As many longtime readers of this blog know, I have spent the past two years quietly but steadily working with my good buddy Adam Selzer on a non-fiction book about the history of early film production in Chicago. I am pleased to announce that yesterday we signed a contract with the Chicago and London-based company KWS Publishers, Inc. who will put the book out next year. Tentatively titled Flickering Empire: How Chicago Invented the U.S. Film Industry, this book will tell the fascinating but too little known story of how Chicago served as the unlikely capital of film production in America in the decade prior to the rise of Hollywood. We are striving to write an account that we hope will be as entertaining as it is informative, and one that will straddle the worlds of academia and popular non-fiction alike. Colorful, larger than life historical figures like Thomas Edison, Charlie Chaplin, Oscar Micheaux and Orson Welles are major players in this story – in addition to important but forgotten industry giants like “Colonel” William Selig, George Spoor and Gilbert “Broncho Billy” Anderson. More info concerning Flickering Empire will appear on this blog in the near future – so stay tuned!
You can visit KWS on the web here: http://www.kwspub.com/
You can read pertinent posts on “Chicago movies” on this blog here: https://whitecitycinema.com/category/chicago-movies/
White City Cinema 
July 18th, 2012 at 6:58 am
Wow that’s great news Mike. That’s a really good title too.
July 18th, 2012 at 7:04 am
Awesome, congrats!
July 18th, 2012 at 7:57 am
So awesome and this will prompt me to start proof-reading!
July 18th, 2012 at 8:03 am
Grweat news Mike. Can’t wait to read the book!
July 18th, 2012 at 11:46 am
This is great to hear! Your posts on the subject have been very informative! Congratulations!
July 18th, 2012 at 5:07 pm
Fantastic, well deserved news!!! May I please purchase one of the 1st copies? (autographed, of course!)
July 18th, 2012 at 10:28 pm
Yay Mike! Can’t wait to add Empire of Shadows to my bookshelf – will be getting back to you very soon with my first impressions. woot woot!
July 19th, 2012 at 4:00 am
WOW,congrats! How about hosting a competition here for the winners to get the autographed book? lol
July 19th, 2012 at 11:48 am
Thanks for the kind words, everyone.
David, that is indeed a great idea. But if the contest were to be movie-related, I think you might have an unfair advantage over the other readers of this site!
July 19th, 2012 at 7:21 pm
You are just too kind of saying that,Mike.Until you host a contest like this,you never how good your readers are.
I’m always wondering what it will be like to host a “screencap guessing game” on a blog,since I have no idea what award I can send out,I gave up the idea early on.
July 20th, 2012 at 6:43 am
Congratulations!
July 23rd, 2012 at 10:32 pm
Mike that is awesome news …. congratulations!
June 17th, 2013 at 7:11 am
[…] of Woodstock, Illinois. The purpose of the trip was to take pictures for possible inclusion in Flickering Empire, the forthcoming book that I co-wrote with Adam Selzer about the history of early film production […]