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!
=Will Wagner celebrated a birthday this past weekend (June 28). Will wrote the wonderful novel imagining what happened to Pete Townsend's guitar after he tossed it into the crowd at Woodstock.
=Former Eckhartz Press author Mark Taylor is celebrating a birthday this week (July 4). Mark wrote the book Hospital Heal Thyself. How good was his book? An international publisher swooped in and bought the rights to it. Congrats again to Mark. He's killing it.
=Thanks to everyone who came out to Blue Island Brewing Company this past weekend to meet Last Comiskey author Ken Smoller. The owner of the joint, Alan Cromwell, is always a great host to our authors. Thanks Alan!
=Mark your calendars, Vicki Atkinson has an event July 30th in Woodstock.
Everything I Know I learned from Rock Stars
=This week in 2017, Bill Paige was making the rounds because his book Everything I Know I Learned from Rock Stars was released (July 1). Needless to say, Bill was thrilled. Here's a photo of the day he got the first copy of the book...
=July 1 is also the birthday of Bill's cover-girl, Debbie Harry.
=Bill was in town for the book release, and took advantage, by returning an album he had taken out of the Arlington Heights library a measly 30 years earlier. It caught the attention of the Daily Herald
=This week in 2019 (July 1) was also the release of Deb Tokarz's book I Cu Copper. What is that book about? Here's a Q&A with Deb. You have to admit, it's one of our coolest covers ever.
=This week in 2013 (July 2), Eckhartz Press released our first children's book. It was written by Scott Redman, a sing-along story he created for his kid. The book includes a series of original photos by photographer Ray Nilsen.
=This week in 2017, Lee Kingsmill got the very first copy of his book Safe Inside. It would be a few more weeks before the book's official release, but Lee was very excited...
=Eckhartz Press author Roger Badesch will be performing on stage soon. Mark your calendars. He notes: It’s been a ‘Covid-minute’ since I had the honor and pleasure of joining my fellow SAG-AFTRA Chicago Radio Players in a live performance of classic old-time-radio (OTR) programs. So I’m happy to announce that we’re on stage again at the Chicago Cultural Center (old main Chicago library) downtown July 14th at 1:30pm. Two shows FREE - Call Northside 777 (I’m the narrator) and My Favorite Husband. Make plans now!
=This week in 2014 (July 1), Bruce Bohrer was making the rounds promoting his Diary of a Wrigley Field Usher. One of the stops was WGN Radio. He appeared on Bob Sirott & Marianne Murciano's show...
=Two years later (6/30/16), when the Cubs were actually good, Daily Herald columnist Burt Constable sought out Bruce again to see if he had any regrets about leaving the job before the team hit it big.
Three of the sports titans featured in Randy Merkin's book are celebrating birthdays this week. The late George Steinbrenner was born on July 4. The story of booking him as a radio guest is one of the best stories in Randy's book. Former slugger Jose Canseco is another birthday boy this week (July 2), and so is one of the greatest boxers of all-time, Mike Tyson (June 30)
Records Truly Is My Middle Name
=Two people featured in John Landecker's book are celebrating birthdays this week. Sly Stallone (July 6) turned John's interview with him into national publicity. Check out Rick's blog from Thursday if you want to read it. July 1 is also Dan Ackroyd's birthday. Danny and John Belushi stopped by the WLS studios to visit Landecker while they were filming The Blues Brothers.
=Goose Gossage wrote the foreword to Chili-Dog MVP, and the Hall of Famer is celebrating a birthday this week (July 5). Author David Fletcher explained how he managed to convince Goose to write that in this podcast interview. Since Chili Dog MVP is about the 1972 White Sox, we would be remiss if we didn't also mention two other key players in the book. Chuck Tanner (July 4) was the manager of that team, and Dave Lemonds.(July 5)
Close Encounters of a Chicago Kind
=On July 1, 1863, the First National Bank of Chicago opened. Seems like the perfect day to remind you about Vicki Quade's great book about her personal encounters with Chicagoans. She spends an entire chapter telling stories about her encounters in banks. Very funny stuff.
=One of the great basketball announcers is the former basketball superstar Clark Kellogg. Chuck Swirsky is in that same broadcast fraternity, and features this photograph of the two men in his book Always a Pleasure. Clark's birthday is July 1.
=Paul Banks wrote a book about soccer in America and how our players are becoming popular worldwide. That's especially true of our women. Birthday girl Alex Morgan (July 2) is at the top of that list. This photo is from Paul's book...
=One of the most beloved people who ever worked at the Loop (WLUP Radio) was promotions director Sandy Stahl. This week in 2008 (July 3) she died unexpectedly at the much too young age of 58. When Rick Kaempfer wrote The Loop Files about the history of that radio station, he dedicated the book to Sandy. Here is a photo of her from the book...
=The great Robbie Robertson was born this week (July 5) in 1943. Robbie passed away in 2023, but will live on forever in the pages of Bobby Skafish's rock and roll interview book We Have Company.
=Rich King's latest book is about the great working relationship he had with his cameraman Ike. The Black and White team made it work for more than 20 years. But when Rich got invited to the White House as part of the Chicago Blackhawks Stanley Cup celebration, it was another distinguished Chicago journalist who was there with him. His colleague from Channel 7 in Chicago, Jim Rose. Rose is celebrating a birthday this week (July 5)
=The second book ever released by Eckhartz Press was Kim Strickland's Down at the Golden Coin. Windy City Live's Paige Wiser was one of the novel's biggest fans. (Her birthday is this week too--July 6). Here is what she said about Kim's book...
“Down at the Golden Coin” couldn’t be more timely or original, with the most eccentric spiritual guide since Clarence the Angel. Prepare to set your set your brain to spin-cycle.
