A message from Randy Richardson

"Cheeseland" author Randy Richardson checks in to update all of us regarding his wonderful novel. Take it away Randy...

Since the release of Cheeseland at the end of May, I have been on a radio tour that covered 14 states and made personal appearances at a dozen bookstores and libraries across Chicagoland. Whew! It has been a fun ride.

In case you missed it, here are a few of the highlights of the last few months:

Ranked #1 Goodreads Best Coming of Age Books

Named to Conversations Book Club's list of Top 100 Books of 2012

Featured by Hypertext Magazine, Evanston Public Library's Off the Shelf, and on the All Write Already! Podcast.

4.47/5.0 rating on Goodreads (based on 36 Ratings and 23 Text Reviews) and 4.8/5.0 rating on Amazon (based on 12 Reviews)

Again, a big THANK YOU to all of you who have supported Cheeseland in so many different ways. If you got a new e-reader during the holidays, be sure to download Cheeseland: The E-book at its new low price of $2.99. See what some others have said about Cheeseland. And keep those Goodreads and Amazon reviews coming!

Randy

And don't forget..."Cheeseland" raises money for suicide prevention. Randy is donating $1 from every soft cover sale of his book to the Elyssa’s Mission, a Northbrook, Illinois-based not-for-profit foundation that provides help, support and suicide prevention programs to prevent teen suicide. Donations will help to fund the Mission's Signs of Suicide Program, which they currently provide to junior and high schools in Illinois.

Some Love for "Down at the Golden Coin"

Windy City Reviews has just reviewed Kim Strickland's novel "Down at the Golden Coin", which came out on Eckhartz Press last year.

Here's an excerpt...

"Strickland beautifully weaves a story that shows the ability we have to change our lives and ultimately find that elusive happiness. She brings together powerful words and concepts of self-responsibility, passion, faith in oneself and universal experiences to demonstrate how we can write our own happy ending."


Of course, "Down at the Golden Coin" is available at Eckhartz Press.

Book Clubs

Remember, if your book club wants to read an Eckhartz Press book, and you happen to live in the Chicago area, feel free to ask the author to attend. (E-mail either rick@eckhartzpress.com or david@eckhartzpress.com to co-ordinate). If his or her schedule allows, our authors are always happy to participate.

"The Living Wills" is a year old now, but authors Rick Kaempfer and Brendan Sullivan are still appearing at book clubs all the time. Rick did one last night in Winfield, Illinois ("A fun time," he reports). Brendan will be doing one tonight in Beverly--he's been doing a ton of them (including the one in the photo above).

Kim Strickland ("Down at the Golden Coin"), Randy Richardson ("Cheeseland"), and Felitsitas Sudendorf ("A Reluctant Immigrant"--our Helgard Press book) would also be happy to attend a book club in the Chicago area. We'll even supply a list of discussion questions if you'd like them.

We're guessing that "The Balding Handbook" isn't really Book Club material...unless you've got a Bald Guys Book Club. If that hasn't been started up yet, by the way, it's never to late, fellas.

Mancow and Stern

A few more pictures from David Stern's recent appearance on the Mancow radio/television show in Chicago...

Some Cheeseland Love

There's a great interview with Randy Richardson in the current Hypertext Magazine. He talks all about his excellent novel "Cheeseland", his experience working with this awesome local publisher named Eckhartz Press, and much more.

You can read it here.

The Balding Handbook on radio/television

The Balding Handbook's David Stern was on Mancow's show this morning in Chicago.

The Balding Handbook on TV

Tomorrow morning at 6 AM, The Balding Handbook's David Stern will be arriving at the televison studios for the Mancow show, which airs in Chicago on WPWR-TV. Check him out, he'll be spreading his words of balding wisdom.

Records Truly is His Middle Name

The Chicago Sun Times had a piece Sunday written by Mike Thomas that mentioned our upcoming book "Records Truly is My Middle Name" and features a picture of the author, John Records Landecker. (Photo by: Rich Hein/Chicago Sun Times)

Here's the pertinent excerpt...

The newest crop of titles, published in the past couple of months or forthcoming shortly, includes works by WGN-AM (720) agri-business oracle Orion Samuelson, Illinois politician Debbie Halvorson, TV newsman Walter Jacobson and radio broadcaster John Records Landecker.

They all postponed or had serious reservations about taking on one of the most daunting and nerve-racking tasks of their careers.

“What do I want in this?” Landecker says he asked himself during the bookmaking process. “Why am I doing this? This is stupid. Who gives a s---?”

Soon enough, however, he overcame the psychological hump that has hampered writers since time immemorial — and can seem especially towering for someone who’s baring it all in print: Will anyone care?

“You get to the point where [you think], ‘I don’t care if anybody does or not,’ ” Landecker says. His memoir, “Records Truly Is My Middle Name,” was written with the help of Landecker’s former producer Rick Kaempfer and is due out in March from the Chicago-headquartered Eckhartz Press (which Kaempfer co-owns). It includes “a fair share of drugs, sex, indiscretions [and] slightly humorous tales,” the author says, as well as more serious topics.

“It gave me a better perspective on — it sort of sounds clichéd — the real importance of events in my past … that at the time seemed so cataclysmic and in retrospect seem like a blip,” Landecker says of the writing process.

We're tellin' ya' folks, this is a good book. John has lived a life that is truly worthy of a book.

John Records Landecker

Esteemed Chicago media columnist Robert Feder gave another shout out to our upcoming book: "Records Truly is My Middle Name", a memoir by Chicago radio legend John Records Landecker (shown in this morning show photo from about ten years ago...standing next to his co-author for this book Rick Kaempfer)

Mr. Feder mentioned it as one of the big upcoming stories to look for in 2013...

"Chicago radio icon John Records Landecker will mark publication of his new memoir, Records Truly Is My Middle Name. Written with longtime producer Rick Kaempfer, it will feature contributions from Bob Sirott, Jonathon Brandmeier, John Gehron, Joey Reynolds, Jan Jeffries, Catherine Johns, Eric Ferguson, Bill Zehme, Kevin Matthews, Don Wade and others. More than 40 years after he first conquered the nighttime airwaves in Chicago, Landecker, 65, is still going strong as evening personality on WLS-FM (94.7). Anyone for a Boogie Check?"