Friday, December 19, 2025
Thursday, December 18, 2025
Monday, December 15, 2025
Publishing Portal--December 15, 2025
The latest news from Eckhartz Press, and a chance to peek into some of the great previous offerings from our humble little publishing company.
=Nick Digilio has been everywhere this week. You may have seen this great piece in the Sunday Chicago Tribune about him. Thanks so much to Rick Kogan for writing that piece.
=Maybe you came to his Book Launch party at Kaiser Tiger on Friday night. Axios' Monica Eng was there. So was Svengoolie's executive producer Jim Roche. Great turnout.
=Maybe you saw him at Brickhouse Tavern on Thursday night.
=Maybe you saw him at his movie screening/book signing at the Lake Theater on Wednesday night.
=Maybe you saw him on WGN-TV Tuesday afternoon. Watch the video here.
The Sun at the End of the Road
=On Thursday Nick Digilio paid tribute to his late friend Tony Fitzpatrick, who wrote the introduction to Nick's book. Tony, of course, also wrote the wonderful Eckhartz Press book The Sun at the End of the Road. It's filled with Tony's amazing artwork. Tony's last two posters are also available at Eckhartz Press. Check them out here and here.
=On February 6th, Eckhartz Press publishers Rick and Dave will be hosting a virtual event that pays tribute to Tony and his book. Stay tuned for more details as they become available.
=Doug E. Jones was on the How to Share podcast with Wynne Leon and Vicki Atkinson. The two interviewers did a great job, and Doug told some behind the scenes stories from his Hollywood days. Here's Wynne's take on that interview...
=The December issue of Natural Awakenings is out and features an article about our man Jeff Reiter and his book The Best of Words on Birds.
=Don't forget that you've got two chances to meet Jeff in the new year. On January 15th he'll be doing a talk at the Mayslake Peabody Estate in Dupage county. Register here. On February 15th he'll be in Lake County for the Gull Frolic. We'll have more information about that as it gets closer.
=Mark Wukas also has an upcoming event in February. He will be at Welcome to the Show at the Getaway, 4530 N Lincoln Ave., at 7 p.m. on February 16. More details as the date approaches.
What else is coming in 2026?
=We have some gems, in addition to the 7 books we mentioned last week. Coming very soon, a history of the City News Bureau in Chicago (from the files of the man who ran it for decades), and a hilarious memoir from a comedian who saw the internet bubble burst first-hand in the early part of this century.
=Also in the pipeline: a long lost manuscript from a beloved Chicago television icon, a tribute to the power of Chicago radio from a man who was inspired by it, an art book from an acclaimed Chicago artist, a business book from an expert who regularly appears on Chicago television, a book about the wonders of sobriety written by a former Chicago media executive, a collection of a Chicago newspaper columnist's best work, a tribute to sportscaster Les Grobstein, a former Chicago alderman's memoir, and a novel by an award-winning nationally-renowned Chicago novelist.
=Not bad, eh? 2026 is our 15th year, and it's going to be a big one for us.
=Author/blogger/podcaster Vicki Atkinson pays tribute to the authors she spoke with this year, including a half-dozen members of the Eckhartz Press stable. You can read that here.
=Another week, another promotional video from Jeff and Mike Gentile.
Close Encounters of a Chicago Kind
=Vicki Quade's latest show is this week. She sent us a note...I'm performing my hit comedy, Christmas Bingo: It's a Ho-Ho-Holy Night!, at the Irish American Heritage Center in Chicago for one night only, December 18. It's part of my new Nuns4Fun, Late Nite Catechism series rebranding. To order tickets, go online to: https://irish-american.org/event/christmas-bingo-its-a-ho-ho-holy-night You can also call the Nuns4Fun office at (773) 388-0730.
=Have you seen the Loop exhibit at the Museum of Broadcast Communications yet? We hear there is a new display coming to this exhibit. It's being donated by Lorelei. That's all we're authorized to say about it at this time. Remember, the entire Loop exhibit is only running until the end of January. Be sure to see it before it goes away.
=On December 15, this incredible review of the book was posted.
=On December 17, the South Side Pod interviewed Rick about the book.
=That interview happened at a live event in Blue Island, at the Blue Island Beer Company. Here are a few photos from that day...
=The following day (December 18) Rick appeared on this podcast hosted by Rob Hahn.
=And he appeared in this television interview with Rabbi Doug.
=And finally it was the 37th anniversary (December 20) of an event that Rick produced when he actually worked at the Loop, Steve & Garry's A Christmas Carol. The star-studded event was covered by every news outlet in town and garnered a full page story in the Chicago Tribune. This is how Loop General Manager Jimmy de Castro described it at the time...
=Lee Kingsmill wrote the book Safe Inside for us back in 2018, and it was a finalist for CWA Book of the Year. He doesn't want to write another book, but luckily for us, he continues to write his blog, Me Now. He reviews opera, theater and film. This week he reviewed the film Hamnet.
=Brent Petersen's foodie novel Truffle Hunt is his only novel (so far), but he continues to write about food and travel with his trademark sense of humor. His recent piece in Rhode Island Monthly is a keeper. It's about the long Italian goodbyes. Very funny and very true.
=In 2024, Last Comiskey was a finalist for Book of the Year. Ken Smoller's book about the last season at the original Comiskey Park has gotten great reviews, and brought him lots of attention. Here's one example: he appeared on Ed Lynch's podcast, Surfing Baseball with Ed Lynch. You can listen to that here.
=Last year's Chicago Bears season was going much differently than this year. That's why we were especially appreciative to everyone who came out to Edison Park to see Dan McNeil and buy his great book about the Bears I Bear Witness. Here are a few photos from the event.
=Flip Side's very own Mr. Cheap, Jeff Schwartz, was on the air on WGN radio with Bob Sirott. You can listen to that fun interview here.
=This was also one of the saddest weeks in Eckhartz Press history. This week in 2018 (December 16), Eckhartz Press author Mark Gelinas passed away after a valiant struggle against pancreatic cancer.
=Here is what Eckhartz Press publisher Rick Kaempfer posted after he heard the news...
My heart is heavy today. Just got the news that my good friend Mark Gelinas passed away. This photo is from his book launch just two years ago, with his wife Donna. My heart goes out to Donna and the incredible Gelinas family, particularly his son Alexander Briggs Gelinas, and Mark's parents and siblings. Mark was my roommate for a few years after college, and a friend I could always count on. I was texting with him up until just a few days ago. When he didn't respond to the last text, I feared this day was near. Miss you, buddy. I'm so happy your pain is gone.
=This week in 2022 (December 15), Chuck Swirsky appeared on Chicago Tonight (WTTW-Channel 11) to talk about his book Always a Pleasure and his 50 years of broadcasting. You can watch that here. There's also, by the way, a free excerpt of the book at that link.
=Two of the people featured in the book, Ray Meyer (December 18) and Adam Amin (December 19) were born this week as well. Chuck was one of the smart broadcasters who always remembered to get a photo, including with both of those gentlemen.
Records Truly Is My Middle Name and Doin The Cruise
=This week in 2017 (December 17), two of our more prominent authors appeared at a book signing together, side by side, at the Orland Park Sports Collectors Show: John Records Landecker and Mitch Michaels. Here they are holding each other's books.
=One of the reasons the Bears have been so continously bad for the past four decades is that the man who was groomed to take over for his father George, Mugs Halas, passed away before his dad did. That happened this week (December 16) in 1979. Chet Coppock devotes an entire chapter to Mugs in Your Dime My Dance Floor.
=This week in 1943, Walt "No Neck" Williams was born in Brownwood, Texas. He not only gets a mention in Chet's book, he gets this classic photo. Walt passed away in 2016. Chet passed in 2019.
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=This week in 2017 (December 16), Tom Weinberg hosted a Sunday breakfast at the Book Stall in Winnetka to promote his book Chasing the Lost City. The Daily North Shore was there to chronicle the event.
=This week (December 16) is screenwriter Denise DeClue's birthday. Denise was a big supporter of Book of the Year winner Pat Colander and her Eckhartz Press book Hugh Hefner's First Funeral. Here's what she said about it...
Pat Colander toiled with me in the belly of the Chicago journalism beast in the 1970s and 1980s. When major stories were reported, she asked questions. When the questions were poorly answered or evaded, she asked even more questions of even more people. Then in a clear, true voice, she wrote it all down. She found the real stories behind the stories and this collection of her work is just great. She ought to be long-listed for the Man Booker prize, If I can figure out how to do it I will.
=Legendary ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons is celebrating a birthday this week (December 16). Here he is with Bobby Skafish (and the other two Toppers, Frank Beard and Dusty Hill). This photo and the story of that interview is featured in Bobby's book We Have Company: Four Decades of Rock and Roll Encounters.
“Transatlantic Passage richly details the Premier League’s wide-ranging and often complicated influence on American soccer. While others saw mostly novelty in high-profile European clubs’ US-based preseason tours, Paul M. Banks uses them as a platform to tell the stories of the game’s most captivating and accomplished stars. Mixed with memorable and hilarious anecdotes, Banks’ incisive commentary expertly illustrates the many missteps of an often soccer-ignorant American media.”
Ken Korber
=The first day of Winter is this week (December 21). Whenever we think of the first day of a new season, we think of our children's book author Ken Korber. He's literally a man for every season. That's Ken in the middle with his spring book. Rick Kaempfer is holding Ken's Winter book, and David Stern is holding Ken's Summer book. The Fall book is sitting on a table nearby.
Friday, December 12, 2025
Monday, December 08, 2025
Publishing Portal--December 8, 2025
The latest news from Eckhartz Press, and a chance to peek into some of the great previous offerings from our humble little publishing company.
=Two Big Events this week promoting Nick Digilio's book. One is Wednesday and one is Friday.
=Wednesday night (12/10) Nick will be at Lake Theater in Oak Park hosting the latest installment of Nick's picks. This time he is screening the film Batman Returns. He'll also be chatting with the crowd and signing and selling copies of his new book.
=Friday night is the big Book Launch Party for 40 Years, 40 Films. Come out to Kaiser Tiger restaurant (1415 W. Randolph) in Chicago. Nick will be holding court, selling books, signing books, and probably enjoying some delicious food. The restaurant is renowned for it's bacon and sausages...and beer.
=Axios Chicago featured the book this morning. This week you can also hear Nick on the Car Stuff podcast (Tonight/Monday), WGN-TV on Spotlight Chicago at 1pm (Tuesday/Dec 9), and a few other things. We'll let you know when things are finalized.
=Worlds colliding. Eckhartz Press publisher Rick Kaempfer appeared as a guest last week on one of Nick Digilio's podcasts...
=Thanks to everyone who came out to see Doug E. Jones at his Book Launch party last weekend in Skokie at Sketchbook. Doug flew in from Portland to host this event.
=Dick Allen has won another award. On the one-year anniversary of learning he would be in baseball's Hall of Fame, Dick has been posthumously awarded the Pitch & Hit Club of Chicago’s prestigious Lou Boudreau Hall of Fame Award! Accepting the award on his father’s behalf will be Dick Allen, Jr., who has been instrumental in preserving and advancing Allen’s story. The event will take place at the organization’s annual banquet on January 18th, located in their Tinley Park Convention Center, 18451 Convention Center Drive. Doors open at 3:30 p.m. for autographs and a memorabilia auction, with dinner scheduled for 5 p.m.. Attendees will also be treated to an EXCLUSIVE five-minute extended trailer of the film My Father Dick Allen. For tickets, go to The Pitch & Hit Club’s website, www.pitchandhitclub.com, and check out the website https://lnkd.in/gkBnJsTw to read more about this event and stay updated about the documentary coming 2026.
That movie, of course, is the passion project of Chili Dog MVP authors David Fletcher and John Owens.
=Chili Dog MVP is the story of that magical 1972 White Sox season. Chili Dog MVP authors Dr. Fletcher & John Owens were with Allen's family when the news came out that he was in the Hall. They were also there in Cooperstown (so were Eckhartz Press publishers Rick Kaempfer & David Stern) when he was enshrined. A new updated version of the book will be coming out in 2026 to coincide with the film, and will include new material related to Dick's Hall of Fame induction.
=Some inside info on the Mob Adjacent film project...
=One of the things we love about the book Mob Adjacent is the way it mixes Hollywood with good old fashioned mobsters. This week is a great example. Two very different people born this week in history can be found in the pages of the book: Frank Sinatra (December 12), and John 'No Nose' DiFronzo (December 13). One was the Chairman of the board. The other was the Don.
=Full video of Robert Conlan's appearance on ChicagoNow on Fox-32 in Chicago.
=This week last year the authors of The Flip Side were all over town.
=A jam-packed Garabaldi's pizza in Hoffman Estates was the site for the book launch party of The Flip Side. Carl Rosenbaum flew in from Arizona to be there. Larry was there too (holding a cake below), as was Ken Churilla. A lot of former Flip-Side employees and family showed up as well, and we sold out of books entirely. What a fun afternoon.
=The next day Larry Rosenbaum came to the Arcada Theater and did a chat/signing along with fellow Eckhartz Press authors Rick Kaempfer and Mitch Michaels (and Jim Summaria/Mark Plotnick from Chicago History press). You may say he's a dreamer, but he's not the only one.
=The bookclub choice of Illinois Music Archives was The Flip Side.
=Carl was on the radio with Ray Stevens on WLS-AM 890. Listen here.
=And finally, both brothers were on television at WGN-TV. Watch it here.
=The Loop Files Author Rick Kaempfer was also at the signing at the Arcada.
=This week in 2023 (December 12), The Loop Files had a super successful (sold out!) book signing at Uncork Unwind in Des Plaines. A bunch of former Loopers (photo below--Jim Wiser, Matt Bisbee, John Swany Swanson, and Bridget Kaempfer) came out to the signing along with a big contigent of Loop fans.
=Author Rick Kaempfer also did two memorable podcast appearances this week in 2023. He appeared with Bill Turck on his podcast Playtime (December 14), and the Creativity Talkin' podcast (December 10)
=Doin' the Cruise author Mitch Michaels was at the Arcada signing too.
=Are you sensing a theme here? This week in 2017 (December 10), the Elmhurst History Museum did an entire exhibit about The Loop and Disco Demolition. Naturally, they invited Mitch Michaels to come out and sell his book Doin the Cruise there. We captured a bit of that history in these photos...
=Author Ken Smoller made an appearance on the Nightside with Dan Rea program to talk about his obsession: Sports stadiums. You can listen to it here.
=This week in 2018, Chet Coppock appeared at a card show in Orland Park. At one point, he grabbed the microphone and charmed the entire audience there.
=This week (December 12) in 2021, Randy Merkin was in the Glen Shopping Center signing and selling copies of his book Behind the Glass. It only made sense to sell a sports book in a sports store.
=This week in 2016 (December 12), Mark Gelinas held the second book release party for his cancer-journey-memoir Gel Strong. This one took place in his town of residence, Atlanta Georgia.
=This week in 2022 (December 11), Rick Kaempfer held the release party for his coming-of-age spy-thriller novel Back in the DDR.
=Two days later (December 13), Axios Chicago came out with their list of the year's best Christmas book ideas, and Back in the DDR was on the list.
=Happy birthday this week (December 13) to Cubs Hall of Famer Fergie Jenkins. Fergie was kind enough to stop by Randy Richardson and Becky Sarwate's Cubsessions book launch party back in 2018. That's fellow former Cub Rich Nye (red shirt) in the foreground.
=Another former teammate of both Cubs pitchers is former Cubs outfielder Gene Hiser. He was at the Cubsessions launch party too (shown here with publisher Rick Kaempfer). Hiser's birthday is this week as well (December 11). The launch party, by the way, was at the immortal Murphy's Pub right outside of Wrigley Field.
=This week in 2014 (December 12), Chuck Quinzio was interviewed by the Author Learning Center.
=Former Chicago Bear running back Matt Forte is celebrating a birthday this week (December 10). Joel Daly met good ol' #22 backstage at Windy City Live when both of them appeared on the same day. Joel was there promoting his memoir The Daly News.
=JJ Novak's book Meta-Stories is a collection of stories that help people deal with mental health issues. One of them is appropriate to feature this week because December 13 is the beginning of the Late Winter Dear Season in Illinois (One deer limit). Novak has a story called The Deer Who Couldn't Cross the Road.
=Eleven years ago this week (December 8, 2014), we did the launch of Father Knows Nothing. A great crowd showed up, including the three boys and a wife who are the subjects of Rick Kaempfer's humor columns over the years. Before you call it child abuse, realize that the kids love the book. Although...they refused to be photographed at the signing.
=This week in 2011, Brendan Sullivan and Rick Kaempfer were on WGN Radio with Brian Noonan discussing their co-written novel (and the first book Eckhartz Press ever published) The Living Wills. You can still listen to that interview here.
Christmas Signing
=This week in 2014 (December 12), Eckhartz Press had our first group Christmas signing. This one took place in the bowels of Michigan Avenue at the Billy Goat tavern. Among the authors there: L-R Bruce Bohrer, David Stern, Rick Kaempfer, Rich King, John Landecker, Joel Daly, and Pat Colander. Pat's not in the photo because she insisted on taking it.
