It's said that Chicago isn't a city so much as a bunch of villages jammed together cheek by jowl, sometimes compatibly ... and often not. Nowhere have I seen this more charmingly expressed than in this map:
I spotted this image somewhere on Facebook and impulsively grabbed it, it appealed to me that much. I reposted it to Pictures of Chicago, a Facebook group where participants post photos my home town. (If you love Chicago images -- who doesn't? -- there are some beauties there. See below.) Even though the Pictures of Chicago group is devoted to photographs, I'd lurked long enough to think participants would enjoy this map.
Boy, did they ever. Is "Internet sensation" too strong?
My first post was Tuesday afternoon. By bedtime I had received 1,000 "likes". Overnight the number shot to 4,100, then 10,000 yesterday afternoon. Now, some two days since my initial post, it has generated:
-- 18,000 "likes" and "loves"
-- 8,300 shares
-- 777 comments
Plus -- get this -- I've been designated a Pictures of Chicago "Top Contributor." This is the one and only time I've posted.
I guess a bona fide Internet sensation is millions of "likes," not thousands. But this my first taste of social media stardom and I am here to tell you: even 18,000 "likes" is head-spinning.
When comments started rolling in, I responded. (Later on, swept away by the tide, I gave up.) Some posters called the map inaccurate. Accuracy isn't possible with something so subjective as where you say you come from, I responded, so let a thousand flowers bloom. Someone asked in which neighborhoods I grew up (Hyde Park and Kenwood); that opened the door to a plug for my novels. Someone said her father's name also was Frank Joseph, but later added she's adopted and never knew him nor his origins. The Chicago History Museum had this map in their gift shop, someone said; I checked but couldn't find it.
But someone else said to check Etsy and that's where it was.
It's the work of a talented guy named Jesse, who styles himself the MediaevalMapmaker and hangs out his shingle at https://www.etsy.com/shop/MediaevalMapmaker?ref=nla_listing_details.
If you want a copy though, prepare to wait. Due to my Facebook posting, Jesse sold out. I know this because, when I ordered my own copy a few hours following my first post, he had 18 in stock. One hour later he was down to seven. Now they're all gone.
Meantime, my original posting has been showing up at other Facebook groups I frequent. Friends and acquaintances are reposting it without realizing it came from me. The damn thing has achieved a life of its own.
I'd like to puff out my chest and proclaim Behold the power of Frank, King of the Facebook Influencers and Ruler of the World Wide Web, but I can't. It was dumb luck.
[photo]
A photo posted the other day at Pictures of Chicago. (c) Peter V. Perez.
So let's review the bidding:
-- On the up side, I've helped a lot of fellow Chicago fans to a pleasurable frisson and gotten a frisson or two myself. I've helped Mediaeval Mapmaker pay a bill or two. I've sold one copy of To Love Mercy.
-- On the down side, those frissons amount to two days in a fog of D-list social media celebrity, time I might have spent on Finer Things; and one night of poor sleep brought on by the excitement of it all.
A Day Later
So ... I was considering how to end this post when the solution presented itself in an email.
The Mediaeval Mapmaker is sold out but my unexpected correspondent, one Mary Felish, has maps in stock at her Merry Memory Company stalls. These are located in two craft-and-antique malls: 1) Jackson Square, LaGrange IL; and 2) Painted Tree, Kildeer (Arlington Heights) IL. Merry Memory has a Facebook page too [https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100023172025952] but no working website. You can email Ms. Felish directly at merrymemoryco@gmail.com.
Ms. Felish asked me to post this information on Facebook so I did. I'm informing you guys too. I didn't feel it was right to ask for a cut but I could have; she surely knows she'll sell out her entire supply of maps.
I requested something else instead.
When my novel To Do Justice is published, hopefully* in April, would she kindly carry it in her Merry Memory Company stalls?
She said yes.
Frank S Joseph Author
www.frankjoseph.com
P.S. I use the word *hopefully because there's been turmoil at my publisher, TouchPoint Press. They've blown through three publication dates now, a delay of more than a year. As best I can tell, TouchPoint imploded late last March. Turns out the principal, Sheri Williams, was hospitalized for months and the company pretty much dwindled down to her alone. I was ready to give up and try something else when lo, Ms. Williams announced to us authors that she is back in business. She asks us to request new publication dates and I have chosen early April 2024. Still waiting for an answer on that.