Music Journalist Chronicles Hollywood Absurdity and Personal Ghosts in New Memoir

Los Angeles, CA. August 16, 2013 – Former L.A. music journalist Thomas Wictor was prodded into writing his memoir after his postings on Talkbass.com forum garnered more than 140,000 views in a single month. Ghostsand Ballyhoo, Memoirs of a Failed Music Journalist (Schiffer Publishing, 2013) cleverly dishes about the
craziness of the industry without revealing too much.

Thomas Wictor uses himself as the straight man in a wildly bizarre and hilarious life on the periphery of fame in Los Angeles. The collection of seven anthologies detailing Wictor’s failed music journalism career are separated by six interludes with the “Collateral Ghost,” one of the most brilliant, yet unsuccessful, musicians who ever played – former Frank Zappa bassist Scott Thunes.

Written with profane humor and liberating humility, Ghosts and Ballyhoo includes previously unpublished articles, excerpts from interview transcripts, personal correspondence, and photos with some of the best bassists in the world.

In a recent feature interview with Bass Musician Magazine, journalist Rick Suchow stated about Ghosts and Ballyhoo, “As you find yourself laughing out loud on one page and getting a lump in your throat on the next, you’ll come to the same conclusion I did: Thomas Wictor is a great writer. Calling Wictor a bass journalist is kind of like calling Picasso a cartoonist; Tom was once, and Pablo was once, but of course that was never their real calling.”

Praise For Ghosts and Ballyhoo

“… this is an absolutely brilliant autobiography and well worth picking up. Not only did I find it interesting and enjoy it a
hell of a lot, I also felt like I’d been on the journey with him thanks to his writing style.” – Patrick Challis, Curiosity of a
Social Misfit

“…it’s the most original and well written memoir I’ve read to date. It’s funny really as I’ve read scores of them, usually by
people who are more of a household name, yet the best one is written by the least famous of them all.” – Miles’tone,
basschat.co.uk

About the Author
Thomas Wictor worked as a stevedore, library archivist, conversational English teacher, editor of the world’s first online
newspaper, voiceover actor, delivery driver, process server, field representative for a document-retrieval service, and
music journalist. A former Contributing Editor at Bass Player, he was also a semi-professional bass guitarist in Tokyo.
Thomas is the author of five books including, In Cold Sweat: Interviews with Really Scary Musicians (Limelight Editions,
2004).