The Chicago Way

Come on out on Sunday night from 7-8:30pm to the Hidden Shamrock at 2723 N. Halsted in Chicago and meet all of the Eckhartz Press authors (Randy Richardson, Brendan Sullivan, Kim Strickland, and Rick Kaempfer).

Admission is free. Beer and Books are available. Authors will be reading, signing, mingling, and drinking. It's called "The Chicago Way" for a reason.

Eckhartz Press Night at The Chicago Way

Eckhartz Press is really looking forward to this Sunday night, June 3rd.

The literary series "The Chicago Way" (at the Hidden Shamrock, 2723 N. Halsted, from 7-8:30pm) is having a special Eckhartz Press night! It will be the official book launch of Randy Richardson's new book "Cheeseland", but the entire Eckhartz Press stable will be on hand. Brendan and Rick will do a reading from "The Living Wills". Kim Strickland will do a reading from "Down at the Golden Coin", and then Randy will do a reading from "Cheeseland." Then we'll have a Q&A session, moderated by one of the Chicago Way founders, Mary Beth Hoerner.

All three books will be available for purchase, and naturally, the authors will happily sign them for you.

Have we mentioned that The Hidden Shamrock is a bar? That's really the Chicago Way, isn't it?

CHEESELAND!

Congratulations to Randy Richardson, because today is the official release date of his book "Cheeseland"! Randy has written a wonderful novel, and designer Kelly Hyde has created a beautiful cover. It looks stunning.

Those of you who pre-ordered it--it will be going out in the mail later today. You can be the first on your block to start singing Cheeseland's praises.

Those of you who haven't ordered it yet, you can do so right here at Eckhartz Press.

Those of you who simply must buy it in a bookstore, it will also be in Barnes & Noble in Schaumburg (Woodfield), Bookies in Beverly, and several other stores. Keep checking the Eckhartz Press blog and Randy's Cheeseland website for more details!

Countdown to Cheeseland

Randy Richardson's "Cheeseland" comes out next Tuesday (via Eckhartz Press), and is available for pre-order now.

It came off the presses the other day, and it looks just great. We're super excited about it.

If you'd like a taste of what's inside, Randy has posted an excerpt of the novel on his website. You can read it here.

Countdown to Cheeseland

"Cheeseland" by Randy Richardson comes out next Tuesday (although it's available for pre-order now, by clicking here). You can bet that Randy will be hustling to promote his book in the coming weeks.

If you're a radio fan, and would like to hear Randy discussing the book, you don't have to be in the town of the radio stations to hear him. Simply click on the station call letters to listen to the interviews streaming live on the station websites...

*May 31, 2012
Thursday, 10:40 am CDT
Midday Show (Jay Caldwell) WJON
(St. Cloud, Minnesota)

*June 14, 2012
Thursday, 7.05 AM EDT/6.05 AM CDT
The Frank Truatt Morning Show, WTBQ-AM
(Suburban New York)

*June 15, 2012
Friday, 9.30 AM MDT/10.30 AM CDT
Tron in the Morning KCMN
(Colorado Springs)

*June 18, 2012
Monday, 9.20 AM EDT/8.20 AM CDT
Morning Show (Bob Langstaff) WAMV 1420 AM
(Amherst, Virginia)

*June 20, 2012
Wednesday, 9.10 AM CDT
Breakfast Club WCUB AM
(In Cheeseland!)

*June 21, 2012
Thursday, 10:30 am CDT
KORN 1490 AM Let’s Talk (Clay Mick)
(South Dakota)

*June 28, 2012
Thursday, 9 AM PDT/11AM CDT
The Two O'Clock Show (Ken Johannessen)KPQ Radio
(Washington)

*July 12, 2012
Thursday, 8.30 AM CDT
Talkline (Bob Krejcarek) WLDY AM
(In Cheeseland!)

Countdown to Cheeseland

Randy Richardson's "Cheeseland" is being released by Eckhartz Press exactly one week from today. (It's available for pre-order now)

We've previously mentioned that the first half of the book takes place thirty years ago in the south suburbs of Chicago, and across the border in "Cheeseland", but we haven't mentioned that the book was inspired by an actual event that happened in 1979.

Randy wrote about the story behind the story on his Cheeseland website.

The VVA reviews "The Living Wills"

In the May/June issue of the Vietnam Veterans of America magazine ("Veteran"), esteemed Vietnam writer and veteran Marc Leepson reviewed "The Living Wills". Rick and Brendan are thrilled to get the seal of approval from this great organization. The headline of the review was: "Good-Hearted Veteran Cast Populates "The Living Wills". The review is not available on-line yet (when it is, we'll post a link), but in the meantime, here is an excerpt...


Two author novels are rare. The main reason: Writing fiction is such an intimate, personal business that it's extremely difficult for two people to come up with one literary vision, not to mention implement it. So you have to give credit to Rick Kaempfer and Brendan Sullivan, the two authors of "The Living Wills" (Eckhartz Press, 336 pp, $15.95 paper), a fast-reading novel set in Chicago in 2005, for coming up with a creditable work of fiction. Kaempfer is a Chicago writer and Sullivan is an improv artist in the City of Big Shoulders.

How did the two men put the book together? "We improvised the story lines together using (Sullivan's) techniques," Kaempfer explained, "before sitting down to plot it out and write the chapters of the book--it was a completely collaborative process." The authors "didn't set out to write a Vietnam book," Kaempfer said, "but when we improvised, it simply emerged."

How did the collaboration turn out? Not badly. The dialogue-heavy story hums along rapidly. It's a multi-character affair, centering on veteran Henry Stankiewicz and his late-in-life effort to make amends with his upwardly mobile lawyer son. It's not an easy task, as young Peter is extremely bitter about having suffered from an absent father for most of his childhood while the elder Stankiewicz struggled with postwar emotional and physical issues.

Several interwoven subplots include one involving a depressed middle-aged corporate type and another centering on a group of Henry's bowling buddies. There's also Peter's struggles with his work situation in a big law firm and his relationship with his girlfriend, who happens to be a lawyer at the firm. The main plot deals with something that happened to Henry in Vietnam, and the continuing fallout from that traumatic event in his life and in the lives of a group of his war buddies.

Henry and the other Vietnam veteran characters in the book are good-hearted men who have (to one degree or another) overcome their war-related emotional and physical problems. Henry holds down a blue-collar job, is happily married to a good woman, and has a positive mental outlook. One of his buddies still struggles with alcohol; another is a well-adjusted family man. In other words, the authors have come up with a cast of realistic, non-sensationalized Vietnam veterans living out their lives in the early 21st century--no Nam vet stereotypes here...

The Living Wills is a more-than decent novel filled with sympathetically drawn Vietnam veteran characters. That in itself is worth the price of admission.