The latest news from Eckhartz Press, and a chance to peek into some of the great previous offerings from our humble little publishing company.
Upcoming Books
=Three more Eckhartz Press books will be coming out before the end of the summer. Keep your eyes out for Words on Birds by Jeff Reiter, The Sun at the End of the Road by Tony Fitzpatrick, and South Side Memories by Gloria Golec.
=The Mob Adjacent boys are moving product, bigtime. These videos produced by the team creating the film about the new version of the book (and the audio book) are really hitting home.
=Beginning next week we will have thumb drives of the audio book available at Eckhartz Press. It's a 14-hour extravaganza starring some pretty incredible voice over artists.
=The Kiss of Night is now officially an award winning novel. This week it was awarded the Literary Titan Gold Book award. Congrats to author Mark Wukas!
=Celtic Knot author Robert Conlon is beginning to make the media rounds promoting his book. This Wednesday look for his interview on Minutia Men Celebrity Interview. Also, he will be interviewed by The Heart of the Matter podcast, and the Chicago Writes podcast. We'll post links to those interviews as they become available.
=The Cubs lost a legend this week, former player and manager Lee Elia passed away. Of course there's a full description of Lee's contributions to the Cubs in the 7th edition of our book EveryCubEver. What you won't find in the book is the audio of Lee's most famous moment. The most incredible (and most definitely NSFW) rant in baseball history, captured and preserved by the late Les Grobstein. Guessing that Lee and Les are having a good laugh about that one in heaven. Here's the audio. Again, it's NSFW.
The Flip Side and Doin' The Cruise
=Ken Churilla has now written two books for us, The Flip Side (with Carl & Larry Rosenbaum) and Doin' The Cruise (with Mitch Michaels). He'll be selling both of those books at The Press Book Fair, this Saturday July 19th in Valparaiso, Indiana (9 Lincoln Way). Be sure to swing by and say hello.
=One of the most important contributors to The Loop Files was in town last week, making the rounds. Welcome back to Chicago, Garry Meier. He was on WGN-TV, The Drive, and WGN radio.
=Three other contributors to The Loop Files are celebrating birthdays this week, including Terry Gibson (July 19), Pugs Moran (July 20), and perhaps the biggest star in the radio station's history, Jonathon Brandmeier (July 15). This is a photo of Johnny performing at his 5th anniversary concert in 1988 along with Newsman/Bluesman Buzz Kilman.
Records Truly Is My Middle Name
=Ten years before The Loop Files was released, Brandmeier also contributed to the Eckhartz Press book Records Truly Is My Middle Name. His radio idol was John Records Landecker and he told a few stories in the book about that, including this one...
“To me listening to John Landecker was appointment radio. I would look forward to six o’clock every night, just waiting for his show to begin. He didn’t just talk. He had this rhythm in his voice. If Larry Lujack showed us all that it was OK to be yourself on the air, John Records showed us not to forget the showbiz. Records was showbiz. He WORKED the music. He talked in rhythm with the music, on the beats, he became a part of the song. There was no better radio guy, pure top 40 energy, no one better. Name me one guy that was better than John Records. No one was! In the whole country! Let me give you an idea of the kind of impact he had on me. My dad took my brothers and me fishing in Canada. Imagine, we were surrounded by this incredible scenery, breathtaking view, and here I was sitting in the boat with my crackling little transistor radio, waiting for 6:00, so I could hear John Records Landecker booming on WLS. And I heard him too! In Thunder Bay. I heard him. I would have given anything to watch him in action. To me, he was like Wolfman Jack was like to those characters in American Graffiti. I imagined him in this tower somewhere, just mesmerizing us, just bringing it. Man he was the best. I can still hear it in my head. All these years later I can still hear it. That’s the kind of impact he had on me.”
=Of course, Landecker is still on the radio weeknights on WGN (720 AM). This past Thursday he did a special show with Bob Sirott, talking about their old radio days together. They called it For Radio Geeks Only. If they ever do it again, we highly recommend you check it out. These guys have been friends for fifty years and have a great chemistry together.
=This week in 2013, Landecker appeared at the Beverly Arts Center to discuss the book...
=Exactly one year ago this week, we released To Nudge the World.
=What is To Nudge the World? Jim Slusher’s “Letter To Readers” column has appeared weekly in the Daily Herald of suburban Chicago since July 15, 1999, providing insights into the decision making of editors and behind-the-scenes descriptions of their work. In tones ranging from deeply serious to engaging humor, this collection from 25 years of the column examines themes of trust, determination and community that define the relationship between a local daily newspaper and its audience. And it offers glimpses in real time of transformative changes affecting the newspaper industry.
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=Eckhartz Press author Kim Strickland is celebrating a birthday this week (July 16). Kim wrote the novel Down at the Golden Coin for us back in 2012. It was the second book we ever published.
=Somehow Rick Kaempfer's novel $everance remains relevant today, despite the fact that it's a critique of the media world from 20 years ago. Many of the things Rick predicts in the book (for comedic effect) have actually happened. Some of them continue to happen. Like this...
I wrote about this in my novel "$everance" back in 2007. Nothing to see here. Just all the people who control the information we consume gathering in a secretive off-the-record meeting in Sun Valley, Idaho. They've done this every year since 1983. https://t.co/gnf7NEE6Gc
— Rick Kaempfer (@RickKaempfer) July 8, 2025
=Great review by WTTW of last year's summertime book Last Comiskey by Ken Smoller. Here's a little taste of it...
How can dispirited White Sox fans restore their faith, with a “wait ‘til next decade” aura around the team? They might find solace by embracing memories of a beloved ballpark. “Last Comiskey” is a book-length valentine for a place once called the “Baseball Palace of the World.” An affectionate account of the last season at Comiskey Park, the book also recalls monumental moments from the 1970s and ‘80s.
=One of the Sox stars featured in the book, closer Bobby Thigpen, is celebrating a birthday this week (July 17). He's 62.
Joe Jackson vs. Chicago American League Baseball Club
=Last year Eckhartz Press released a trial transcript from the Joe Jackson trial, which hadn't been seen in 100 years. It has been devoured by the baseball scribes around the country, but apparently not by the powers that be in baseball, who decided earlier this year to end the ban for the Black Sox. The Plaintiff in that trial, Shoeless Joe Jackson, essentially admitted his guilt in this transcript. He was born this week (July 16) in 1887.
=This week in 2022 (July 19), author Will Wagner got to hold the first copy of his book Talking Bout my Generation, hot off the press. It's the sort of day every author remembers forever.
=The very next day (July 20, 2022), fellow Eckhartz Press author Judy Ann Jamerson got her first copy of the novel Belle. There's a reason why we take photos of those momentous events.
=This week in 2018, Richard Reeder's book 1001 Train Rides in Chicago (July 14) was released by Eckhartz Press. Here's a Q&A with the author discussing the book's release. Richard's launch in Evanston (July 15) was a memorable party.
=This week in 2018 (July 18), the first edition of Cubsessions came out, and the authors Randy Richardson and Becky Sarwate had a special night at the Book Cellar in Chicago.
=The following year (July 19), Club 400 threw a big Cubs party, and every single person there got an autographed copy of the second edition of Cubsessions. Among the honored guests that night, former Cubs PA Wayne Messmer, and former Cubs Carlos Zambrano and Willson Contreras.
=Vicki Atkinson has a great piece in her blog this week about music's power to evoke memories. Worth checking out. Shout out to the program director of Me-TV FM (Phil Manicki), by the way, a college pal of your humble publishers Rick and Dave.
Write City Review, Volume 3
=If you're a rock star and you've never been interviewed by Bobby Skafish, are you really a rock star? Three of the stars featured in Bobby's book are celebrating birthdays this week, Jackson Browne (July 14), Joe Satriani (July 15), and Stewart Copeland (July 16).
=This week in 2017, Bobby appeared at the Record Mart in Hillside to tout his book.
=White Sox announcer Steve Stone is celebrating a birthday this week (July 14). Stone is a big fan of Eckhartz Press author Chuck Swirsky, and provided this quote for Chuck's book...
When I first met Chuck I didn’t believe anyone could be that positive and supportive. Add that to enthusiastic and genuine and you have Chuck Swirsky. A great basketball broadcaster and a better man.
=This week in 1982, the network television show Real People came to Chicago to do a feature on our fine city. One of the people working in the Mayor's office at the time was author Roger Badesch, who writes about that brush with network television in his book The Unplanned Life.
=This week in 2021, Roger released the audio version of his book.
=One of the first stars to have his own signature shoe was the Romanian tennis player Ilie Nastase. Naturally this week's birthday boy (July 19) is featured in the Eckhartz Press book Signature Shoes.
=This week in 2021 (July 19), Eckhartz Press author Paul M. Banks sat down for this Q&A about his book Transatlantic Passage.
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