Long Overdue Newsletter - August 2025
- Chris OBrien
- Aug 28
- 8 min read
One week to go!
This map below might be a little hard to read, but look for the Long Overdue tables: #171 and #172. Same general location as the last two years. Right by Printers Row Park.
Can't wait!
Mission Complete?
Recap of last month's newsletter: We were attempting to publish 11 books between last year's Printers Row Lit Fest and this year. This was kind of crazy considering it took us five years to publish our first 17 books.
When I wrote that goal a month ago, we were 3 for 11...
Black & Caspian
Children of the Scroll
These are the Good Ol' Days
Could we bring 8 books across the finish line in about four weeks?
Spoiler alert: We didn't hit the goal. But we got surprisingly close.
What's the Book About? Thirteen-year-old Randy Bloom thinks his hometown of Oak Patch is the definition of dull—until a freak storm and a strange flower change everything. Suddenly gifted with powers tied to a hidden world, Randy must protect his family and friends when a ruthless chemical company threatens to destroy it all. In the fight ahead, he’ll discover that true strength isn’t about standing alone, but about the allies who stand beside you.
Publishing Backstory: Last two years at Printers Row Lit Fest, I'd say 20 families have stopped by with kids in that 3rd to 6th grade range. What I realized: we've got nothing for them in terms of middle grade chapter books. We've got great children's books. Great books for high school, college, adult. But nothing in their age range. Closest thing is The Book of Monsters.
Which stinks, because I remember chapter books like The Hatchet, Bridge to Terabithia, Matilda, The BFG, Holes, Finding Buck McHenry, Frindle, the first Harry Potters. I loved those books. Or how 'bout Battle of the Books in 4th or 5th grade? Middle grade fiction is that magical time when you're reading on your own, picking books you want to read, and haven't yet experienced "assigned reading" fatigue. And what a cool feeling that was carrying around a 200+ page book as a kid. There's a major sense of accomplishment. And a personal pan Pizza Hut pizza to go with it.
Met Clayton Keith at last year's book festival. Kept in touch. Read the manuscript. Then Clayton went through our Feedback Circle program. Made some revisions and here we are, a year later, and Clayton's first novel (first in the series, too) is a headlining book at our table next week!
What's the Book About? From a small-town depot to the heart of Chicago, ordinary train rides become the backdrop for extraordinary stories. Over a decade of travel on the Metra, chance encounters, unexpected moments, and glimpses of life between stations come together in a collection that captures both the rhythm of the rails and the people who ride them. These are stories of waiting, watching, and discovering connection in the most everyday of places.
Publishing Backstory: Beverly, aka Bev, Ottaviano has been a behind-the-scenes "point guard" for Long Overdue. The Facilitator. Several of our books tie back to her.
How’d we meet? Five years ago, when I turned 30, my wife surprised me with a little fundraiser for this new business idea called Long Overdue. I used a few hundred dollars of that money on Facebook ads to do some marketing. It was also during COVID, and Ashley and I (and our dog, Crash) moved out to Barrington for the year, living with Ashley's parents.
So there I am in Barrington and, coincidentally, Bev was the President of the Barrington Writers Workshop. She saw Long Overdue on Facebook and then introduced me to Melody, Kim, and Jim, who became the authors of Safe Landing. She also gave me the opportunity to present to their group, and that's how I met Harry Trumfio, who became the author of Dad, Our Candy Man, and Miles Ducore -- more on Miles a few paragraphs from now.
All of these introductions have been going on behind the scenes; that's why I'm thrilled to have Bev's book in the spotlight. A great book, even if you're not from Chicago or haven't experienced the Metra commute, but for those local to the area, you’ll especially love this collection of stories and be able to picture these scenes on the train and from the platform.
What's the Book About? A girl flees hands clawing from the earth. A woman steps into endless water, expectant. A man grapples with his wife's unraveling mind. Another vanquishes the beast stalking her. A narrator chooses connection over solitude. A couple reunites after agonizing doubt.
Inescapable Light weaves short stories and poems that mirror life's despair, uncertainty, and transformation. From stark reality to fantastical abstraction, these tales chart the human journey from darkness to radiant hope.
Publishing Backstory: Couple of years ago, we had a pop-up bookstore event at First Draft.
One of the attendees was Liza Fernandez Zapata. She’d seen a flyer I taped on a streetlight (shhh, don't tell the city) and read it not as a company named Long Overdue, but a statement like: Aren't we long overdue for a pop-up bookstore? Isn’t it about time?!
We talked about her experience as a writer and some of the projects she was working on or thinking about. Fast forward a year or two later, total coincidence, I ran into her at Moody Church, a row or two behind me. I'm tellin' ya, Chicago's really just a small town. Caught up. Few months later, she's pulling her Feedback Circle together. Few months after that, I'm uploading the final files and her debut book, Inescapable Light, will be another headlining book at our exhibitor tables.
What's the Book About? Three days before his wedding, Tim Bartleby is spiraling. His fiancée, Emma Lawrence, once dated his best friend, Brad, who is now a successful entrepreneur, albeit in the bathroom industry. Tim can’t shake the fear that Emma might still choose Brad over him. As Tim reflects on his childhood, middle school, and high school years, while battling the relentless “Bartleby Trolls” in his head, his doubts threaten to derail the wedding.
What's the Book About? In this sequel to Meet the Godfreys, three childhood friends hit the road on a quest to crown the Best Bathroom in America. For cousins Brad and Mark Godfrey—heirs to the family urinal-cake empire gone bust—it’s also the perfect chance to launch their new “smart toilet” app. But when their buddy Tim starts dating Brad’s ex, old rivalries bubble up, threatening to flush the whole trip away.
Publishing Backstory - Saving the full publishing backstory for another time. Might even become its own book. But long story short: I first had this idea in the fall of 2008. Worked on it through college. Self-published these novels in 2017, as well as a 500-page combo novel of the two books called Toilet Bowl.
I've wanted to republish these books under the Long Overdue name since 2021, but I kept kicking the can down the road. Talk about a Long Overdue project! And now it's done. Crazy to think this whole journey started almost 20 years ago. Where has the time gone?
Alright, so like an Olympics medal count, where are we at?
(quick tally)
That puts us at 8 out of the 11. Close, but no cigar.
Here are the three that aren't quite ready yet but will release over the next couple of months. Starting with Moving Parts, which is available for pre-order now:
What's the Book About? In 1959, six-year-old Emily Morgan’s family leaves Alaska behind to run a fishing resort in Muskoka, Canada. Over the next three decades, Emily records the joys and struggles of family life—siblings, secrets, love, and loss—woven together with her mother Katie’s letters from long ago. Moving Parts is a tender family album in story form: funny, heartfelt, and bittersweet.
Publishing Backstory: As mentioned earlier, this connection came through Bev Ottaviano. Miles is a talented writer in the Barrington Writers Workshop.
And check this out:
I'd worked with Miles publishing a few chapters from this book on the Long Overdue website, dating back to November of 2020.
We were really close to the Printers Row deadline, but there was work to be done on the map, the old letters, and the family tree. I was very much in Tom Cruise mode, trying to get all of these files finished by today, but Miles smacked some sense into me via text message:
"My father used to tell me, 'If you don't have the time to do it right, where will you find the time to do it over?' Let's wait until there's time to breathe."
I think that's one of the biggest challenges with book publishing, especially if you're trying to hit a tight deadline: You want to get it done, but you also want to get it done right. In other lines of business, they talk about MVPs, "Minimum Viable Products," something you can release, gather feedback, and keep refining. But with a book, you don't want those first 50-100 readers to get something that's only 80% of the way there. You want it to be as close to perfect as possible. And that makes it hard to hit “Publish.”
I'm sad not to have Moving Parts on the table this year, but ultimately glad we're taking the extra time to get those last parts done right. The book is now available for pre-order, I'm anticipating an end of September shipping date, and we'll have it on the table next year at Printers Row (and this year at the Texas Book Festival).
Oh! And this book was edited by Adina Edelman who you might remember from our Editing webinar.
Which leaves us at books #10 and #11. Hopper's Dell 3 has moved into typesetting. Targeting an October 1st release date. And Ug we aim to publish before Christmas.
This was a wild, wild month. I owe a lot of credit and thanks to Heather Nelson. When I talk about these 11 books, she designed 6 of them. And the other 5, she put finishing touches on. It simply wouldn't be possible without her. These books are all so different. Different styles. Different genres. And all of them work and stand out for their quality design. Can't wait to have these proudly displayed on the tables.
Big thank you to Mary Baker as well, who helped me on the covers for my novels, and the original artist, Bruno Rodriguez, who dug up old files from eight years ago. The whole experince of republishing those books, it hit me again what a great job Brunodid on those designs.
And then my go-to book printer, Diggypod. They are unbelievable. Think about this, I'm still submitting files and approving proofs on August 28th and August 29th. The fact that they have a 24-48 hour option and they're able to print these books and ship them to me by September 6th, it's incredible. They're my favorite printer and can't wait to print more books with their team.
Award-Winning: Safe Landing -
Stop by Saturday at Lit Fest!
Talk about Long Overdue, we've been trying to get a dinner at Half Shell on the books for three years. Well, it finally happened, and I got to see the awesome trophy Kim, Melody, and Jim won from the International Impact Book Awards.
On Saturday at Printers Row Lit Fest, one of our tables will be fully dedicated to Safe Landing. Stop by, meet the authors, and celebrate their -- I can say it now! -- award-winning book.
"You might've done a lot of books, but our number of walks and beach trips took a hit. Let's get those numbers up after Printers Row Lit Fest."
-Crash, Team Dog
Best place to keep up with all things Long Overdue is a tie between our monthly newsletter and our Instagram page. If you enjoy this newsletter and know someone who might enjoy it as well, let us know, we'll make sure to add them to our subscriber list. We also got back on Facebook recently, you can follow us here.
And check out the rest of our website - Long Overdue Books. Long Overdue Books is a community for creating books. It's a place for authors (and soon-to-be-authors), readers, editors, artists, and designers to come together and move their stories from ideas to finished books.
Also, if you have any questions, ideas, stories to tell, you can reach Cal the Librarian at - library@longoverduestories.com
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