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 to Eckhartz Press author Nick Digilio. Today (July 6) is his birthday!
=You can meet him this week (Wednesday July 8) at the Lake Theater in Oak Park. Nick will be showing this month's pick that night, the film Inception. He'll also be signing and selling copies of his book 40 Years, 40 Films.
=Here's another chance to see Nick. This is an exciting one. He'll be appearing at Flashback Weekend at the end of the month (July 31-August 2). What is Flashback Weekend? Oh, no big whoop, just the biggest horror movie convention in the country. Take a look at who else will be there...
Svengoolie
The Cast of Scream 7
David Naughton & Griffin Dunne (An American Werewolf in London)
David Arquette
Dermit Mulroney
William Katt
Steven Weber
And many more.
=Check out the full list here. You'll notice Nick is on the list. I suspect Nick will have lots of information about his book coming out this Halloween season. Here's the cover...
=A note from Sirens in the Loop author Jim Elsener...
The next book signing of "Sirens in the Loop - A History of City News Bureau" will be Saturday, July 11, from 5-7 pm at the Edgewater Historical Society Museum at 5358 N. Ashland Av., compliments of CNB veteran John Holden, a historical society board member. I will be joined by veteran journalist Mark Wukas, author of "The Kiss of Night" - A novel based on Mark's experiences at CNB. Call it a City News Book Gala evening. Mark and I will begin our "author discussion" at 5:45 p.m. We will be providing refreshments. I hope we will see you then.
=That's this coming Saturday night! Come on out and meet these two guys (Jim on the left, Mark on the right).
=This is a big month for Robert Conlon and his book Celtic Knot. First of all, it's the anniversary of Tim Conlon's birth (Robert's grandfather). He was born on July 7, 1878. Never in his wildest dreams did he think his life story would be turned into a fascinating novel one day.
=There are two big Celtic Knot events coming up this month as well...
=On July 21, Conlon will be doing a talk for the West Suburban Irish Mission at the Naperville VFW (908 Jackson, Naperville) at 6:30pm. A pretty nice-sized crowd has already registered to attend. Bob does a great presentation about the book, which is like a journey through the history of Chicago.
=One of the famous moments in Chicago history covered in the book is the Eastland Disaster in the Chicago River (1915). The anniversary of that event is July 24, and Robert will be on the WGN TV morning show at 8:15
AM that day talking about it. He will also be participating in the Eastland ceremony
that day at noon with the Eastland Historical Society on the Chicago River. (Photo of the Eastland Disaster from Bob's book)
The 12 Steps and Tales of Fellowship
=There's a good chance that Tom Serritella will never forget what happened to him last week...
=August will be the month to meet Sarasota author Richard Reeder. He already has three events on his schedule. Add them to your calendar and come out to hear Richard talk about his incredible novel, which is part civil rights tale/part baseball story.
=Here are the details...
*Sunday, August 9, 2:00 PM at Edgewater Public Library in
Chicago.
*Wednesday, August 26, at 5:00 PM at the Cliff Dwellers, 200
S. Michigan.
*Monday, August 31, at 7:00 PM at Max & Benny’s in
Northbrook
=Note that the baseball player on the cover is wearing the 1961 White Sox uniform.
Printer's Row Litfest
=We cherish our relationship with the Chicago Writers Association. We published The Write City Review, Volume 5 for them just a few weeks ago, and it will be available at the Printers Row Litfest.
=Several of our authors will also be signing and selling their books in the CWA tent at this year's Printer's Row Litfest (September 12/13). Among them: Gloria Golec (South Side Memories), Robert Conlon (Celtic Knot), Vicki Atkinson (Slivers and Surviving Sue), Russ Fahrner (Face Your Monster, Chicago the Great Retirement Resource, and Embrace Retirement), Jim Slusher (To Nudge the World), Nick Digilio (40 Years, 40 Films), Robert Williams (Bubble Boy), and Tony Fitzpatrick's family (The Sun at the End of the Road). When we get closer to the Litfest, we'll give you exact times and dates.
In my recently published memoir, South Side Memories, I have written about St. Bruno Grammar School, which I attended for 12 years. My brother, who was born in 1939, also attended for 12 years so the school has been a fixture in the Archer Heights neighborhood for a long time. When I attended a reunion in 2015, the photos of all the graduation classes were posted and I marveled at such an archive of history. On the IPad on our tables, a rotating picture of me receiving an award in 8th grade kept flashing past me. For a few moments, time stopped and the school seemed impervious to change. Then a few years ago St. Bruno School combined with St. Richard School and on February 5, 2026, it was announced that the combined school is closing. The news surprised me and saddened me, but I am grateful for my memories. They had some final get together for St. Bruno and St. Richard and posted some pictures on FB. They also posted some old photos, but I was not in them. I did find one from my second grade. I am the second row from the right, 6th down. St. Bruno opened in 1926. I'm proud to be part of its legacy but sad to see it close.
=Did you catch Richard Allen Jr. on WGN-TV recently?
=The documentary My Father Dick Allen, which is based on the Chili Dog MVP book, also got a nice review this week.
=The video of the panel discussion was also posted on YouTube...
=Two members of the 1972 White Sox have birthdays this week. The late slugging third baseman Bill Melton (July 7) and second baseman Mike Andrews (July 9). Naturally, both are featured in the pages of Chili Dog MVP.
=This year Rick Kaempfer didn't write an update of EveryCubEver, but he did promise to publish excerpts from the book for Hall of Fame Cubs on their birthdays. Would you believe there were three of them born this week? Billy Herman (July 7, 1909), Hank O'Day (July 8, 1859), and Andre Dawson (July 10, 1954). Their entries from the book are below...
=Billy Herman 1909–1992 (Cubs 1931-1941)
But sadly, Herman didn’t spend his entire career with the Cubs. The team somehow traded him to the Dodgers in 1941. Leo Durocher, the Dodgers manager at the time, tells how this happened in his book Nice Guys Finish Last. He was traded to the Dodgers at four in the morning. According to Durocher, who got this information directly from his GM (MacPhail), the trade was made during a night of drinking. MacPhail was invited to the suite of the Cubs GM Jim Gallagher when the Cubs were in New York. MacPhail was a well-known drunk, but he figured out pretty quickly that Gallagher and manager Jimmy Wilson were trying to get him drunk to talk trade. So, instead of drinking the brandy, MacPhail only pretended to drink it while he was actually pouring it out in flower pots, toilet bowls, and wherever else he could. Meanwhile, every time the Cubs poured MacPhail a drink, they also poured themselves one. Instead of getting him drunk, they got themselves drunk. By 4 AM MacPhail had acquired the best second baseman in baseball in exchange for a backup outfielder and a utility infielder. The deal was put in writing on the back of an envelope. And yes, MacPhail’s grandson later became the president and general manager of the Cubs: Andy MacPhail.
Historical Note: On the day the German army occupied the Sudetenland (1938), Billy had four hits to help the Cubs clinch the National League pennant.
=Hank O’Day 1859–1935 (Cubs manager 1914)
=Andre Dawson 1954-- (Cubs 1987-1992)
=Connor McKnight is not only a birthday boy this week (July 12), he's also a White Sox announcer seen here pointing to a Cubs book. Must be a pretty incredible book. (Mark Grote is also in the picture, holding the book)
Ringo Starr
=An actual Beatle, Ringo Starr, is celebrating a birthday this week (July 7). Ringo is featured in at least four different Eckhartz Press books. There's a great story about him in The Loop Files, he's mentioned several times in Bobby Skafish's We Have Company, he is interviewed in Bill Paige's book Everything I Know I Learned from Rock Stars, and this photo is in Mitch Michaels' book Doin The Cruise...(that's Mitch right next to Ringo)
=Ringo is also mentioned in Rick Kaempfer's first book The Radio Producer's Handbook. In that book, Rick explains how he managed to acquire this incredible autograph...
Two more Eckhartz Press author birthdays this week....
=Patricia Motto's birthday is July 9. Happy Birthday Pat! She is the author of To the Men I've Loved. This photo of her from back in the day (with White Sox players Wilbur Wood and Jay Johnstone) is in the book.
=This week in 2024 she was out and about promoting To the Men I've Loved. Here's a great primer Q&A with Patricia Motto about her book.
Illinois Adult Use Cannabis and Chug A Chug
=Author Vicki Rubin (Raising Jess: A Story of Hope) provided a wonderful review to her fellow Vicki. Here's a portion of it...
With Slivers, Vicki shows that her talent encompasses more than one genre. Slivers takes place in the summer of 1973 and is a compelling supernatural fiction that exhibits the same qualities that made her first book so captivating- richly developed characters and a true understanding of family dynamics. Her background in psychology makes the supernatural elements feel like real-life experiences we all share. Slivers is a story about family, identity, intuition, and the discovery of truths long hidden. Many writers master one genre; Vicki has now mastered two… Slivers and Surviving Sue. Vicki Atkinson is a gifted storyteller who leaves you thinking about her stories long after the book ends. I highly recommend Slivers as your next read!=Are you familiar with the Barrington White House in lovely Barrington, Illinois? We weren't until we arrived at Vicki Atkinson's launch party for Surviving Sue, this week (July 10) in 2023. What a gorgeous spot. What a fun book launch party. (Her party for Slivers was at the same location just a few weeks ago). First photo with Eckhartz Press publisher Rick Kaempfer is from the Surviving Sue party. The second one is from the Slivers party.
Close Encounters of a Chicago Kind
=How about another Vicki? Vicki Quade's Eckhartz Press book is about her hilarious everyday encounters with ordinary Chicagoans. One of those Chicagoans is Will Clinger, who is celebrating a birthday this week (July 9). Here's what he had to say about Vicki's book...
“Vicki Quade is a Chicago treasure with an abiding curiosity about the world around her, and sprinkled among these fly-on-the-wall stories are some valuable tips on things to see and experiences to have in our great city.”
=Eckhartz Press authors have achieved some pretty impressive things over the years, but we'd be hard-pressed to name a more impressive feat than Janet Sutherland achieved this week in 2019. Here is how she described it at the time...
We spent part of the day meeting with Illinois Congressman Sean Casten thanking him for signing Ellie’s law. I called Congressman Casten right after my mom died at the request of the Brain Aneurysm Foundation and asked him to sign HR 1648. This is an important bill especially for those who traveled to DC lobbied, worked really hard asking Congress for research and awareness were seeking for passage of Ellie’s Law. Ellie’s Law is a bill that seeks federal funding for brain aneurysm research. It is named in honor of Ellie Helton, a 14-year-old Apex, NC teenager, who died on July 16, 2014 as a result of a brain aneurysm. The bill, HR 1648, provides $5 million each fiscal year, for five years, to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) to conduct or support further comprehensive research on brain aneurysms, studying a broader patient population diversified by age, sex, and race.Congressman Casten did sign the bill!!! We met with him this morning to thank him for supporting the bill and asked him to support another awareness resolution. We are quite honored to be able to meet with Congressman Casten and hit him with a lot of items on our brain aneurysm “list” which he was open to. I also gave him a copy of my book (“Nose Over Toes”) 🙂 (photograph copyright 2019, Lee Balgemann)
=If you aren't a regular reader of award-winning Eckhartz Press author (Safe Inside) Lee Kingsmill's blog, you should be. He usually posts insights into the world of entertainment, and this week is no exception. His current piece is about great story tellers. You can read it here.
=This week in 2018 (July 9), Eckhartz Press announced that The Scar Dance was available for pre-order. It's one of those memorable books that stays with you many years after you read it. This Q&A with author William Mansfield is a pretty good primer. The Scar Dance was a finalist for CWA Book of the Year that year.
=This photo features two former ABC-7 colleagues. One of them wrote The Daly News: Joel Daly. The other one, Hosea Sanders, still works at Channel 7. His birthday is this week (July 12).
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=This week in 2001, Joel Daly appeared with Steve & Johnnie on WGN Radio. That interview is still available on the WGN website.
Everything I Know I Learned from Rock Stars
=This week in 2017, Bill Paige was making the rounds promoting his book. One of his stops was to the Bill & Wendy show on WGN Radio.
The owner of the Toronto Raptors, Larry Tanenbaum, is celebrating a birthday this week (July 8). Larry is a huge fan of Chuck Swirsky and provided this endorsement for the book...
Night in and night out there was no one who brought more heart and passion to the game of basketball than Chuck Swirsky. For ten years Chuck was the very soul of building fans who loved his unique style and upbeat personality. Nothing tasted better than his call to “bring out the salami and cheese Mamma”.. his special winning call. Chuck will always be a hero in Toronto.
=Fred Mitchell (July 10 birthday) was one of Chicago's top sportswriters. (Photo: Fred with Samantha Hoffman, Randy Richardson, and Rick Kaempfer.) This is what he had to say about the Eckhartz Press book Cubsessions (co-written by Randy)...
“During my 41-plus years as a sportswriter with the Chicago Tribune, I learned that Cubs fans are indeed a super-energized, passionate and yet often complicated breed. To capture the essence of their obsession and undying loyalty is a remarkable accomplishment. Yet Randy Richardson and Becky Sarwate manage to do just that through this rare collection of stories from the team’s legion of celebrity fans.”
=This week in 2019 (July 10), friends and colleagues of Chet Coppock met to memorialize their recently deceased friend at Eddie's in Arlington Heights. Jim O'Donnell was the emcee, but Chet's former producer Cheryl Raye Stout, former Bear Dan Jiggetts and former Bull Dave Corzine were also there. So was Eckhartz Press publisher Rick Kaempfer
Records Truly Is My Middle Name
=John Gehron was the program director of WLS AM 890 when John Records Landecker worked there in the 1970s. He's celebrating a birthday this week (July 7). On this memo below, which appears in Landecker's book, see if you can see a phrase that made John Landecker want to read this on the air.
Back in the summer of ‘76 John Landecker and I were on hand for the opening of Great America in Gurnee. Bugs hasn’t aged in 50 years.@WGNRadio pic.twitter.com/yIF5It3cZz
— Bob Sirott (@BobSirott) July 3, 2026
