The latest news from Eckhartz Press, and a chance to peek into some of the great previous offerings from our humble little publishing company.
=What a weekend for your humble Chili Dog MVP team. We were in Cooperstown New York for the induction ceremony of Dick Allen, the subject of our book Chili Dog MVP. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. 54 Hall of Famers were there, including Fergie Jenkins who helped our guys sell the book one day. Many other former big leaguers were there supporting ex-teammates (Gary Matthews, Mike Cameron, Eric Davis, etc.). We had our profesional photographer there too (Ken Smoller), and will post those photos when we get them. We also filmed so many people for the film about Dick. In the meantime, here are a few of our personal pics from the weekend...
=How is the movie coming along? Judge for yourself by watching the trailer. The perfect ending for the movie, of course, happened this weekend in Cooperstown.
=Dr. Fletcher also appeared on Minutia Men Celebrity Interview last week.
=This week in 2022 (July 28), Dr. Fletcher gave a well-attended chat at Cantigny in Wheaton. It was a fun celebration of the 50th anniversary of the 1972 White Sox.
=Their best explanation yet of what Mob Adjacent really means...
=Happy birthday (July 29) to Mob Adjacent co-author Mike Gentile. Mike is the older of the Gentile brothers, and the one who really sounds authentically Mob-Adjacent. Jeffrey is the more urbane of the brothers.
=The book launch for Jeff Reiter's The Best of Words on Birds will be held on September 4th, at 6:30pm at Cantigny's Visitors Center Theater. He will discuss his book, do a presentation, and then sell and sign books. You do need to pre-register for this event, but you can do it here.
=Here's the description on the Cantigny website...
Join us for an evening with Jeff Reiter, as he discusses his newly published book The Best of Words on Birds. Since 2004, suburban Chicago newspaper readers have enjoyed “Words on Birds” by Jeff Reiter. His new book, from Chicago’s Eckhartz Press, is a collection of favorite columns, selected for their appeal to every kind of birdwatcher. New birders will find helpful guidance, and all will appreciate Jeff’s engaging and insider’s approach to the fast-growing pastime. With stories about the backyard and “everyday” birds to tales of rare-bird stakeouts and cross-country adventures, Jeff personifies the hobby’s broad and addictive appeal. Along the way, he urges readers to enjoy birding on their own terms, at their own pace. The payoff is a closer connection with nature, a proven mental health benefit. Stick around after the presentation for book sales and signings. Copies of the book will be available for $20 (cash, check, or Venmo)
=Author Mark Wukas will be appearing at Max & Benny's on August 11 (Northbrook) to tape a podcast and do a book signing. You can register here.
=This past week Mark appeared at a book club on the South Side for a dozen ladies who enthusiastically enjoyed The Kiss of Night. One of them even baked special cookies for the event.
=The Kiss of Night is now also selling at the Book Cellar in Lincoln Square (Chicago).
=One of the most rewarding days in publishing is the day the author gets his or her first copy of their book. To Nudge the World's Jim Slusher had that moment this week, last year. So what did he do with his first copy? Naturally, he gave it to his mom. Jim's mom passed away just a few months later, but she got to see her son become a published author. That's her in the photo below...
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=This week in 2018 (August 3), Eckhartz Press released retired Judge Michael Ian Bender's book Protecting Children. It provides unique insight into aiding children of divorce, custody, and parentage disputes so that they grow into healthy adults.
=Duane Scott Cerny owns one of Chicago's funkiest antique stores, and it inspired him to write the highly acclaimed Selling Dead People's Things. The book came out this week in 2017 (August 2). You can get a good feel for Duane's larger-than-life personality in this podcast interview. The man's an absolute stitch.
=This week in 2014, Bruce Bohrer had a book signing in one of the most obvious places imaginable, Murphy's Bleachers. Several of his old Cub-usher colleagues showed up to say hello. So did at least one former Cub, Rick Sutcliffe.
=One of the people featured in Chuck Swirsky's book Always a Pleasure is celebrating a birthday this week (July 28). Former Bulls coach and long-time basketball announcer Doug Collins is a Swirsky friend and confidant. Another famous basketballer is former Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. It's his birthday this week too (July 31)
=Two of the people Chet Coppock wrote about in Your Dime My Dance Floor have birthdays this week. Neither of them were really sports people, although the late Irv Kupcinet (July 31) did do color commentary on Chicago Bears games (with Jack Brickhouse) for many years. Would you believe that Chet also knew Arnold Schwarzenegger (July 30).
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=This week in 2019, two Eckhartz Press authors, Deb Tokarz and Janet Sutherland, appeared on the same radio show, Playtime with Bill Turck...
=This week in 2021, Chicago media writer Robert Feder wrote about Eckhartz Press author Margaret Larkin in his Daily Herald column. Here is what he wrote...
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=This week in 2021, Paul M. Banks was making the rounds promoting his soccer book Transatlantic Passage. One of the stops was the Sports Beezer show (July 28). The following day (July 29) he appeared on WGN-TV News with Larry Hawley.
=What on earth could tie these two books together? The answer is Steve Trout. The former Cubs pitcher appeared in the book Cubsessions, and We Have Company author Bobby Skafish came out to that massive book launch party. Here's a photo to prove it...
=Trout is celebrating a birthday this week (July 30). Three of the rock stars Bobby features in his book are also celebrating birthdays this week, Rat Scabies (July 30), Robert Cray (August 1), and Jim Capaldi (August 2)
Rick Kaempfer
=Eckhartz Press co-founder Rick Kaempfer celebrated a birthday this week (July 28) too. Rick has written Father Knows Nothing, $everance, Back in the DDR, The Loop Files, and EveryCubEver for us, and co-written The Living Wills, Records Truly Is My Middle Name and Grun Weiss Vor.
=On the tenth anniversary of $everance's release (August 1, 2017), Rick updated the "Who Owns What in the Media" section at the back of the book. Here's radio. Here's the rest of traditional media. Time for another update soon.
=This week in 2019 (August 2), Rick made a few appearances promoting EveryCubEver. First he did a morning show in Elgin, then in the evening he did an appearance at Club 400 in Lake in the Hills and met former Cubs reliever Pedro Strop.
=This week in 2013, we lost one of our authors, Felizitas Sudendorf. Her book about her courageous immigration to America was a big early hit for us. It was the only book we ever released on our imprint, Helgard Press. She combined war stories with old German recipes. It was a revelation. When she passed away, Rick wrote this tribute to her. We have since lost a few other authors including Chet Coppock, Joel Daly, Pat Colander, Dena Mendes, Alex Burkholder and Mark Gelinas. All of their books live on at Eckhartz Press.
