I’m pleased to find out that The Painting and the City is on the list Best Experimental Novels for 2009 at the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography web site. And also pleased that The Babylonian Trilogy is on the list too.
I don’t think of my novel as experimental, but I’m glad to see someone notice it. He says: “One of my favorite genre authors out there right now, and it’s a shame that he’s not as well-known yet as many of his peers.”
I’m unfamiliar with most of the other authors but will have to look for them.
Laconic Writer 
Congratulations. That’s a cool list to be on!
Is it weird to be referred to as a “genre author”? I read TP&TC last week and was impressed. I kept wondering how it was going to end. I did like the ending; it was a soft landing. It does seem that Lerner never owned up to his dependency on the Kreunens of the world. There was one sentence about six pages before the end where he mused on how artists need wealthy clients, but that was it. Also, in my mind, some of his hallucinatory experience was due to effects of the dog bite. Lastly, how about a short story on Freed and Lerner as teens at summer camp?
Hey Chris–I don’t know how much more owning up Lerner can do, if he wants to keep making his art. He could say “I’m only going to sell to people I think are worthy” but that isn’t practical in real life (and I did try to make him someone with real-life attributes). And, I do think there’s more contemplation of that conundrum than the one sentence.
It isn’t weird to be referred to as a genre author. Almost all of my publications have been in places that are considered genre publications (or at least fringe of genre). What I write isn’t what would be considered traditional or standard genre. My writing appeals to people who aren’t traditional genre readers. Mostly, I want people to read my things without expectations that it will be a certain type of writing, if that’s possible.
However you want to view his hallucinatory experiences if fine with me…
I can’t say teenage Freed and Lerner at summer camp appeals to me much, but I’ll think about it.
Yeah, you’re right, there is more than that one sentence. It’s an interesting notion: being dependent on what one abhors. I used to work with a anti-war machinist who made military ordnance during the Vietnam War. He was against the War but loved the work (building stuff).