City of Grudges

Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Finalist

Royal Palm Literary Award – Third Place

Readers’ Favorite Honorable Mention

City of Grudges

For the past decade, Walker Holmes has published the Pensacola Insider, a weekly newspaper that struggles to stay solvent while reporting on corruption, racism and injustice. Situated on the Florida Panhandle on the Florida-Alabama border, the coastal town has struggled to reach its potential, but progress has always been held back by grudges, many of which have spanned generations. When Holmes publishes an article that leads to the arrest of his best friend, he might have gone too far. The town attacks the publisher for “falsely” accusing its most popular leader, costing the newspaper ad sales and possibly his control…

Praise for City of Grudges

City of Grudges captures my hometown of Pensacola, Florida, much the same way Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil immortalized Savannah.”City of Grudges” captures my hometown of Pensacola, Florida much the same way. —JOE SCARBOROUGH, Co-host of MSNBC’s Morning Joe

Killer Nashville Finalist

“City of Grudges” was selected as a finalist for the 2019 Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award in the Thriller category. Killer Nashville is one of the most popular conferences in the country for writers and readers and is held each year in the Nashville, Tennessee area. Established by writer and filmmaker Clay Stafford in 2006, the conference focuses on authors of mystery, thriller, suspense and crime fiction.  The Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Awards are given to authors and their outstanding books published in the previous year. All entries go through multiple rounds of judging that are performed by a collective of…

Royal Palm Literary Award

Third Place, Published Mystery or Crime Fiction RICK OUTZEN WINS PRESTIGIOUS AWARD The Florida Writers Association, Inc., (FWA) has announced that Rick Outzen of Pensacola, Florida won a prestigious Royal Palm Literary Award (RPLA). His winning entry, “City of Grudges,” won Third Place for Published, Mystery or Crime Fiction. The award was announced at FWA’s recent four-day annual conference in Altamonte Springs, Florida. This annual competition, which received 420 qualified submissions, was RPLA’s seventeenth. “This is the most competitive RPLA we’ve ever had,” said Chris Coward, RPLA chairperson. “The RPLA administrative team, judges, and entrants did an amazing job.” The…

Book Trailer wins Addy

At the 2019 AAF Pensacola ADDY Awards, the City of Grudges trailer won a Silver Addy. The short video was produced by Vivid Bridge with the help of Sena Maddison, Scott Mitchell, Jeff DeWeese and Scott Luth. It was filmed at The Fish House and Seville Quarter in downtown Pensacola.

Readers’ Favorite – Best Mystery, Honorable Mention

Readers’ Favorite recognizes “City of Grudges” by Rick Outzen in its annual international book award contes. The Readers’ Favorite International Book Award Contest featured thousands of contestants from over a dozen countries, ranging from new independent authors to NYT best-sellers and celebrities. Readers’ Favorite is one of the largest book review and award contest sites on the Internet. They have earned the respect of renowned publishers like Random House, Simon & Schuster, and Harper Collins, and have received the “Best Websites for Authors” and “Honoring Excellence” awards from the Association of Independent Authors. They are also fully accredited by the…

MSNBC ‘Morning Joe’

On May 2, 2008, Joe and Mika Scarborough interviewed Rick Outzen. Joe and Rick were partners in the Inweekly’s predecessor, The Independent Florida Sun, in the early 2000’s before Joe headed off for his highly successful career with MSNBC.

WSRE – PBS: Conversations with Jeff Weeks

An in-depth interview with Rick Outzen, who is best known as the owner and publisher of the InWeekly Newspaper, a publication that has proven it is not afraid to dive deep into local issues. He is also the author of Rick’s Blog, a daily blog closely monitored by those who read the news and those who make the news. Recently, Outzen has expanded his writing credentials with the publication of his first novel entitled “City of Grudges”.

The Hodding Carter Connection

Author’s Note: City of Grudges is dedicated to Hodding Carter II, the founder of my hometown newspaper. As the owner, publisher and editor of the Delta Democrat Times in Greenville, Mississippi, Carter won the Pulitzer Prize in 1946 for a series of editorials on the ill treatment of Japanese American soldiers returning from World War II. Carter became known as the “Spokesman of the New South” as he challenged segregation and the state’s Jim Crow laws. When he wrote an article for Look magazine on the rise of the White Citizens Councils, a successor to the Ku Klux Klan, state…