The latest news from Eckhartz Press, and a chance to peek into some of the great previous offerings from our humble little publishing company.
Award Winner!
=Extending our congratulations to Jim Slusher! This week the Chicago Writers Association named his book To Nudge the World as the Book of the Year in the Indie Non-Fiction Category. The award will be handed out on January 23rd (6-8pm) at the Book Cellar in Lincoln Square. What a great achievement, Jim. (The Daily Herald also congratulated him in the paper last week)
=18 authors recognized in 14 years. Not too shabby.
=The Evanston Roundtable listed Doug E. Jones' book in their annual gift-worthy list. Here's what Scott Pemberton wrote about the book...
Evanston native Doug E. Jones has a thing for Chicago — a true love for Chicago, in fact. That, and his talent as a writer and his gift for storytelling, means that Take Me Back to Chicago, his fourth novel, should be a meaningful read for anyone who has any kind of thing for Chicago. Not to mention that he worked his way up from “coffee boy” to staff writer for the television show Charmed. So, what’s the book about? It tells the story of a young man in 1970s Chicago as “he tries to pay off his dead father’s debt to the Irish mob.” Charming, for sure.
=Nick Digilio was making the rounds again. Wednesday he was on Steve Cochran's podcast...
=On Thursday he appeared on Kelly Leonard's podcast...
=WBBM NewsRadio ran an interview by Terry Keshner about Nick's book on Saturday.
Twas the Night Before Father's Christmas
=A heartwarming holiday message from Father Knows Nothing
Coming Soon...
=Our next book is percolating. We have the cover. It will be available for pre-order soon. The book is a history of The City News Bureau of Chicago, and it's really good. More details in the coming weeks.
A Very Eckhartz X-mas
=Back in 2018 we gathered a dozen of our authors and had a group book signing on the Northwest Side of Chicago. What a fun day. (Top Row, L-R: Chet Coppock, Beth Jacobellis, Bruce Bohrer, Becky Sarwate, Randy Richardson. Middle Row, L-R: William Mansfield, Donald Evans, Rich King, Richard Reeder, Alex Burkholder, Ronnie Woo Woo. Bottom Row: Dave and Rick)
Happy Birthday!
=Three Eckhartz Press authors are celebrating birthdays this week. Happy birthday to Everything I Know I Learned from Rock Stars author Bill Paige (December 26), Surviving Sue author Vicki Atkinson (December 28), and In Small Boxes author Ann Wilson (December 30).
I Bear Witness and Your Dime My Dance Floor
=This historical photo was taken on December 31, 1988. Future Eckhartz press authors Dan McNeil and Chet Coppock on the sideline during the infamous Fog Bowl game at Soldier Field.
=This week in 2022, Chuck Swirsky appeared on WGN Radio with Steve & Johnnie to talk about his book Always A Pleasure. He also did a book signing at the Windy City Bulls game, and ran into an old friend--this week's birthday celebrant Jared Payton (December 26).
Jim Harbaugh
=The former Bears quarterback (and I suppose he's done other things since) Jim Harbaugh is featured in several of our books, most notably Randy Merkin's Behind the Glass, and Rich King's Ike & Me. Harbaugh is celebrating a birthday this week (December 23).
Happy Holidays to our editors Lauren Schultz, Mary Leonard and Mike Braden. Happy holidays to our gifted designer Jeff Waggoner. Happy holidays to our printers Publication Graphics (in West Chicago) and Wally's Printing (in Winfield). All of our people are local and it will stay that way.
Happy Holidays to the entire Eckhartz Press stable of authors. We are honored to have such a distinguished group (in alphabetical order): Dr. Vicki Atkinson, Roger Badesch, Paul Banks, Jim Baumann, Jeanne Bellezzo, Judge Michael Bender, Bruce Bohrer, Bob Boone, Alex Burkholder, Dan Burns, Pat Camilliere, Duane Scott Cerny, Ken Churilla, Tim Clue, Pat Colander, M.L. Collins, Robert Conlon, Keith Conrad, Chet Coppock, Joel Daly, Nick Digilio, Jim Elsener, Don Evans, Russ Fahrner, Tony Fitzpatrick, Dr. David Fletcher, Mark Gelinas, Jeffery Gentile, Michael Gentile, Gloria Golec, Jack Hafferkamp, Jessica Hagy, Bob Herguth, Nicole Herion, Beth Jacobellis, Judy Ann Jamerson, Doug E. Jones, Rick Kaempfer, Rich King, Lee Kingsmill, Ken Korber, John Records Landecker, Andrew Langert, Margaret Larkin, Tom Latourette, Eric Litt, Lauren LoGuidice, Lou Macaluso, William Mansfield, Spike Manton, Dr. John Martucci, Dobie Maxwell, Kipper McGee, Dan McNeil, Dena Mendes, Randy Merkin, Mitch Michaels, Frank Miles, David Mosele, Pat Motto, Joe Novak, Kristin Oakley, Lori Oster, John Owens, Bill Paige, Brent Petersen, Jason Pomrenke, Paul Possenti, Vicki Quade, Chuck Quinzio, Scott Redman, Richard Reeder, Edward Reyes, Jeff Reiter, Randy Richardson, Carl Rosenbaum, Larry Rosenbaum, Becky Sarwate, Todd Schneider, Bob Shannon, Bobby Skafish, Jim Slusher, Maggie Smith, Ken Smoller, David Stern, Kim Strickland, Felitzitas Sudendorf, Brendan Sullivan, Janet Sutherland, Chuck Swirsky, Mark Taylor, Deb Tokarz, Ryan Trembath, Will Wagner, Tom Weinberg, Ann Wilson, Mark Wukas, Butch Zeppo and Paul Zimbrakos.
105 authors have now written 120 books for Eckhartz Press. We are proud of each and every one of them, and we miss those who have passed away.
And Happy Holidays to the authors we have signed for the upcoming year, our 15th year of publishing. You know who you are! We're looking forward to adding to our family.
Have a wonderful holiday season, and we'll see you in 2026!
