Joseph M Kurtenbach

03/14/2026

Okay. So, I’ve reached a milestone. And I am happy about it. But it’s not a publishing deal, or even signing with an agent. Nevertheless (and I’m a bit leery to admit this), after nearly FIFTEEN YEARS working off-and-on to rewrite this, my first novel from the early ’90s, I’ve begun querying literary agents. After looking forward to this phase, literally, for years, it feels a little surreal to be here. Please don’t get the impression, though, that I think I can sit back and relax now. I’ll celebrate a little, to be sure. A nice take-out meal, or maybe even a theater movie. But I’ve queried agents and submitted partials and fulls before, way back then. The methods have changed somewhat: I can pretty much say no to printing costs, snail-mail, SASEs, postage costs, and even longer wait times (okay, so the wait times will likely still be horrendous). But the tensions, the hopes, the rejections, are the same. And the hours and hours of researching agents–that may be even longer now, with the internet and more sources of information.

But here I am. Finally. There will still be more work on the manuscript down the line, almost certainly. There may be more work on the query letter and/or the synopsis in the near-term, based on any feedback I might get. But I can honestly say now, and rightly so, that I can let go, just a bit, to this story that’s been on my mind, now and then, for the past 35 years. And begin even more serious work on what comes next for these characters.

12/18/2024

The saying, “No news is good news,” comes to mind. That’s my excuse for waiting so long between entries here. Since my last update, I’ve received feedback from three of those beta readers (yes, over a year and a half ago), and additional feedback from other beta readers specifically on my beginning chapters, after making substantial changes to those first pages. I think it’s a fair assessment to say the feedback was substantially positive, along with some valid critiques and lots of comments in the margins. The thoughtful work of those readers gave me a lot of work to do. Granted, not a year and a half’s worth of work—that’s my own doing and can reasonably be chalked up to laziness and unwillingness to impose deadlines on myself when none are set for me. But in my defense, I continue to make progress, albeit slowly. Stay tuned.

04/14/2023

A new page on my site! As the title implies, this is where I plan to add information and goings-on that may be of interest to you. I’m not sure yet how I’ll divide up or duplicate what I post here vs. what I put on my Facebook Author Page, except to say any important career or book news or milestones can always be found here going forward (said in my optimistic voice). I’ll also post such things to Facebook, but over there you’ll also find rambling progress notes, tidbits about my writing process, and other miscellaneous ephemera I feel like sharing.

Just to create a marker of sorts here on this first entry, I currently have what I hope will be my debut novel, THE TWO STAVES, out to four beta readers. While awaiting their feedback over the next several weeks, I’m doing things like creating this new web page along with imagining all the terrible and wonderful things the beta readers might say. When I’m in a positive state of mind, I’m starting some basic planning on the next novel.