The Real GOOD Loser, A Story That Could…
Epilogue: A Message from the Author
Query update for The Real GOOD Loser, A Story That Could…
Dated: April 22nd, 2025; Earth Day
Hello there,
If you are a literary agent reading this I sent my query to you or your agency at some point over the past year. As of this date I have sent two-hundred-twenty-two of them. While I have yet to receive any offers of representation, I appreciative the thirty-three that responded by respectfully passing. Hearing from them let me know I wasn’t just talking to myself…not entirely at least. :0)
“History will wonder why we never said anything.”
A friend on Facebook shared a post that said this thing about history the other day; referring to the madness happening in the world around us. The story of The Real GOOD Loser will be one of many I’m certain that will show our future selves that we were saying things—but that many of us were simply ahead of our time maybe.
“This world is not overflowing with hateful people like we sometimes think it is—It is overflowing with hate-FILLED people. Those are two very different things.”
—from Chapter Twenty of The Real GOOD Loser; titled Hate
For far too long I questioned if this story would ever get published. A while back I let myself think—and sometimes believe—that it was not a matter of “if” but “when”. Over the past year I’ve given myself deadlines and actions to take on certain dates that will illustrate just how difficult a task it was to get people to listen today…especially if one’s intentions were virtuous.
I’ve been painfully patient, but doing this all alone has me running on empty at this point and so I am writing this message to you now to plead for your help.
I know agents and agencies are looking for certain authors and certain types of stories for their portfolios…but this story is special. What that word “special” will mean to you will be a matter of perspective. Nevertheless, if the burden of money is real to you; and you’re in search of authors who have strived despite unique and significant obstacles, well then, I’m going to say something hugely obnoxious here: “I am him.”
Less is often better I’ve found, and I’ve invested too much time and money to risk boring you with too many details. That said, allow me to now offer you a short description of this “special” story of mine.
The story of The Real GOOD Loser follows a class called Emotional Intelligence that was being taught at a Recovery High School when the Covid Pandemic came along and disrupted life as we knew it. The story ends imagining two different futures: one in which this story gets published and one in which it does not. I’ve struggled describing this story to literary agents but will describe it now as Transformative Realistic Inspirational Fiction: “A memoire with a twist,” you could call it maybe.
For the sake of all that is still good—and for all that MUST get better—please visit RecoveryHighSchool(dot)com.
On that site you can read a sample of the story, I’d suggest letting me read a sample to you though as it took me a long time preparing that. To know more about the story, jump to the last chapter as it doubles as the final version of the long-winded (but necessary) “Query Letter” I sent literary agents two months ago.
Listen to a chapter while driving or any other task you choose. Start at the story’s end or at its beginning. Either way, I dare you not to relate to what you hear in some way…I double dog dare you.
Sincerely Yours—with love—Joseph Ernest Henrie (sr.)
“A genuine leader is not a searcher of consensus but a molder of consensus.”
— Dr. Martin Luther King Junior
Contact Info: JosephHenrie(at)recoveryhighschool(dot)com
Website: RecoveryHighSchool(dot)com
Phone: ***-***-**** … ask for Joe :0)
Recovery High School 