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The Real GOOD Loser, A Story That Could…
Chapter Twenty-Seven: Finale Part 3 of 3 Query Letter
“Was nothing real?”
—from the film Truman Show
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Query Letter for The Real GOOD Loser, A Story That Could…
Dated: February 22nd, 2025; JoJo Day
To whom it may concern,
“This world is a mess.”
With humanity arguing over absolutely everything today, that is one of the few statements I could make here that might get a unanimous nod from the imaginary head of public opinion. That said, many people still exist who are hoping all this mess has happened—and is happening—for a reason.
The story of The Real GOOD Loser is for those people. And anyone else wanting or needing to believe that things on this planet can get better. Also, nobody seems to know what the f is real or not right now. This story is also for those people. Because, as everyone will soon discover, I am very real…I just don’t know about everyone else yet.
Am I living in The Matrix? … Am I part of the Truman Show? … Have you been watching me all this time? … Are you real?
Depending on who and when you are, not everything I say here can make sense to you. Like everything, it’s a matter of perspective. If you happen to be a literary agent reading this, I do apologize for the impersonal nature of this introduction, but the goal here is to simply introduce myself and my story to you (assuming you’re real of course).
If you are an agent reading this please know this query to you doubles as the ending to my story that you can be read and/or listen to in its entirety at RecoveryHighSchool(dot)com. I’ve heard that agents are selling the author just as much as the story and so I hope what you find there will be helpful when deciding to represent me or not.
Yes—This world is most definitely a mess. But the cycle of tearing each other down over it is counterproductive and has only helped create this sad reality of ours. Rather than blaming people, the story of The Real GOOD Loser takes aim at another culprit without making it so personal: Entertainment.
The psychological effect of all forms of entertainment on a person’s sub-conscious is real; effecting humanity on both a micro and macro level. More simply: The drama we see on screens impacts how we treat each other on streets—and on social media—and in classrooms—and in workplaces—and in homes—and in our minds.
Could we all benefit from going back to high school to better understand the effects entertainment has had on our reality?
As a person that tends to punish himself for his thoughts, perception is something I am always trying to pay attention to and learn more about. When it comes to entertainment, I’ll say this now and with confidence: “Perception is vital to our species survival.”
That is The Great War I believe we have ahead of us and The Great War referenced in the story of The Real GOOD Loser, A Story That Could…
What we’ve seen on screen has bled into our reality. It’s made our world a darker place. We humans can debate and argue over everything and anything, but maybe we can all agree on that in the spirit of putting this messed up world back together.
Who am I kidding…that will never happen—But what if it could?
If the fiction on screen created a darker world, could we use it do the opposite? … Could we make the change we need in the real world… ENTERTAINING?
The story of The Real GOOD Loser merges my real life with fiction and could be labeled as “realistic fiction”. As its author I’ve had a rather interesting life thus far and could have perhaps found earlier success by writing a memoire that might have provided financial freedom for me but would have left me living in this same sad world as before. Knowing that would never bring me the happiness I was looking for, I wrote this story instead, with much more grandiose ambitions than just making myself some money.
With this story I hope to introduce a fictional character that can change the world using entertainment and at the same time provide myself a voice and platform to change the real world at the same time. My character’s story and my real-life story will “diverge” in many ways, and I like to think this world will need both of us to help make things just a little bit better.
There needs to be a revolution in education. This story and everything that might come after is also an attempt at making that happen. Have I made my ambitions grandiose enough for you yet? Or should I maybe sprinkle a little more crazy into this for you?
Don’t worry—we’ll get there.
In the story of The Real GOOD Loser this teacher character with my backstory was teaching a class called Emotional Intelligence at a Recovery High School when Covid hit in 2020. What is real and not-exactly-real in the story will not be explained entirely here as it is part of the story. Rather I will now only sprinkle you with a few necessary truths.
When Covid came along and disrupted life as we knew it, I really was teaching at a Recovery Highschool in Worcester, Massachusetts named Rockdale Recovery High; a school established to help students struggling with substance abuse. Teaching there I found their attempts futile as I believe substance abuse stems from bigger mental health issues.
“My conclusion is this: Our environment effects our thoughts, and our thoughts effect our emotions, therefore, to improve mental health on a global scale we must change our environment. Period.”
— from Chapter 21 of The Real GOOD Loser; titled B.S.
A student at that school named Caitlyn said something to me I’ll never forget. After a heart-to-heart conversation with her, she looked at me from behind her desk and said: “You get paid to care.”
I’ve learned a lot about people on life’s journey thus far. One undeniable truth is that many of us are more likely to listen to a stranger than someone we know; a true statement when you talk like me at least as I’ve found people will often listen to doomsayers. But I try to be hopeful when I’m forced to speak to people in the real world. It’s not always easy, and I don’t always believe what I say, but I try.
Caitlyn had dreams of moving to California back then; the “Geographical Cure” we call it in recovery. Where she is now I don’t know but can only hope she’s stayed in the fight long enough for these words to reach her.
Caitlyn didn’t need another teacher that day, what she needed was a better world—a better environment—and so I eventually quit that good paying and stable job to write this story…not on a whim but because I believed it to be my calling.
Once you know everything, I don’t think you’d consider it an exaggeration were I to say this “calling” nearly killed me. That student had no clue how permanently broken I felt when she said that to me. She wasn’t trying to hurt me—she just didn’t know my story. I was twenty years older than her but when experiences connect people is age and all that other “stuff” really that important?
If I had told that student I’d been in her shoes that day she might have rolled her eyes at me. But I had. What she said bothered me not because it was an attack on me or my profession, but because I could relate to how she felt.
No one cares anymore—People are just checking off boxes for a paycheck these days—This hate-filled world is full of self-absorbed selfish and entitled a holes—It’s true: “People suck!”
Like Caitlyn, I tend to see money as the underlining drive for most everything these days. With everything these days being rather awful, should I have told her what I think is the truth?
“Greed is acting like a vacuum on our world, sucking not only money from the many, but also its dreams, compassion, and empathy in order serve the luxury of the few.”
— from Chapter 17 of The Real GOOD Loser; titled Regret
If Caitlyn hadn’t rolled her eyes at me before, she most definitely would have had I said that. People hate when I blame money for problems in the real world: “Why blame something you can’t change?” I’ve been told.
That same day Caitlyn suggested I listen to a song titled Just Like You by the rap artist NF. Opening up to her, only to be told I get “paid to care” and that I should listen to that song reaffirmed a belief I had years earlier that kids are learning more from the entertainment they are consuming than from me, a teacher at the time.
The fact this student was growing up in a world that made her feel I only cared because I was paid saddened me and further fueled my desire to try and change things— But how? … How could I make people listen to me? … Who the hell was I?
“Entertainment is an exaggeration of truth.”
— from Chapter 18 of The Real GOOD Loser; titled The D Words.
The characters in my story aren’t entirely real but are based on real people. Like Jayleen. Another student at that Recovery High School who liked to tell me to go f myself. Her boyfriend Jason might have had some Nel from my story in him. Both of those real students were great kids…even if they didn’t always behave or act like it.
Prior to getting that job at almost forty years old, life had not gone as planned for me. An understatement to a hilarious degree once you know my story. Rather than considering that time wasted, I like to think it was time I was given to do some homework.
In his book Chasing the Scream, Johann Hari investigates The Drug War; how it started and if it was successful. In that author’s opinion it was not. While I do agree with this opinion, I know how controversial opinions are and how quickly people tend to shut down or argue today. I only reference that book here because of something it said about the early 1900’s:
“American culture was looking for an outlet for its swelling tide of anxiety—a real, physical object it could destroy, in the hope that this would destroy its fear of a world that was changing more rapidly than their parents and grandparents could ever have imagined.”
Looking at the world today, that line spoke to me. What if we started ourselves a new war? I wondered.
What if we identified something to fight against that might bring us back together—like they tried doing with that whole drug thing. What could be that something for us today? … What is causing the swelling tide of anxiety now?
As a species, we’ve admitted to many problems, but the teacher in me will list a few here to keep us focused. Many of us have lost faith in people. Many of us don’t know who to believe or what to believe so many of us believe nothing. Humanity today seems to trusts no one yet believe everything.
According to the book Stein On Writing, humanity has learned to “suspend belief for the sake of story”. We’ve become very good at this that author says. If I was your teacher, I might ask you what effect you think this learned ability of ours has had on how humanity perceives reality today.
In the real world I am a father to three boys who have been raised in safe and loving environments. All three of my boys grew up scared of being alone however and worried about burglars more than I wished they would have. Part of me blames this on one of our all-time favorite movies: Home Alone.
A poster of this movie hangs on the wall above my computer in the bedroom we share—I’m looking at it as I write this now.
On this poster Kevin looks at me while slapping his cheeks with both hands and making that big o-face of his; the one he makes when he’s using his dad’s aftershave in the movie. Behind Kevin in the poster, two burglars stare at him through a snowy window; Harry and Marv. The caption on the poster reads: “But Don’t Worry…He cooks. He cleans. He kicks some butt.”
Did some of my boys’ worries and fears stem from this fun movie they’ve loved ever since they were little?
Many would argue this a silly thing of me to think. Others would argue there is a lot of truth in it. Again, we humans can debate and argue over everything and anything.
I, however, am not the person you might expect me to be after hearing me blame Home Alone for my children’s worries and fears. In fact, I only used that example here so that I might say this to you now: “I am most definitely not a pussy!”
That line—though definitely rude and inappropriate—connects to my story and is a line I use here for ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY. Proving a point: The way we hear people speak to one another is often a result of entertainment.
Even the super special Elon Musk references entertainment when he speaks. According to an article on FoxNews(dot)com he was quoting Tom Cruise’s character in the movie Tropic Thunder on his social media platform when on December 27th, 2024, he wrote this: “Take a big step back and F—YOURSELF in the face.”
While I am not a p-word, I am overly sensitive. Which explains only some of why this story took me so long to complete. A crippling sense of insecurity had me revising this story over and over while I waited for the most appropriate time to share this story with the world. That time…I believe…is now.
I believe everyone is “In Recovery” from the effects of entertainment and that all of us would benefit from revisiting “High School” in order to discover ways to navigate recovery in the real world. These beliefs presented me with the following three dilemmas:
One. How do we address the psychological effects of entertainment without overstepping and upsetting an overly sensitive and critical world?
Two. How do we promote discovery without taking away all the joy entertainment brings us in the process?
And Three. How do we avoid micromanaging the growth of not only entertainment, but also of the individual?
Surviving in this reality has become exhausting. And it’s not all a result of entertainment. Trust me, I get it.
The other day I took those boys I just mentioned to the mall. That big fancy mall we walked around has turned into a strip of stores that have a lot of “things and stuff” in them but barely any people. Scattered between people-empty-stores were showrooms of outrageously expensive shoes. “How much do you think dad?” My boys asked with a shrink-wrapped shoe in their hand. They’d then flip that shoe over and laugh at my look disgust.
As a father, I think paying hundreds, even thousands, of dollars for a pair of sneakers is…well, stupid and shallow. But as a college graduate with a degree in business finance, I find it impossible to make sense of and simply infuriating to be honest.
How is our reality supposed to continue like this?
Our way of life is unsustainable. I think we all know that at this point. The cost of housing alone is mind-boggling. Crises after crises has saved us here in the United States, but those tricks; or unfortunately fortunate events, won’t last forever. Something needs to change——or break maybe.
Personally, I’ve lost a lot of things in life. Money being one of them. Strangely enough, losing things has always created opportunities for me in life. So maybe that financial apocalypse we seem to be tiptoeing towards might end up being a good thing for humanity in some way.
Did you just roll your eyes at me?
This story came together like a puzzle for me. A puzzle with some very sharp pieces. In my struggle to have it make sense, there were times friends and family thought I was hiding my true self behind some character. Other times, friends and family believed I truly thought I was some character.
This all made life difficult for me but provided me an even better story to tell— Could I use my story to not only save myself, but others at the same time?
Delaying this story’s release—some by choice, a lot not—had me playing with different ways in which to present it. “Experiments” I’ve come to call them. I wish I could say I planned everything to happen the way it did, but I most definitely did not. I’ve simply tried to make everything seem like part of the plan. What else could I do? … Give up?
I’m just a numbers guy really. In statistics The Law of Large Numbers states: the greater the sample size the more predictable an outcome becomes.
I believed I could change our future by using entertainment. To achieve my desired outcome, I would need as many people involved as possible to make the outcome I envisioned more likely. With endless entertainment options for people to choose from today, how could I make this possible?
What I came up with starts with this story… but this story is just the beginning.
“Great power lies in one’s ability to shape the future.”
If this mantra is true, money most certainly plays a role. But what if “popularity” paves the roads that enable a person to truly shape the future?
Not fleeting popularity—like one might achieve by creating a viral video—but sustainable popularity: the kind I hope we might create by presenting the story of The Real GOOD Loser to the world.
I should sound a little crazy to you at this point, but perhaps those that are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do. Hoping this is true, allow me to now share with you the first two phases by which I hope to use this story to start changing our future.
Phase One: Get this story published.
At approximately 120,000 words, the story of The Real GOOD Loser is written in a way I hope will keep the distracted mind focused just long enough to maybe learn a few things. As an American with the 2024 election ahead of me, I wrote this story with that election in mind. I wouldn’t be able to change that election but knew it would appear as déjà vu to me for one reason or another. Intelligent consumers of my story will be able to piece together what I mean by that.
“People need hope. People need to believe that bad things can be turned good. They need to see it happen. They need to be a part of it. That is my quest.”
This is the quote I imagine being displayed on the back cover of the story to be published. I imagine that quote appearing inside to the “Backwards L”. Which from that perspective will look like a J for The J-Man. In the story of The Real GOOD Loser: PERSPECTIVE—IS—EVERYTHING.
Phase Two: Release the podcast version of this story.
There is a second version of this story I’ve written. At approximately 160,000 words currently, it has the printed version in it but is interrupted with sections titled “Breaking Knews” to be read by a second voice for the podcast: The Narrator.
That podcast version of this story begins with The Narrator saying the following:
With great evil spreading chaos across the universe, this story will be an exercise of the mind intended to help humanity navigate a world where deciphering what is real from what is fake has become a constant struggle. A struggle that—as you are probably know—is very real.
This struggle to decipher what is real from what is fake has resulted in a world full of people who find themselves scared, tired, and confused. Or worse. The worse being a seemingly insurmountable level of despair. A level of despair that has many on the verge of giving up completely.
This reality cannot be allowed to continue as there is more on the line than you know.
The changes needed however come with too much Red Tape: rules and orders and systems and people that make transformation slow and ineffective. Hence the selection of this tale; dusted off and shared with you now at this most appropriate time—a calculated decision that will present the most efficient path forward.
Like all stories parts of this one are pure fiction, not much of it though. The challenge of knowing the difference will be left to you Dear Readers and Listeners. Please take from this story what you can and question what you must. Find the truth in the entertainment and kindly use that truth to destroy the world you know and assist in the creation of a better one.
This “Written-For-Audio Production” incorporates audio from entertainment into it; making it a more engaging experience. It is written in a way I hope others might emulate when sharing their own stories with the world someday. It will bring readers and listeners of the published version of this story through it from an entirely different perspective.
The goal of the podcast version of this story is to tell the world everything about me—the real me: the good, the bad, the ugly, and the very embarrassing.
“I wish nothing more than to be completely honest with people today. That’s a weird thing to wish for but it’s true.”
—from Chapter 9 of The Real GOOD Loser; titled Diverge
If the printed version is a success, this podcast version should be highly anticipated and might provide the world a voice they can maybe believe and trust in the real world someday (only if they want of course).
That podcast version of this story will also set up future stories I might write someday. Stories I had originally planned to write before I accidentally burnt my house down and before my two visits to a psyche hospital.
I will need both the written version and the podcast version of this story to explain the vision that had family and friends thinking I had lost my grip on reality back then. Seeing what reality has become today—completely insane—I’m willing to risk being locked up a third time if there is even a small chance I can make this reality better for my boys.
In a world where miracles exist, magic is real, and dreams come true, the way in which I plan to promote this story is rather simple.
On April 1st, 2025—the ten-year anniversary of what is identified as “the biggest mistake I ever made” in the podcast version of the story—I will make the following post on Facebook:
“I’m excited to announce that The Real GOOD Loser has finally found a literary agent. If you would like to experience the version of the story being pitched to publishers, you can read and/or listen to it for free at RecoveryHighSchool(dot)com. I know it’s April Fools Day, but this is no joke. Thanks for the likes, comments, and shares…it helps!”
I would make that post on the Facebook page I created for The Real GOOD Loser that has over thirty thousand followers; followers I gained by running small ads when I first started working on this story when Covid hit, and on my city’s private Facebook page: Leominsterites Unite.
I made a post on that local page on September 11th, 2024, that is written into the Finale of the story. The purpose of doing that was to eventually illustrate the empty and dangerous nature of social media on dreamers like me.
Sharing that post, I’d then let gossip and the power of the internet do its thing.
I’ve asked twelve friends to read and/or listen to this story while I wait to hear back from agents. I care about what other people think. I always will—it’s just how I’m wired. If those friends like the story but I am unable to find an agent by April 1st, should I make that post telling people I have anyway? … Would some “lies and deceptions and tricks” be justified at that point?
That “lies and deceptions and tricks” line I just used was pirated from the show Game of Thrones. In the episode it was taken from; titled Mockingbird, the future queen Deanery’s Targaryen has dreams of stopping the wheel of power that crushes those without and prepares to present the old masters the choice they have before them: “They can live in my new world,” she says in that episode, “or they can die in their old one.”
Later in that same episode another character says: “If you want to build a better home, first you must demolish the old one.”
According to a Facebook post, Game of Thrones is the most widely consumed show in the world today. In sharing just a few lines from that show with you here, we can ask ourselves: What information, feelings, and/or emotions, is the entertainment we are consuming feeding us?
One of the many goals of this story is to answer that question. Asking it now, one might consider the words to the song Civil War by Guns and Roses: “Look at the hate we’re breeding, look at the fear we’re feeding, look at the lives we’re leading, the way we’ve always done before.”
Life has taught me many things and blessed me with many gifts. The greatest of those gifts perhaps being the ability to see people for who they are and not judge them completely on how they behave or act—a true blessing in our current environment as I’m sure you can imagine.
I can only hope I’ve manufactured enough drama here to maybe get you interested in all this. Whether we work on it together or not I can’t know. Still, I think I’m here to make you believe something. For that I hope you’ll wish me luck…I’m gonna need it!
“Whatever happens it promises to be one hell of a show though. So, gather your friends and sit up close, you won’t want to miss it. Maybe you could go and buy yourself a cowboy hat and watch it with me and my dad?”
—from Chapter 8 of The Real GOOD Loser; titled The Bull
Now that you somewhat know the plan, allow me to end here with a few final questions for reflection: Who are we really? … Are we the people we let this world see? …Or is there perhaps more to us than we put out for show—for ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY? (Fill a page!)
Thank you for letting me be your teacher. And remember…the end is only the beginning.
Sincerely Yours, With Love—The Real GOOD Loser: “Ready or not, here I come.”
P.S.
Maybe everything that happened didn’t happen for a reason. Maybe everything that happened didn’t have to happen. We can’t change the past but maybe we can change the future. From that future perspective, perhaps everything will have happened for a reason. Through greatness and discipline—maybe we really are the master of our fate?
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The Teacher’s Playlist (final song):
A Whole New World from the 2019 film Aladdin
“I can open your eyes. Take you wonder by wonder. Over, sideways and under… On a magic carpet ride.”
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(End of Chapter 27 and end of Story….?)
To go to beginning of story click here…
Recovery High School 