The latest news from Eckhartz Press, and a chance to peek into some of the great previous offerings from our humble little publishing company.
PRINTERS ROW RECAP
=Here's a photo from this past weekend's Printers Row Lit Fest. Eckhartz Press publisher David Stern (middle) and our new authors, Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas and her co-writer Mark Eleveld. Many more photos of the many Eckhartz Press authors who attended the Lit Fest can be found at the bottom of this week's column...
AVAILABLE NOW!
=The memoir of Cook County's Treasurer, Maria Pappas, is available now on Eckhartz Press! What is the book about? It traces her life from a working-class Greek-American childhood in West Virginia to becoming one of the longest-serving elected officials in Cook County. Lots of twists and turns along the way. Pappas doesn’t ultimately define herself primarily as Treasurer Maria Pappas. She defines herself as the same person she believes she was as a little girl: someone searching a room for the person who needs help.
AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER NOW!
=Joni Hirsch Blackman is releasing a delightful collection of her Cul-de-sacs columns that she wrote for the Naperville Sun and the Daily Herald. It's a heartwarming anthology about parenting in Naperville, and a chronicle of her life around the turn of the 21st century. The book is currently at the printer and will be available very soon. Time to pre-order your copy today!
ECKHARTZ PRESS HITS THE ROAD!
We can't be confined by Chicagoland, at least not this week. It's road trip time to...
South Carolina
WHO: Robert Conlon (Celtic Knot)
WHERE: University of South Carolina (his alma mater)
WHEN: Friday, September 18, 10am--3:30pm
(Read a nice piece about Bob here in the Irish American News)
Boston
WHO: Dr.
David Fletcher (Chili Dog MVP)
WHERE:
Boston Film Festival, Emerson Paramount Theater
WHEN: Saturday,
September 19, 4pm
Screening
the film, My Father, Dick Allen
(Rick Kaempfer will be on hand for this one too)
and
Dixon, Illinois
WHO: Nick
Digilio (40
Years, 40 Horror Films)
WHERE:
Midway Drive In, Dixon, IL
WHEN: Saturday,
September 19th, Dawn to Dusk
Book
launch party/and drive in horror film festival
=If you're wondering what to expect from this book, check out this interview...
=Nick got the first copy of his book this weekend...
Four Eckhartz Press authors have birthdays this week...
=Happy birthday Bobby Skafish (September 17)! His book is subtitled: Four Decades of Rock & Roll Encounters. There are so many great stories.
=This week in 2016, Bobby was on with Roe Conn & Anna Devlantas on WGN Radio
=Happy birthday Chuck Quinzio (September 17)! Chuck's book about life in the local TV news business is a must-read for anyone who has an interest in the subject. He has some incredible inside stories about some of the biggest names in Chicago TV history.
Behind the Glass and Beyond the Glass
=Randy Merkin (September 17) has the same birthday as Bobby & Chuck. Was there some special Eckhartz Press magic in the air that day?
=Patty & the Stump co-author Tim Clue is also celebrating a birthday this week (September 20). Tim isn't just an author, he's an educator, and a gifted stand up comedian. Here's a good podcast example of that.
Other Notable Birthdays...
=Born this week in history (September 18), Cubs Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg. Here's his entry in EveryCubEver...
Ryne Sandberg 1959--2025 (Cubs 1982-1994, 1996-1997)
He was destined to have a great nickname because he was named after the famous Yankees relief pitcher “Blind Ryne” Duren. Ryno was just a throw in to the Iván de Jesus/Larry Bowa trade with the Phillies. The Phillies had two other second base prospects who were pretty good (Juan Samuel, Julio Franco), but needless to say, neither one of them had the career Ryno had. He is in the Hall of Fame. Nicknamed Ryno for obvious reasons (not his similarity to the horned beast), Sandberg held the record for home runs by a second baseman when he retired. He was an MVP (1984), a ten-time All-Star, nine-time Gold Glover, seven-time Silver Slugger, and the most popular Cubs player of his era. One spectacular weekend afternoon in 1984 (June 23), he hit dramatic homers in both the 9th and 10th innings to tie the game against the Cardinals and their Hall of Fame (and former Cub) closer Bruce Sutter. That day will always be remembered as the Sandberg game. It was broadcast on national television on NBC and helped propel Ryno to the MVP that year. After his playing career, he went back to Single-A ball to manage, and worked his way up to Triple-A. When the Cubs didn’t give him the big league manager job, he left the team to manage the Phillies. That was just a short excursion from his Cubs life. Ryno still holds the record for most hits by any player born in the state of Washington. He scored more runs than any other Cubs player in the 20th century and hit more homers for the entire decade of the 1980s than any other Cub (139). The Cubs retired his number 23 on August 28, 2005. He continued to work for the Cubs as a goodwill ambassador, but in late 2024 he announced that the cancer he had beaten a few years earlier had returned. He passed away on July 28, 2025.
Historical note: On the day Geraldine Ferraro made history by being named the first female VP candidate (1984), Ryno won a game with a tenth inning homer against the Dodgers in Wrigley Field.
=Perhaps the most famous alumnus of the City News Bureau was born this week in history (September 19, 1932), the unforgettable Mike Royko. His earliest journalism days are chronicled in Sirens in the Loop.
=Mark McEwen has a birthday this week (September 16). McEwen went on to become a nationally recognized television personality as a weatherman at CBS, but in the early 1980s, he was spinning tunes and jamming on the air at the Loop. That's him on the left in the studio with Sky Daniels. (Photo by Mike Bucek)
=The Bears season began last weekend. The man who put this team together, Ryan Poles, is celebrating a birthday this week (September 20). Dan McNeil devotes an entire chapter to Poles in his must-have Bears book, I Bear Witness.
Special anniversaries...
What follows here is some of what I remember, some of what I have learned and damn near all of what I love—birds, stories, people and dogs. It is all part of a less-than-holy life. Are there any great parables to be gleaned from these dispatches, poems and pictures? I haven’t a clue. What’s most important is all that I learned along the way: that which is for remembering, for not forgetting.
=Gloria Golec's book came out the same day as Tony's. It’s a memoir about the joys and struggles of growing up in an era when family, church and neighborhood were solid anchors. The stories recall daily life from the 50s in a working class Chicago neighborhood, Archer Heights. Gloria will be returning to her old neighborhood in a few weeks (October 10) at the Archer Heights Library (2pm) as part of their Polish Heritage Month celebration.
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=This week last year, Eckhartz Press author Mitch Michaels became a member of the Illinois Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. We were there to cheer him on.
=One of the most dramatic moments in The Loop's history happened this week in 1993 (September 14). That was the day the famous radio duo Steve & Garry broke up. The drama around that memorable event is chronicled in the Loop Files.
=This week last year Jeff Reiter appeared at the Urban Birding Festival in Chicago. (Photo: Jeff with Wayne Klockner, executive director of American Birding Association)
=Eckhartz Press author Alex Burkholder passed away this week in 2024 at the age of 84. Alex wrote the incredibly well researched book Death of the Angels, which was about the famous Our Lady of the Angels fire in 1958. At our first meeting, Alex arrived with a box of cassettes filled with interviews of dozens of people who were there the day of the fire. It was really a life-long passion of his to get to the bottom of that tragedy. He finally did it with the publication of his book in 2018, on the 60th anniversary of the fire. The veteran TV producer was a founding member of the Fire Museum of Greater Chicago. He was also a heck of a guy. Alex is missed by us all.
=This week in 2018, Chet Coppock appeared on Steve Dahl's show on WLS to celebrate the release of his book. (Photo below, L-R: Steve Dahl, Chet Coppock, Rick Kaempfer, Dag Juhlin, and Brendan Greeley)
Back in the Game
=This week in 2014 (September 15), Rich King staged a launch party for his second book, Back in the Game. It was a star-studded party at Volare in Chicago. The book is no longer in print (because Rich has a newer one out now--Ike & Me), but it had a good run. Do you recognize any of the attendees below?
Records Truly Is My Middle Name
=This week in 2013, legendary WLS morning man Don Wade passed away. Don was a contributor to Records Truly Is My Middle Name. He told some stories about John Landecker, and Landecker in turn, told some stories about Don. Those are presented here as a free excerpt from the book. Below is a photo of Don (on the right) during his days at WIBG-Philadelphia.
=Helmut Schoen was the coach of the West German men's national team that won the World Cup in 1974. The following year he visited a touring group of Green White Soccer Club players barnstorming through West Germany. The photo of that meeting is part of the great history of the club, and is obviously included in the book...and below. Helmut was born this week (September 15) in 1915.
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A reminder...
=This week (September 15) is World Lymphoma Awareness Day. It's a day we never neglect to mention because of John Martucci’s book When the Beast Comes for You. It's the sort of book that stays with you many years after you read it because of the unique perspective Martucci brings to the subject. He was a doctor who treated lymphoma before he became the patient.
=Janet Sutherland appeared on the Crisis Cast podcast last week to discuss the upcoming Brain Aneurysm Foundation Walk/Run. You can listen to it here.
Photos from Printers Row Lit Fest
What a weekend for Eckhartz Press at the Printers Row Lit Fest this weekend. You couldn't turn around without bumping into an Eckhartz Press author. Here are 14 examples...Gloria Golec, David Stern, Maria Pappas, Mark Eleveld, Rick Kaempfer, Randy Richardson, Dan Burns, Don Evans, Bob Conlon, Vicki Atkinson, Tom Serritella, Nick Digilio, Bob Williams, and Jim Slusher.
