Pamela Clare's 2006 novel Surrender is a finalist for the Romance Writers of America's RITA Award in the Long Historical Romance category. Clare, better known to AAN members as Pamela White, has published six romance novels since she started writing them three years ago. Surrender is part of a historical trilogy set in pre-Revolutionary Colonial upstate New York during the French and Indian War. Final RITA winners will be announced in July.

Continue ReadingBoulder Weekly Editor Up for Prestigious Fiction Award

Bob Mould, best known as the singer, guitarist and songwriter for the indie bands Hüsker Dü and Sugar, will answer reader questions on "music, cooking, travel, politics, religion, neighborhoods, sociology and more" in a column appropriately called "Ask Bob Mould," according to City Paper. Arts editor Mark Athitakis tells AAN News the idea "was kicking around for a while here at the office" and that the column will run "on the opening spread of the arts section."

Continue ReadingInfluential Musician to Write Column in Washington City Paper

Joseph William Watson III, a former staff writer for the Phoenix New Times, was arrested Friday in conjunction with the robberies of three Scottsdale, Ariz., beauty salons and as many as six other businesses, investigators tell The Arizona Republic. According to police, Watson confessed the crimes and told detectives he was driven to steal to cover gambling debt. Watson won two 2006 AltWeekly Awards, including a first-place finish for Feature Writing. "I'm in a state of shock," New Times staff writer Stephen Lemons says. "I knew Watson had been battling an obsession with gambling for some time, and I know he'd sunk low in the past because of it. But I had no idea he'd go so far."

Continue ReadingFormer Alt-Weekly Writer Suspected of Being ‘Salon Bandit’

Orlando's Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation (MBI) tells WFTV-TV they used massage parlor ads in the Orlando alt-weekly to nab Li Ping Ding, a "ringleader" who was "running prostitution out of 10 locations in Central Florida." On the Orlando Weekly's blog, editor Bob Whitby smells something funny: He says the Weekly has been a thorn in the MBI's side for some time, and thinks it may be more than a coincidence that the Bureau included four pages of Weekly ads in the press release for Ding's bust. "Could this be part of the culture of retribution the MBI is so famous for?," Whitby asks.

Continue ReadingAre Cops Overemphasizing Orlando Weekly’s Role in Prostitution Sting?

The pilot of The Drinky Crow Show, based on Tony Millionaire's Maakies, is set to premiere on The Cartoon Network's Adult Swim May 13. Maakies, which debuted in the New York Press in 1994, is now featured in the Village Voice and other AAN papers. With a theme song by They Might Be Giants and a plot involving a mermaid, a suicidal crow, a shark attack, "head-chopping violence" and "ferocious Napoleonic French alligators," the pilot should make for an interesting 11 minutes.

Continue ReadingAlt-Weekly Comic Strip Spawns Adult Swim TV Pilot

Last week, the entertainment magazine In Utah This Week ran an ad claiming that it has eroded the alt-weekly's readership by 20 percent in five months. But Weekly owner John Saltas sarcastically points out the ad -- which appeared in the Salt Lake Tribune, In Utah's sister publication -- grossly overestimates the magazine's readership by referencing the wrong numbers. "CUME numbers mostly impress young reps and rookie managers and are a crock when used to purposely mislead as the In Utah folks did in [the] ad," Saltas says.

Continue ReadingSalt Lake City Weekly Owner Responds to Spurious Ad Claims