Speaker's Event: Author Gary W. Moore

Playing for success: First-time author to share how he overcame the odds to land the book and movie deal

Playing with the Enemy author Gary W. Moore will be sharing the inspiring story behind his bestselling book and how he got Hollywood to make it into a movie at Sonoma Café, 2845 W. 95^th St., Evergreen Park, on Saturday, November 14, 2009, from 4:00-6:30 p.m. 

The speaker’s event, co-sponsored by the Chicago Writers Association and the DuPage Writers Group, provides guests a chance to interact with the award-winning author in a casual setting. The Bourbonnais author will reading from his work, sharing his unlikely success story and fielding audience questions. He will also have books on hand for sale and signing. 

Driven by word of mouth and the author’s heroic efforts to tell the world his father’s story, Playing with the Enemy was a surprise hardcover hit for a small press that found a second life when publishing powerhouse Penguin bought the rights and reissued it. Moore’s debut won the 2006 Military Writer’s Society of America Book of the Year and is currently being made into a film by Academy Award winning producer Gerald Molen. The film cast includes Gary’s son, Toby Moore (“A Separate Peace”), who will play Gary’s father. 

The film and book is about Gene Moore, Gary’s father, a baseball prodigy who lost his dream of becoming a major league ballplayer to war and injury, but overcame heartbreak and adversity to become a successful businessman and father. Gary’s father taught him so much but hid his baseball career from Gary until the day before he suddenly passed away from a heart attack. 

Publisher’s Weekly gave Playing with the Enemy a starred review, calling it “[A] 20^th-century epic that demonstrates how, sometimes, letting go of a dream is the only way to discover one’s great fortune.” 

"Gary Moore's Playing with the Enemy is an incredibly moving and inspiring story about his father," said Randy Richardson, Chicago Writers Association president. "But Gary's own personal success story is just as inspiring and one that all writers should hear and take to heart. He had a little book that he believed in and never stopped believing in. You can't help but be inspired by his story of the little book that could – and did." 

For more information about Gary W. Moore, read an interview he did for CWA's The Write City e-zine and visit his websites at www.garywmoore.com and www.playingwiththeenemy.com.