Publishing Portal--January 16, 2024

The latest news from Eckhartz Press, and a chance to peek into some of the great previous offerings from our humble little publishing company.

*Happy Birthday!

=Eckhartz Press author Bob Boone is celebrating a birthday this week. Bob wrote the wonderful collection of short stories known as City U. Fellow author Richard Reeder captured Boone's talent this way... “Bob Boone has the unique knack of finding the uncommon in so-called common people. The dialogue of his characters always rings true, never mincing words. Boone is a master of twists and turns in his stories, always keeping his readers thoroughly engaged.”

 *Joe Jackson vs. Chicago American League Baseball Club

=Great article this week in The Daily Herald about our recent book. The book is the long-lost transcript of the Shoeless Joe trial from 100 years ago. Thanks so much to writer Steve Zalusky for highlighting it. 

*The Loop Files

=Come on out this weekend! Details below...

*Hugh Hefner's First Funeral and Other Tales of Life and Death in Chicago

=This week in 2017, the Chicago Writers Association named Pat Colander's Eckhartz Press book as the CWA Book of the Year.  This is a photo of Pat the night she accepted the award.

=That same week the Chicago Tribune gave the book an incredibly positive review.

=We are so happy she got to experience that. Less than a year later Pat passed away.

 

*Out the Door!

=This week in 2018, Eckhartz Press author M.L Collins also accepted her award for CWA Book of the year for the zany/off-beat novel Out the Door! Eckhartz Press publishers Rick and Dave were on hand to help her celebrate. 

*Chili Dog MVP

=In 2022, Chili Dog MVP was also honored by the Chicago Writers Association. The book is about the 1972 White Sox and two of them are celebrating their birthdays this week.

*EveryCubEver

 =In 2019, the Eckhartz Press book EveryCubEver was also a finalist for CWA Book of the year. People always ask me to guide them to some of the more interesting entries in this voluminous book. There are two Cubs born this week in history that certainly lived memorable lives. Check out the entries for Hank Gornicki and Dizzy Dean. 

*The Daly News

 =Martin Luther King Jr. was born this week in history. One of our authors not only knew King, he got the opportunity to interview him on television. Joel Daly tells that story in the pages of The Daly News.

*Surviving Sue

=Vicki Atkinson is teaching a course at Harper College, inspired by the experience of writing Surviving Sue. Details are here.

=Don't forget about Vicki Atkinson's upcoming free workshop...

*Always A Pleasure

=This week last year Chuck Swirsky made an appearance at The Windy City Bulls, and signed copies of his book Always a Pleasure. Two of the many basketball legends who appear in the book are celebrating birthdays this week, former Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau and Bulls player Dwayne Wade

 *The Living Wills

 =This week in 2012 the authors of our first book The Living Wills made an appearance on the WGN-TV Midday News. It was the first of many TV appearances by Eckhartz Press authors. 

*1001 Train Rides in Chicago

=Rarely has an interviewer and interviewee hit it off as quickly as Eckhartz Press author Richard Reeder and TV personality Rabbi Doug. This interview is from this week in 2019.

*Close Encounters of a Chicago Kind

=Vicki Quade is famous in Chicago for her theater work, but she also penned a witty Eckhartz Press book Close Encounters of a Chicago Kind about her everyday encounters with Chicagoans. I love the way she organized the stories by location. For instance, an entire chapter is about her experiences in the post office. This might be good week to read that chapter. The first U.S Postmaster, Benjamin Franklin, was born on January 17.

 *Behind The Glass

=Another Eckhartz Press TV appearance happened this week in 2022. Randy Merkin appeared on ABC-7 in Chicago to talk about his book Behind the Glass.

*Ike and Me

=This week in 2016, TV sportscaster (and Eckhartz Press author) Rich King announced his retirement from television. At the time he had already written two books for Eckhartz Press (My Maggie, Back in the Game). His retirement allowed him to write one more. Ike and Me was a finalist for CWA Book of the Year in 2022.

*Transatlantic Passage

 =We have two books about soccer in the Eckhartz Press library. One is called Grun Weiss Vor! and the other is Transatlantic Passage. That second book is about the Premier League in England. Author Paul Banks was lucky enough to get to speak to some legends, including this week's birthday boy Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola.

*Back in the DDR

=The coming of age novel was hot off the presses when the news about David Crosby's death hit the wires. Because Crosby was one of the people referred to in the book, I published an excerpt of the book (about Crosby) this week last year

 *Cubsessions

 =Cubsesessions is a book about celebrity and die-hard Cub fans, and what Cubdom means to them. One of the featured fans was the Bleacher Preacher Jerry Pritikin, seen below at the book launch party with Eckhartz Press publisher David Stern. His birthday is this week.

=Another contributor to the book was Pat Brickhouse, widow of Hall of Fame broadcaster Jack. She not only contributed to the book, she contributed to our website justonebadcentury.com. Unfortunately Pat passed away this week in 2022.

 *Safe Inside

 =This week in 2017, Dave and I had breakfast with Lee Kingsmill and made the deal to publish his outstanding novel/memoir Safe Inside. Our faith in Lee was rewarded when the book was named as a finalist for CWA Book of the Year in 2018.