This thread started as someone telling really interesting stories. It soon became clear it wasn't just the content of the stories but the writing style that was so captivating. In the end it turns out to be all down to the man behind the stories and the storytelling. Tom, I've never been so drawn into a thread before, on any website or topic. This has been like watching a novel being written while I peer over the author's shoulder, impatiently asking what happens next. As we head towards a conclusion of this part of the story I'm glad that I was following along. I'm even more pleased that it's an upbeat ending.
The last lyrics I heard sung as I turned off the ignition a few minutes ago:
As heavy as a history book can be, I will carry it with me, O Lord
And maybe when the bitterness has gone, there'll be sweetness on our tongues once more
Thanks very much.
A secret: I always wanted to be a writer, but I was never able to develop my own style. I constantly plagiarized. I mean, when I was a teenager writing things for myself. I once wrote a short story about the final moments of a kamikaze pilot, and it ended with the phrase "his Zero met the battleship in a dull orange explosion that for him would span eternity." I got an "A" From my English teacher and felt crappy about it because I'd lifted the "dull orange explosion that for him would span eternity" from the paperback version of
Jaws II.
At least I knew then that I could never plagiarize if I made it as a professional writer. I felt too ashamed to get accolades for someone else's material.
My first flamethrower book came out in 2007 and nobody gave a hoot. I'll tell the full story of that disaster in my memoirs, because as crazy as my interviewing musician stories are, the story of that book will boggle your mind.
(And So Very Tired, I see you appear to be a man of faith. The coda to the story of my 2007 flamethrower book was apparently a test of my character, possibly given to me by a divine power. I'm glad to say I passed it. That test allowed me to release myself from another ghost and stop being so angry. And bitter. Sorry to be cryptic, but the story so good I have to save it for the book.)
Anyway, in 2010 a book was published in English by a large German publisher, and the entire section about German flamethrowers was written with my book as the source. Uncredited. My book is listed in the references, with my surname misspelled, but there's no footnote in the flamethrower section saying "I owe every frigging word of this chapter to the years of research by Thomas Wictor." I know it's my material, because I'm the only person on the planet who's taken all the fragmentary records that remain from the destroyed German national archives and reconstructed the complete history of flamethrower use in the Imperial German Army of 1914-1918. Prior to my book, everyone relied on a single French magazine article written in the 1970s, which is almost totally factually incorrect.
That 2010 German book is very popular, and the author is lauded for his work. Since I'm about to publish my own book on the same subject, I know that this author got EVERYTHING wrong, except for the part on flamethrowers.
But!
I sent the first copy of my new book on German assault troops of World War I to a famous bassist not known for his interest in military matters, and he wrote back the following:
"I started reading your book today. I was shocked at how easily I fell into the rhythm, even though I hadn't read all the other thousands of books about Verdun et al so I wasn't 'up to speed' but was diggin' the vibe, anyway. You're a really great writer, and it doesn't show how much you worked on it. It reads and sounds like you're rattling off thousands of tiny tidbits of information you just happened to pick up, say, in the GREAT WAR doing research, or possibly GETTING YOUR INFORMATION DIRECT FROM THE SOURCE USING A OUIJA BOARD AND SOME CRUMBS to attract poltergeists. GREAT pics, great research, and very tasty reading. Thank you. It's gorgeous!"
I honestly have no reason to be angry about anything anymore. The thrust of my memoir is "Don't be angry the way I was. It wasn't worth it." However, the
lesson I learned in how not to be angry was worth every second of the past 20 years, so I wouldn't change a thing.
