Jason Sheehan's Whiskey Down: A Story of Love, Sex, Death and Kitchens will chronicle his days in kitchens across the country before he started writing about food rather than making it six years ago, the Rocky Mountain News reports. The manuscript was sold at auction to Farrar, Straus and Giroux for an undisclosed amount. "I did really OK; I was very pleased," he says. "I'm one of those writers that hates all of my own stuff, but I really sort of like this book. I liked the chance of hanging out with the younger me again. Also, it's a fantastic book, and everybody should buy 10 or 12 copies."

Continue ReadingWestword Food Writer’s Debut Book Due Out Next Year

Bryan Osborn, who was named publisher of the Augusta, Ga., paper earlier this month, has spent 15 years working in various managerial roles for daily papers, but he always had his eye on the alt-universe. "I kind of had a jealousy streak and always thought, 'That would be so cool if I did that,'" he says. He tells reporter Angel Cleary about his first "corporate" meetings at Portico Publications, which owns Metro Spirit as well as AAN members C-Ville Weekly and Columbia Free Times. "It was just such a different environment. The discussions were a lot more laid back, as opposed to what would happen in a conference room with a PowerPoint presentation," he says. "When I got out here, when I got to the company, I really felt like I could be myself. I told them, I said, 'I feel like I'm home.'"

Continue ReadingMetro Spirit’s New Publisher Adjusts to Life at an Alt-Weekly

Judge Anna Baca said yesterday that special prosecutor Dennis Wilenchik failed to comply with the law when he issued four subpoenas against the paper, the Arizona Republic reports. Wilenchik neglected to notify the court that any of the four subpoenas had been issued and failed to notify the foreman of the grand-jury about two of them. The judge assessed no sanctions, since the subpoenas have been quashed. New Times founder and Village Voice Media executive editor Michael Lacey, who was arrested with Jim Larkin in the ensuing brouhaha, told reporters that the judge's conclusion validated what New Times has been saying. "It means we are continuing to peel back the layers of a very rotten onion," he said. "As we suspected and as we've written, this was a corrupt process." The paper has hired its own attorney to conduct an investigation into how the case was handled, according to the Republic.

Continue ReadingPhoenix New Times Case Was Bungled, Judge Says