic value that poetry has.  We get wrapped up in the reading without looking at the poem—sometime, if I am able to scan a poem, and it looks good, it entices me more to want to dig in and read it.

The strengths that lie in literary fiction are, even though it is rooted in fable, there is an uncertain, but storied truth within its sculpted words.

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Chicken Soup and A Shot of Jack

by Clarence ‘Poet 402’ Barbee

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BLURB:

Chicken Soup, and a Shot of Jack is a strikingly impressive work of literary fiction from new author Clarence Barbee.  The writer weaves his form of prose, delighting readers with thought provoking lessons on how to balance the good and bad in life.  The book offers common sense values filled with humorous stories and tales.  

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EXCERPT

So why now, are we all not outraged, are we all not asking questions, and fighting, together?  Is racism still that strong, is the white supremacist structure still firmly in place, has the economic development of the African-American community risen so high there are too many economic elitist to give a damn?  It must be Facebook and Twitter, because I do not see the liberal white college students there in Missouri and New York, on the front-lines like they were in Mississippi, and we were during the 99% protest.  Why were the 99% protest called protest, and the protest in Missouri called riots?

--From the essay Black Lives Matter

Amazon buy link

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Clarence Barbee has been writing and performing poetry for over a decade.  He has produced 9 spoken word albums, under the pseudonyms Nabraska and Poet402.  Clarence is now working on self-publishing books of essays and short stories.

In his professional life he has worked with, educated, and supported many children.  Clarence believes in keeping an eye on political planes and social occurrences such as changes in world leadership, and social inequalities.  These actions of men are a huge curiosity to the author; he believes in writing about them, and discussing them, so solutions can be made.

Clarence has taken these experiences and written about them extensively. He asks, “Who doesn’t want to be happy,” then goes about the business of finding the answer.  Please take some time to join him on this journey as they are set through words, sometimes with music, and always taken with a grain of salt.

Links

Website

Twitter:  @former402poet

Facebook

YouTube

Blog

Soundcloud

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