Welcome to Sophisticated Hokum, my website and blog.

My name is Josef-Konrad Radomski and I’m a Montreal-based freelance writer who has been writing professionally for the last ten years.

I majored in journalism at Montreal’s Concordia University, and have recently completed a certificate in television writing at UCLA.

I got my start writing locally for the Montreal Mirror and the Montreal Gazette where my rather long name was shortened to J.K. Radomski, which I still use as a byline today. Since then, my words have appeared in several newspapers across North America including The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and The Rocky Mountain News.

I have also written for a number of magazines – both consumer and trade publications – such as Entertainment Weekly and the Marketing Research Association’s monthly newsmagazine, to name a few. You can find a few sample articles here. I also do a lot of business writing - proofreading and editing, website content, white papers, desk research, and qualitative reports - through Templar Research Services.

Recently, I’ve also started writing for comic books. A script I wrote was included in a 2007 anthology published by Young American Comics.

While covering the business side of the entertainment industry as a local correspondent for The Hollywood Reporter, I became intrigued with the idea of writing screenplays and teleplays of my own, and spent a few years dabbling at it. I have since taken a more serious approach to this craft and have written a few spec scripts. You can find extracts here.

Aside from acting as a showcase for my work, think of this website and blog as my virtual notebook where I will record things I find interesting or useful.

If you are new to writing and are looking for information about breaking into journalism or magazine writing, please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions. I am more than happy to share my professional experience in this area with you, and may even post your answer for other wannabe writers to see.

For those who know me personally, check out my ballyhoo category to see what I’m up to and where I’ve recently been published. If you don’t know me personally, don’t be shy and introduce yourself.

And in case you were wondering, Sophisticated Hokum stems from the critique a story analyst at Warner Bros. gave to an unproduced play called Everybody Comes to Rick’s back in 1940. The analyst described it as an “excellent melodrama” and “sophisticated hokum”, and suggested the studio purchase it at once. That play became the basis for Casablanca, one of the best movies ever written.