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!
=2 birthdays this week! Patricia Motto's birthday is July 9. Pat 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.
=Author Rick Kaempfer even circled back last week for the Illinois Entertainer and interviewed someone else from that day who wasn't included in the book. This interview with former Loop boss Tom Hoyt adds additional context to the famous event.
=Vicki Atkinson's book was reviewed this week by a distinguished author (Diana D. Wallace Peach), and this is just some of what she wrote about it...
This is a riveting memoir by Vicki Atkinson chronicling life with her mother Sue, who suffered from alcoholism, depression, Munchausen by Proxy, dementia, and Alzheimer’s. It covers the author’s life from childhood through adulthood and it’s a heartbreaking, courageous, and frequently compassionate account of Sue’s life as told through her daughter’s eyes.
=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)
=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.
Ringo Starr
=Ringo Starr is celebrating a birthday this week (July 7). Ringo is part of 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 Michael's book Doin The Cruise...
=This week in 2001, Joel Daly appeared with Steve & Johnnie on WGN Radio. That interview is still available on the WGN website.
=Two members of the 1972 White Sox are celebrating birthdays this week. 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.
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.
=Mob Adjacent is a book by two brothers (Jeffrey & Michael Gentile) who grew up around the Outfit in Chicago. Some of the most famous gangsters in Chicago history casually stroll in and out of this book, including one of the bosses of the Outfit, Jackie Cerone, who was born this week (July 7) in 1914.
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.
Close Encounters of a Chicago Kind
=Vicki Quade's 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.”
=Fred Mitchell (July 10 birthday) is one of Chicago's top sportswriters, and this is what he had to say about the Eckhartz Press book Cubsessions...
“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.”
=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)
Your Dime My Dance Floor
=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
=Two more rock star birthdays this week, and two more photos with Eckhartz Press author Bobby Skafish from his rock and roll interview book We Have Company. Suzanne Vega (July 11) and Roger McGuinn of the Byrds (July 13)
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 read this on the air.
