Author: <span>D. A. Hosek</span>
Wow, I was being quite dilligent about keeping up this diary back in the olden days. Thoughts about “A little dignity”—How did Phillotson become the man he is? What trigger the bressedown, I think something here is a façade, but what? Is, the dignified Phillotson rool on is the comical)? Why not lead the reader […]
A bit of context on these journal entries, I suppose. This was the summer between my sophomore and junior year of college. I had a job working at the University of Illinois at Chicago computer center. I forget what I was doing that year, although if I remember correctly, I was working in the Medical […]
I encountered recently a writer who was publishing his old journal entries on Substack, and it occurred to me that there was probably nothing that private about my old journal entries that I couldn’t do the same, so here it is. “Rescuer”—A boy who wants to grow up to be a hero.. When the opportunity arrives […]
Finally beginning to get back into a groove on the writing. After much delay, I finished my post-workshop revisions on chapter three and then managed to get a first draft and rewrite of a new chapter (which will become chapter two coming before the existing chapter two). I also think I solved a characterization problem […]
This was a terribly unproductive month for my writing. It turns out it still hurts to do things like operate a pencil or scissors. The latter is mostly helpful for things like opening packages, but the former is something I like to do for revising. I did manage to finally finish revisions on chapter two […]
OK, there’s not much point rehashing what I said the last time these two faced off. I still think James is the better book. My judgment on the judgment This is a vote by all the judges, and since last year I did a handy little table, I figured I’d repeat that again this year. I […]
This would have been my finals matchup had the judging gone my way. Instead, these two books face off in the zombie round. James, as I’ve said every time it comes up, is the best book of 2024, the one that people will be reading decades in the future. The Extinction of Irena Rey, as good […]
The zombie round always throws weird little twists into the mix. Last year, my picks to face off in the finals were eliminated before they got to the finals but re-emerged as zombies. This year, one was eliminated in an upset, but will face my other pick for the finals in tomorrow’s round, meaning today […]
The official match-up this round is an easy choice for me. I found the formal experimentation of Margo’s Got Money Troubles to be intrusive and irritating while the formal experimentation of The Extinction of Irena Rey seemed delightful to me. It seems an easy choice to advance The Extinction of Irena Rey. Meanwhile in a parallel universe If […]