The latest news from Eckhartz Press, and a chance to peek into some of the great previous offerings from our humble little publishing company.
=This product of the Chicago Writers Association is going to be sold at their Chicago Writes writers conference later this month, but it's actually available right now at Eckhartz Press. The list of people who contributed to it is pretty amazing. Contributors include: Abdulkareem Abdulkareem, Damiana Andonova, Caitlin C. Baker, Jason Battle, Jim Bellanca, Autumn Bettinger, Dom Blanco, Melvin Brown, Dan Burns, Daniel Carbaugh, Jennifer Chapman, Tim Chapman, Albert DeGenova, James Drummond, Doreen Duffy, Dorothy Garcia, Aruna Gurumurthy, Elizabeth Hereford, Antonia Hildebrand, Stephanie Iancu, Anastasia Jill, Melissa Jornd, Laurinda Lind, Richard Luftig, Alison McBain, Tom Meyer, Debasish Mishra, Ann Mumaw, Lana Orndoff, Peter Pawinski, Amy Rains, David Rogers, Purbasha Roy, Heather Sager, Mary Salisbury, Nnadi Samuel, Samuel Samba, Kay Severinsen, Jack Silberberg, Paul Smith, Hillary Steinberg, Kelly J. Sullivan, Sam Szanto, PJ Temple, Jeffery Allen Tobin, Cesar Toscano, Jennifer Vasicek and Lee Clark Zumpe. Congrats to editor Maggie Smith for putting it all together. Cover photo by Randy Richardson.
=Speaking of the Chicago Writers Association, last year this week New City named the people who run the CWA in their Lit 50 list, Randy Richardson (a 3-time, soon-to-be 4-time Eckhartz Press author) and Samantha Hoffman. Congrats to those two. They definitely deserve the attention and praise.
The Sun at the End of the Road
=Tony Fitzpatrick may be gone, but his books like The Sun at the End of the Road and his artwork will live on forever. The Sun Times had a nice piece last week about the auction of his "uniquely Chicago" artwork. Read about it here.
=It's hard to describe what makes Bubble Boy author Bob "Wilbur" Williams so unique, although this new interview does a pretty good job of showing the many different sides of this talented author.
=The Loop exhibit at the Museum of Broadcast Communications will have a new neighbor soon. The Museum acquired the entire set from Stephen Colbert's The Late Show, and it will be displayed very soon as part of their Evolution of Late Night exhibit. Honored to be in the same neighborhood. Read the full story here.
=This week in 1980 (June 2), this commercial for the Loop debuted. It starred the face of the Loop, the stunning actress/model Lorelei Shark. Lorelei naturally appears in the book The Loop Files. A framed poster of her is also part of the Loop exhibit at the Museum of Broadcast Communications.
=This week in 1986 (June 6), three of the biggest stars in Loop history (Johnny B & Steve & Garry) appeared on stage together at Poplar Creek. The concert was a sell-out. This photo of Brandmeier and Dahl was taken backstage, and is featured in the book.
=One of the people featured in The Loop Files is Mike Veeck who was instrumental in the creation of Disco Demolition. ABC-7 spoke to Mike, along with his son Night Train, because they are back in baseball. Watch it here.
=The movie is coming to Chicago later this month.
=This is a momentous week in Chili Dog MVP history. It was this week in 1972 (June 4) that Dick Allen was on the bench for the second game of a double header, and was in the clubhouse having a chili-dog, when his manager went looking for him to pinch hit in the bottom of the ninth. Allen got dressed, walked up to home plate, and slugged the game winning homer. That's the reason the book is titled the way it is. One of the co-authors, David Fletcher, appeared on this podcast to describe the story.
=On the 50th anniversary of that moment (2022), the White Sox pre-game show talked about it as well...
Records Truly Is My Middle Name
=Speaking of 50th anniversaries, the latest issue of Illinois Entertainer came out today, and features a write up about the 50th anniversary of John Records Landecker's momentous day at Woodfield Mall with John Travolta. Read it here.
=This week in 2010 (June 3), the creator of the Trivial Pursuit game, Chris Haney, passed away in Canada. John Landecker was a big star in Canada during the early days of the game, and turned it into a radio masterpiece. He writes about it Records Truly Is My Middle Name, but you can hear an example of that radio feature here.
=Records Truly Is My Middle Name contributor Al Rosen is celebrating a birthday this week (June 7). Al was Landecker's engineer at WLS during his early years in Chicago and tells some incredible stories about the way the Radio Hall of Famer approached his craft. Here's one of them...
I started working with John that first night, and as he's speaking on the air he looks at me and points to his headphones, something's not right.
Now before working at WLS I had been an engineer board operator at WABC in
So I tried to increase the level in John's headphones, and then brought the music level down a little so he could hear himself better. After the first break he told me it still wasn't right, so in the next stop set I tried again, lowering the music level even more. John had this frustrated look on his face and told me the level was still wrong. I had John's mic going way into the red on the meter and the music level down around 40 percent so I didn't see how I could make him any louder.
I will never forget what John told me next. He said, "No no, I want the MUSIC louder and my mic brought down! I want to be INSIDE the record!!"
My mind started reeling. For one thing, No DJ had ever told me to bring his voice DOWN, and second it DID sound amazing. When John did an introduction over the intro of a
Sirens in the Loop and The Kiss of Night
=How about this for an anniversary. On June 1, 1890, City News Bureau was founded. That's such a momentous occasion we have two books about that esteemed organization, one non-fiction (Sirens of the Loop) and one fiction (The Kiss of Night).
=Next month we'll feature both of them in a double event. Mark Wukas (The Kiss of Night) and Jim Elsener (Sirens in the Loop) are co-hosting a "City News Book Gala" on Saturday, July 11 from 5-7 pm at the Edgewater Historical Society Museum - 5358 N. Ashland, Chicago.
=What makes Mark Wukas tick? He sent us this note shortly after his book was released...
I paid a debt of gratitude this weekend and left a copy of The Kiss of Night on James T. Farrell’s grave in Calvary Catholic Cemetery. If you’ve read any of the Studs Lonigan trilogy, you recognized how much he influenced my vision of Chicago.
=On June 3, 1987, the film The Untouchables was released. Doug E. Jones features a quote from that movie to describe some of the actions in his novel Take Me Back to Chicago
“They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That’s the Chicago way.”
=A chance to hear Bob Conlon is coming soon. He'll be on Chicago Irish Radio on June 13th with Siobhan O'Connor. The show streams around the world on Saturday mornings at @www.1490.am.
=A year ago Bob Conlon was just getting started selling his novel Celtic Knot. We had no way of knowing it would be one of our top sellers for the year. Bob is a selling-machine. It helps when the book itself is excellent. This week last year he conducted his very first interview about the book. Read the entire interview here.
=In August Bob has a very big event coming. More details in the next few weeks. A tease of it below...
=A few incredibly important moments in Flip Side history occured this week in history. On June 7, 1976, Carl and Larry Rosenbaum opened their biggest Flip Side Records location in Chicagoland, at 2348 W. Higgins Road in Hoffman Estates. Most of the big in-store record events in the next decade took place at this location, including this one with Styx guitarist Tommy Shaw...
=Just one year later (June 4, 1977), the biggest concert in Flip Side's history of concert promotion was staged at Soldier Field. It was called, The Super Bowl of Rock. Look at the sea of humanity.
=Both of these events, of course, are thoroughly reported in the book The Flip Side.
=We had the launch party for Last Comiskey in 2024. In case you missed it, author Ken Smoller has posted a bunch of great pictures and written a blog post about the event. Check that out here. Or, if you prefer to watch the video of the panel discussion from that launch party...
=Or, you can listen to this podcast interview...
Joe Jackson Plaintiff v Chicago American Baseball Club
=Baseball recently lifted the lifetime ban on Shoeless Joe Jackson. Authors David Fletcher and Jacob Pomrenke appeared on Ed Lynch's podcast to talk about their book, a trial transcript of the Shoeless Joe Jackson trial from 100 years ago.
=This week the whole world celebrates International Cheese Day (June 4). What does that have to do with the great Eckhartz Press book Grammar Moses? The book includes the single best cheese joke ever told by humankind. Author Jim Baumann was forced to tell it during this podcast interview.
=Lee Kingsmill's book Safe Inside was an honorable mention winner for the CWA Book of the Year in 2018. This week in 2018, it debuted as an e-book.
"Brilliant satire! I got a paper cut from the sarcasm. I wish I could say it was great fiction, but having worked in radio, I think it’s just really funny non-fiction. The reality in between the laughs will scare the hell out of you."
=This week in 2021 (June 7), author Margaret Larkin got her first copy of her debut novel Wicker Park Wishes. Eckhartz Press publisher David Stern was on hand to snap a photo of that moment...
=This week in 2020, author Roger Badesch appeared on WGN Radio with Rick Kogan to discuss his new memoir, The Unplanned Life. This is a photo of Roger with the two Ricks. Eckhartz Press publisher Kaempfer on the left, and the legendary Kogan on the right.
=This week in 2014, Judge Michael Ian Bender appeared on this podcast to discuss the information that would form the basis of his Eckhartz Press book, Protecting Children. It would go on to become a top ten book in it's Amazon category.
Recalled to Life
=This week in 2013 (June 3), the first novel from author Dan Burns was released via Eckhartz Press. The book was called Recalled to Life. Dan has gone on to write several more books, and has even written and produced a short film, but it all started here at Eckhartz Press. He is also one of the featured writers in the new Write City Review, Volume 5. (Available now!)
To the Men I've Loved (God Help Them!)
=One of the endearing features of Pat Motto's memoir To the Men I've Loved (God Help Them!) is the musicial accompanient suggestion at the beginning of each chapter. This week in history (June 4, 1965), the suggested musical accompanient of Chapter Three—(I can’t go no) Satisfaction--was released by The Rolling Stones.
Printers Row Lit-Fest
=For years the Printer's Row Litfest was held in June (It's now in September). One year (June 6, 2015), three Eckhartz Press authors were the headliners (L-R: Rick Kaempfer, Joel Daly, John Records Landecker)
The Hidden Shamrock
=This week in 2012 was the first-ever multiple author appearance by Eckhartz Press authors. At the time, there were only three books available via Eckhartz Press. The four authors in this photo (along with moderator Mary Beth Horner) appeared on stage in Lincoln Park at the Hidden Shamrock. Left to right: Horner, Brendan Sullivan, Rick Kaempfer, Kim Strickland, Randy Richardson.) The three books available at Eckhartz Press at that time were The Living Wills, Down at the Golden Coin, and Cheeseland. All three are still available on our website.
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