Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: City of Grudges
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 7/10/1957
WEBSITE: https://www.rickoutzen.com/
CITY: Pensacola
STATE: FL
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
http://ricksblog.biz/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born July 10, 1957.
EDUCATION:Graduated from University of Mississippi (magna cum laude).
ADDRESS
CAREER
Publisher and blogger. Pensacola Inweekly, Pensacola, FL, owner and publisher, 1999–. Contributor to Ring of Fire Radio show. Has appeared on national television.
WRITINGS
Also author of the blog Rick’s Blog; contributor to the Daily Beast; self-published I’m That Guy: Collected Columns of a Southern Journalist, 2014.
SIDELIGHTS
Rick Outzen is a Pensacola-based publisher and blogger. He has owned and published the Pensacola Inweekly alt-weekly newspaper since 1999. Outzen also writes Rick’s Blog and has contributed to the Daily Beast. He contributes regularly to the Ring of Fire Radio show.
Outzen published his first novel, City of Grudges, in 2018. Pensacola Insider publisher Walker Holmes attempts to keep his weekly periodical from going bankrupt while pursuing his unique brand of reportage and bringing the truth to the residents of the city. This approach, however, has made him a prime target of numerous influential people who feel pressured by his reporting. A former friend of his, community leader Bo Hines, had been held in high esteem by the Florida Panhandle Arts Council until Holmes’ investigation revealed that he had been embezzling from them. Bo’s wife, Sue, then commits suicide during Bo’s trial, further marks Holmes’s status as a pariah. He takes it upon himself, though, to look into the circumstances surrounding Sue’s death while clashing with the local sheriff over another scandal in town.
In a guest post in Mystery Tribune, Outzen discussed the importance of location to his debut novel. He explained that City of Grudges “is based in my adopted hometown of Pensacola, Florida. While the characters and plot are fictional, except for the chocolate Labrador mix Big Boy, the places are real.” Outzen added that “the place has Southern charm, historic buildings, natural beauty and incredible, colorful people. I hope that I’ve done the city justice with my writing, maybe even luring a few readers to visit the area.” In the same article, Outzen also clarified that “the book’s title is based on a longstanding joke in Pensacola that,” when political leaders are conflicted over how to move forward on a certain issues, the root of the problem “will be tied to some grudge dating back to high school.” A contributor to Publishers Weekly said that “Outzen easily conveys the feel of the kind of journalism he practices in real life.” The same Publishers Weekly contributor found the novel to be “provocative.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, January 29, 2018, review of City of Grudges, p. 172.
ONLINE
Mystery Tribune, https://www.mysterytribune.com/ (January 12, 2018), “Author Rick Outzen Reflects on Small Town Florida and ‘City of Grudges.'”
Rick Outzen website, https://www.rickoutzen.com (June 21, 2018).
AUTHOR
RICK OUTZEN is the publisher and owner of Pensacola Inweekly, an alt- weekly newspaper that published its first issue on July 1, 1999. Six years later, he launched his blog, aptly named “Rick’s Blog,” that quickly became one of the most influential blogs in the state of Florida.
His reporting for The Daily Beast on the Billings murders, a double-homicide that garnered national attention, caught the attention of the New York Times that then profiled him and his blog. He was also featured on Dateline NBC’s segment on the murders, “No Safe Place.”
Rick also covered the BP oil spill for The Daily Beast, earning international attention for unraveling the oil company’s spin on the disaster. He was interviewed by MSNBC, CNN, CBC-TV, and Al Jazeera English.
He was a finalist for the Sunshine State Awards for investigative reporting for his coverage of the failed turnaround effort of a middle school in the Escambia County Public School District.
Since 2003 Rick has been a regular contributor to Ring of Fire Radio, a show created by Robert Kennedy, Jr., and Mike Papantonio. The radio show was originally broadcast on Air America and is currently nationally syndicated.
In 2014 he self-published a digital book on his “Outtakes” columns: I’m That Guy: Collected Columns of a Southern Journalist.
Rick grew up in the Mississippi Delta and graduated magna cum laude from the University of Mississippi. He and his family have lived in the Pensacola, Florida, area since 1982.
City of Grudges
Publishers Weekly. 265.5 (Jan. 29, 2018): p172.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
City of Grudges
Rick Outzen. SelectBooks, $16.95 trade paper (256p) ISBN 978-1-59079-443-2
Outzen, the publisher and owner of Pensacola Inweekly, a Florida alt-weekly newspaper, brings his journalistic expertise to his provocative first novel. Walker Holmes publishes the Pensacola Insider, a weekly that struggles to stay solvent while speaking truth to power. Walker's editorial slant has placed him on many influential people's enemies lists, and he's in the thick of controversy again in the case of Bo Hines, a former friend. Bo, a popular community leader, was lauded for his support of the Florida Panhandle Arts Council, until Walker's digging revealed that he had embezzled from it. Walker's pariah status only worsens when the accused man's wife, Sue, apparently take her own life just before the start of Bo's trial. Walker looks into the circumstances of Sue's death while clashing with the local sheriff over another potential scandal. The resolution isn't as good as what comes before, but Outzen easily conveys the feel of the kind of journalism he practices in real life. (Mar.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"City of Grudges." Publishers Weekly, 29 Jan. 2018, p. 172. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A526116531/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=33cd7108. Accessed 4 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A526116531