I am doing this stupid, stupid thing for a few reasons:

• This is blog post #950 out of 1,001. I wanted to go big.
• The 2018 walking tours are kicking off this weekend, so this is a good reminder to buy tickets and keep buying tickets until there are no tickets left to buy.
• As with the introduction I published a few weeks ago, I’m trying to spur interest among publishers and/or literary agents. If you know any, pass this on.
• It’s one of the best things I’ve ever written — there’s murder, politics, the forced voting of pastors, ear-chewing aldermen, an illegal bar-boat and the phrase “swilling the planters with bumbo” and every word of it is true. Aside from a few publishers I’ve sent it to and, like, my in-laws, one of the best things I’ve ever written has been moldering unread in a Google Doc for like a year and a half. My present to me is getting some eyes on a story that I really, really want to tell.

So spread this pdf around. Share it with friends. Email it to people who might get a kick out of it (particularly people who might have connections within publishing). Who knows? Maybe it’ll be an underground smash leaving a nation hungry for more tales of political unrest.

Or maybe you’ll just get a good read on a summer weekend, and I’ll get the knowledge at least a few eyes are on something I’m really proud of.

Download “The Chicago Corruption Walking Tour: Chapter 1″

Buy your tickets now at Dabble.co.

The corruption tour, for those of you who don’t know, is my yearly wander through downtown Chicago taking tourists through the spots where corruption happened in the city.

Bribes, shady land deals, kickbacks, bad-faith contracts, systemic racism and just plain being a jerk in office have done more damage to this city than any Valentine’s Massacre or thrill-killing U of C grads, so why let the Capone tours have all the fun? I lure the punters in with promises of Blago wackiness and leave ‘em with a hefty dose of civics. It’s fun.

Each year, the tour gives half the tips to a local nonprofit journalism group. In part it’s a way to give back to this city, in part it’s to allay my guilt at making a personal profit off Chicago’s legacy of corruption, in part it’s a way to casually mention I do accept tips.

The first year, the money went to City Bureau. Please donate to them.

The second year, ProPublica Illinois. Please donate to them too.

This year the money will go to The TRiiBE, helping them provide a voice for and change the narrative of black Chicago. Donate to them, donate to them, donate to them and save some money for Injustice Watch, which I’m planning on giving the share of 2019 tour gratuities to.

I like The TRiiBE because they’re writing stories no one else is, and giving a community historically underrepresented in Chicago journalism its own voice and platform. But I’m not the best person to talk about the work they do. They are.

So hopefully, you’ll join me and wander among the exhibits that make up the museum of corruption we call Chicago. I’ll keep a spot for you.