Printers Row Lit Fest 2011 closed for me with Sean Chercover and Marcus Sakey in conversation… a fun event without a doubt. And I’d like to include a photo from the program… but no! For some unknown reason, every panel I went to began with an introduction that basically said “Don’t even THINK about taking pictures.”
So I don’t have a picture that shows Marcus and Sean sitting side by side, both with curly dark hair, both wearing dark jeans and a black, button-up-the-front shirt. It was like the DoubleMint twins, only not so peppy.
Instead we’ll have to make do with photos “stolen” off the world wide web. Sean’s hair is now as curly as Marcus’ – perhaps he has let his naturally curly hair grow out.
Sean
Marcus
The guys have been buddies for five years now, since 2006, when they were introduced by Jon Jordan of CrimeSpree. They went on a book tour together in 2007, and told their program attendees about the worst book-signing ever. In Kokomo. Where not too many people showed up, they had four hours to kill, and they were under the full-bore gaze and alarming stories of a serial killer aficionado. (That John Wayne Gacy! Now he was a murderer! And what do you guys think of Richard Speck! Awful, huh?)
I’ve recently reviewed by works by Sean and Marcus on this blog. Sean is the author of books about Chicago PI Ray Dudgeon and has a new work coming out – but not a Dudgeon book – soon. (Can’t be soon enough for me.) It features a preacher, the charismatic type, who starts out a charlatan. But what does he end up?
And Lit Fest was actually the occasion of Marcus’ new book, The Two Deaths of Daniel Hayes. Yes, I bought it at Lit Fest. In hardcover. At full price. (But I got a ticket for a free beer at the launch party, thus adding to the value.) I am not done yet, but I will say that there is a point in the book where I actually gasped out loud in shock. Then I closed the book and marveled at how he managed to completely fool me. But fairly. Good work so far, Marcus.
The Sakey star seems to be rising, with two books optioned by big-name movie stars (Ben Affleck, Tobey Maguire) , although self-deprecating Marcus said that was because someone in their respective entourages read it and liked it. He’s also doing a TV show on the Travel Channel. Several fun stories about that… Evidently as cooperative as people are with fiction writers (and they are), they are gaga over TV. Hidden City looks at cities through the lens of famous crimes, and the cops couldn’t be more cooperative. (Would Mr. Sakey like to go up in the helicopter? Yes, Mr. Sakey would.)
So that’s it for this year’s Lit Fest. It was fun and inspirational. See you all next year.
Literary Lunchbox 
Cool post – thanks for sharing a bit of Lit Fest