D. A. Hosek

Just another writer

  • Writerly resolutions: April status

    I continue to make decent progress on the novel.  till perfect on my goal of working on the novel every day. I’ve cracked the 85,000 word mark on the novel and chapter 26 is currently at 6,800 words and counting. I think my guess that it will hit 10,000 words is not too far off. Thanks…

  • Dewey Decimal Project: 871 VIR The Eclogues of Virgil

    And now I’m moving on from Spanish/Portuguese to Latin in the literature part of the Dewey Decimal System. (As an aside, it’s interesting to note the cultural biases implicit in Dewey. the 800s—literature—follow a similar structure to the 400s—language—with a decade each for German, French, Italian, Spanish/Portuguese, Latin and Greek with all other languages crammed…

  • Dewey Decimal Project: 863 VAR A Writer’s Reality

    After Eco, I decided that I would definitely give a similar book by Mario Vargas Llosa a shot. Vargas Llosa is probably the most important influence in the novel I’m working on right now and it’s always interesting to see what a writer has to say about their craft. This book is based on a series…

  • As of today I’m as immune as I’m going to get to Covid. Now what?

    So it’s now two weeks since my second dose of the Pfizer vaccine so I’m fully immune apparently. Not that it keeps me from feeling anxious at the grocery store when other customers crowd me or I have to watch people pull their mask down to inspect the salad (🤷🏻‍♂️). I could start attending mass…

  • Dewey Decimal Project: 853 ECO Confessions of a Young Novelist

    If I weren’t already a fan of Eco’s writing, I would pick this up for the ironic title alone—Eco was 48 when he published his first novel The Name of the Rose, and 79 when he published this slender volume. Eco playfully explores the boundaries between fiction and nonfiction and gives some insight into his own creative…

  • Dewey Decimal Project: 843 KRI Powers of horror : an essay on abjection

    The 840s put me in French literature, I spotted Kristeva’s name on the spine and, having read Desire in Language during my MFA, I decided I’d read this. I’d forgotten that I hated Desire in Language, finding her writing incoherent and her uncritical acceptance of Freudian theory laughable. I also had read another Kristeva book along the way on…

  • Writerly resolutions: March status

    Another month has come and gone and I continue to make decent progress on the novel. I have yet to miss a day’s work so far this year. I’ve finished the rewrite and revision of chapter 25 and done a lot of writing on chapter 26. I’m pretty sure that this chapter is going to be…

  • Dewey Decimal Project: 832 BRE Saint Joan of the stockyards : a drama

    After a couple rounds of writing about writing, I decided to go for some actual writing when I got to the 830s, “German and related literatures.” Spotting this book, I decided that a bit of Brecht would be  good refreshment. It’s a bit of a “lost” play, one which never saw a theatrical production until after…

  • Dewey Decimal Project: 820.93 GOL Sexual repression and victorian literature

    After my disappointment reading Mamet, I decided to go in a direction that was bound not to disappoint because I would come at it with low expectations: An academic approach to some obscure corner of literary study. This is one of those books that I sometimes wonder how it got on the shelves and if…