The latest news from Eckhartz Press, and a chance to peek into some of the great previous offerings from our humble little publishing company.
The Book of the Year Awards
=Another Eckhartz Press book is taking home some well-deserved hardware this coming Friday. (January 23). Daily Herald Opinion Editor Jim Slusher won in the Non-Fiction Book of the Year catgeory. Come on out to the Book Cellar in Lincoln Square (Chicago) on Friday to see him, listen to him do a short reading, and buy his book. He will happily autograph it for you.
=The award ceremony last year was at the Tip Top Tap in the Allerton Hotel. Mark Taylor won in the same Non-Fiction Book of the Year category. Mark's book Hospital Heal Thyself came out this week in 2024. An international publisher bought the book later in the year, but not before Mark's Eckhartz Press version won the award. Congrats to him!
=Last Comiskey author Ken Smoller (a finalist himself last year) was there too. That's him in the photo with Eckhartz Press publisher Rick Kaempfer.
The City News Bureau of Chicago was the starting point for several of America’s most celebrated journalists: Mike Royko, Seymour Hersh, and Pam Zekman among others. The local wire service closed in 2005 after operating around the clock for 115 years. Stories about CNB have taken on characteristics of epic fishing tales, a mixture of fact and fiction: The bureau broke stories on the St. Valentine’s Day massacre (true), the Tylenol murders (also true), and on Pearl Harbor (not verifiable); one of its reporters committed armed robberies in order to write stories about them (unlikely); and its reporters would get yelled at by gruff editors until they cried (exaggerated).
To set the record straight and to tell the real history of CNB, two former staffers have produced Sirens in the Loop: A History of the City News Bureau of Chicago, publishing February 1. The book was a passion project of Paul Zimbrakos, the legendary managing editor who worked at CNB from 1958 until its closing. Zimbrakos passed away in 2022 before finishing the book, but his friend and former employee James Elsener picked up and finished the project.
=This Saturday (Jan 24), Jim will be on WGN Radio with Steve & Johnnie. Tune in at 10pm.
Additional upcoming Eckhartz Press
author events. Mark your calenders...
=Rick Kaempfer and David Stern will be moderating a virtual discussion about Tony Fitzpatrick's book (The Sun at the End of the Road) on February 6th. It's free, but you need to register here.
=David Stern will be appearing at KinoWerks (5645 N. Ravenswood in Chicago) on February 14th. He'll have a table selling an assortment of Eckhartz Press books at their Arts Event that day.
=Mark Wukas (The Kiss of Night) will be appearing at
Welcome to the Show at the Getaway (4530 N. Lincoln Avenue) on February 16.
=Vicki Atkinson (Surviving Sue) will be appearing at
Wauconda Library (11am-12:30pm) on February 20. Vicki's debut novel is coming
out later this year on Eckhartz Press.
=Robert Conlon (Celtic Knot) will be appearing at the Gman (on Clark in Chicago) on March 15.
=Lauren LoGiudice (Inside Melania) brings her Misfit Variety show to the Annoyance March 13. Show's
at 9.
=Eckhartz Press author Chuck Swirsky was in the news this week. He was the recipient of a pretty blistering critque from ESPN-Radio announcers Marc Silverman and Tom Waddle (who have both been to an Eckhartz Press book signing). The duo was upset that Chuck was upset about Ben Johnson's profanity laced anti-Packers rant. Of course we are standing by our author, Chuck. But we are not upset, because if we get upset about Waddle and Silvy getting upset about Chuck getting upset, we're pretty sure some sort of space-time upset-continuum will be disturbed.
=By the way, Chuck Swirsky has some great photos in his book, including these two with this week's birthday boys Vince Carter and Pat Tomasulo.
=The Eckhartz Press signing that Waddle and Silvy attended was the book launch for Randy Merkin's first book. Here's the photographic evidence.
=This week last year (January 19), we lost one of the main characters from the book. Former White Sox manager Jeff Torborg, passed away. He was 83 years old. Jeff was the skipper of the team during their last season at old Comiskey.
=Pat Colander passed away this week in 2019. Publisher Rick Kaempfer wrote this tribute to her when he heard the news.
=This week in 2024 Rick Kaempfer appeared at the Chicagoland Record Show (1/21). Here are a few photos from that signing. (Top photo includes fellow Loopers Neil Sant, Artie Kennedy, and Bill Holub, second photo includes David Stern and Record show founder John Govi.)
Records Truly Is My Middle Name
=Here's a free excerpt from John Landecker's book about Wolfman Jack (born 1/21/38), and two photos from the book from additional famous birthdays this week, John Belushi & Ernie Harwell (1/25/18).
=Rock journalist Bill Paige got the opportunity to interview some of the biggest rock stars during rock and roll's heyday. Among them, Steve Perry, who turns 76 this week (1/22). He rates his own chapter in Bill's great 2017 Eckhartz Press book.
=Tom Weinberg was a WTTW producer for years, and wrote a book about his greatest adventure, looking for a lost city in the jungles of Honduras. The photos alone, like the one below, are worth the price of admission. This week in 2018 he had a book signing at The Book Stall in Winnetka.
=He may be the White Sox radio announcer now, but back in 2016, Len Kasper was the TV play-by-play man for the Cubs. In the book Cubsessions this week's birthday boy tells the story of that magical night in Cleveland.
=This week in 2018 there was a colliding of two Eckhartz Press authors. The author of Brandwidth, Kipper McGee, interviewed the author of Doin the Cruise, Mitch Michaels. You can listen to the podcast here.
=This week in 2020, Eckhartz Press author Andrew C. Langert released his biography of Lewis University's Brother James Gafney. This photo is Andy holding the very first copy of the book.
=This week in 2019, Eckhartz Press author Chet Coppock made his final public appearance for a charity. He grabbed the mic and entertained the Bowling for Veterans event. That's a photo of him at the event below, along with a shot of Chet with his lifelong friend Jack Brickhouse. Jack was born this week (January 24), 110 years ago.
=Randy Richardson is not just the president of the Chicago Writer's Association, he's also a three-times published Eckhartz Press author. His first book for us was the coming of age novel Cheeseland. This week in 2013, Randy recapped the many stops on his media tour.
=Eckhartz Press Author Brent Petersen might be a famous globe-trotting foodie, but he's not getting any younger.* Want proof? His Destination Eat Drink podcast was recommended by the AARP.
*We're allowed to say that. We're even older.
=This week in 2012, The Living Wills was featured on Rick Kogan's show on WGN. Both authors (Rick Kaempfer & Brendan Sullivan) gave Kogan credit for encouraging them to write this book.
=This week in 2021 comedian (and Eckhartz Press author) Dobie Maxwell appeared on the Comedians Over 50 podcast.
=For years Joel Daly delivered a nightly commentary on the Channel 7 News in Chicago. This week in 1978 he delivered his last one. Would you like to read it? It's featured in his Eckhartz Press book The Daly News.
=This week in 2015 Rick Kaempfer was wrapping up his Father Knows Nothing Publicity Tour.
