Best of 2008

On By Robert Freeman WexlerIn Psychological Methods To Sell Should Be Destroyed, ReviewsLeave a comment

Jason Pettus of the intriguing website the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography (CCLP) has picked my collection Psychological Methods to Sell Must Be Destroyed for his list of best experimental books of 2008. There are some interesting-looking books mentioned, and I’m pretty happy about showing up on a list with M.John Harrison.

I first came across CCLP after I read Jack O’Connell’s The Resurrectionist, a book that had some fine writing but ultimately disappointed me. I was curious what people were saying about it and looked at reviews on Goodreads.com.  Jason Pettus’s review echoes some of the problems I had with the book, and so I clicked on the link to his website, where the review had originally appeared. I looked around the site briefly, planning to return when I had more time. Some weeks later I was looking at a post–on a blog, but I don’t remember which blog—about writer’s problems with reviewers. I clicked on a link to David Louis Edelman’s blog post on standards that a review should follow. The post ended with mentions of some reviews of his novel that reflected these standards, one of which was from CCLP.

After reading Edelman’s post I went back to CCLP, looked around some more, and queried about sending a review copy of Psychological Methods to Sell Must Be Destroyed, and was pleased with the ensuing thoughtful and intelligent, review.

Besides book reviews, CCLP collects interesting photographs from various sources (for example here), and also links to news reports, etc., with commentary.

I don’t have a lot of time for reading blogs (or writing one), but CCLP is one I try to visit often.

Intro

On By Robert Freeman WexlerIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Howdy. I’m a fiction writer. I’ve published a novella, In Springdale Town, (PS Publishing 2003 and reprinted in Best Short Novels 2004, SFBC, and in Modern Greats of Science Fiction, iBooks), a novel, Circus Of The Grand Design (Prime Books 2004), and a chapbook of short fiction, Psychological Methods To Sell Should Be Destroyed (Spilt Milk Press/Electric Velocipede 2008). My new novel, The Painting And The City, with an introduction by Jeffrey Ford, is due out from PS later this year. I’ve had stories in various magazines and anthologies, including Polyphony, The Third Alternative, Electric Velocipede, and Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet.

I read recently in Wired magazine that blogs are passé, and so figured it was time to start one. The first few posts will be notes on the stories in Psychological Methods To Sell Should Be Destroyed. Most of these stories feature solitary narrators–a man alone–which I think is inherently disturbing because most people don’t want to be alone. And the solitary activity of reading accentuates the alone-ness. Perhaps that’s why a recent reviewer was so happy after he spilled his won ton soup on the chapbook; the soup residue became his reading companion, saving him from lonely Wexler fiction.

My novella In Springdale Town became my extreme man-alone tale, after which I planned to give my poor characters friends and relationships, which should also have the beneficial side-effect of preventing further soup spillage.

Psychological Methods To Sell Should Be Destroyed contains six stories: “Suspension”, “Tales of the Golden Legend”, “Valley of the Falling Clouds”, “The Green Wall”, “Indifference”, and “Sidewalk Factory: A Municipal Romance”. All except “Sidewalk Factory” were previously published.

I’d like to thank John Klima for publishing the collection and Zoran Zivcovik for writing the introduction.