Deep Eddy

About the Book

Lots of kids from Marquette Park, the Lithuanian enclave of Chicago, work in gas stations while they are in high school, but very few get picked to work at Zip’s. Not only does Zip run a first class operation, but he caters to the elite of the city. He trains his staff to treat customers with the utmost consideration, not only for his own benefit but eventually for theirs too. In return Zip looks out for his guys. He acts as their guardian and mentor in life. You don’t work at Zip’s long before you meet a judge or a politician. Zip knows them all. Young Eddy Pasko doesn’t look forward to leaving Zip’s after graduating from St. Rita’s. He will go on to DePaul University soon but leaving Zip’s, which had been his rites of passage, is hard. Zip has many rules at the station, one of which is his part time employees must move on after high school. Eddy is an ambitious young guy. Grounded in the solid work ethics and values of his ancestry he has been further refined by his tutelage under Zip. Eddy has earned the respect of all Zip’s customers and is looking for the next door to open in his life. And, of course, Zip plays a part in opening it. Eddy has a couple obsessions, one mainstream, the other not so much. First he wants to be self-employed and run a successful business. Less mainstream is his romantic desire. Unlike most in his age group, Eddy has little interest in sowing wild oats and is consumed by finding the right girl. The story takes the reader through the myriad characters that inhabit Eddy’s neighborhood from Zip himself to the fearsome Cunningham twins. When Eddy starts a relationship with the beautiful Judy Meade he is enthusiastic but knows he needs to complete college before any serious commitment. But nevertheless the relationship blossoms into true love only to have a tragic ending that seemingly comes out of nowhere. One of Chicago’s most legendary restaurateurs recruits Eddy as a weekend bartender. Buzz Vincenti owns one of the highest volume restaurants in the city just a couple blocks from where Zip lives in Little Italy. Eddy learns the art of mixology from Buzz himself, and his grooming begins. Before his mid twenties Eddy is wildly successful and has his own list of influential contacts. All he needs now is the girl of his dreams. He does finally meet her in the most unlikely place, at the most unlikely time. He is enraptured of her and seizes the opportunity with all he’s got. Deep Eddy is a love story, but it is more. It’s a tale of motivation, determination, and faith.

About the Author

Paul Koyak was born and raised in North Central Illinois. He was educated in Catholic grade school, an all boy’s Catholic high school, and a local junior college. He served in the U.S. Army National Guard during the Vietnam War era. He has spent his entire adult life self-employed. His primary experience is in the food and beverage industry spending 25 years operating restaurants with his wife, Rosalyn. They were married in 1969 and have three grown sons and three grandchildren. Throughout Koyak’s tenure in the restaurant business, he always had an interest in writing. Time comes and goes pretty fast raising a family and running a restaurant or two, so about the only way his writings surfaced were in his restaurant’s display advertising always geared toward humor. An avid sports fan, he loves the Chicago Cubs, the Chicago Bears, and Notre Dame Fighting Irish football. And, of course, he rarely missed a Chicago Bulls game during the Jordan years. A self-made man, Koyak has never received any formal training in the art of writing and didn’t study it in his years in school. This lack of education in the field he loves the most has made it more difficult to produce a manuscript. But what he lacks in training, he makes up for in imagination, vision and tenacity. Koyak lives in Jupiter, Florida and is working on his next novel. Visit his website: http://paulkoyak.com