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.
=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.
