James Frey - live webchat - 11th March, 2009

James Christopher Frey is an American writer. His first book, the memoir, A Million Little Pieces, was published by John Murray in 2003. Its follow-up, My Friend Leonard (also a memoir) was published by in 2005. Both books became New York Times number one bestsellers. In late 2005 and early 2006, investigators discovered that elements of his memoir, A Million Little Pieces, had been fabricated. It was a great book in any case, so everybody's happy. Frey, along with his family, currently resides in New York City. His latest book is Bright Shiny Morning .

About Bright Shiny Morning:

This is a bold and dazzling new story from the controversial creator of A Million Little Pieces. Welcome to LA. City of contradictions. It is home to movie stars and down-and-outs. Palm-lined beaches and gridlock. Shopping sprees and gun sprees. Bright Shiny Morning takes a wild ride through the ultimate metropolis, where glittering excess rubs shoulders with seedy depravity. Frey's trademark filmic snapshots zoom in on the parallel lives of diverse characters, bringing their egos and ideals, hopes and despairs, anxieties and absurdities vividly to life. Some suffer, like the otherworldly wino who tries to save a spoilt teenage runaway. Others gain, like the canny talent agent who turns sexual harassment to blackmailing advantage. Some are loaded, or grounded, and have luck on their side. Others, like the countless actresses-turned-hookers, or schoolboys-turned-gangsters, are doomed.

Read more about James on his author page

Buy the book

Comments

[Karen]

Having said that I did not particularly enjoy BSM (I seem to be the only one here who is not an avid fan) I do very much like the idea you are working on at the moment with respect to a Messiah walking the earth in our current time. I could tempted to give it a try if it makes it to the selves. Where did that idea come from, it does seem so very off the wall and a wonderful subject that could be debated upon for hours with no real definitive conclusion, so much room for opinion and speculation. I hope you pull it off!

[James Frey]

I'm going to sign off now. Thanks for all the questions, and for all the support. My readers mean a huge amount to me and I truly value you. Buy your books at Waterstone's, it is a great, great bookseller.

[James Frey]

Gary: thanks, I'm also hoping it does well.

I do still read the Tao. Not as much as I used to, but it's still the only thing that makes sense to me.

[James Frey]

Andy: have you read Baudelaire and Rimbaud, Thomas Wolfe (not Tom), John Dos Passos and John Fante? All great writers worth reading.

[James Frey]

Andy - thanks for reading, appreciate it.

There was all sorts of fallout related to AMLP and MFL, but none for that reason.

And Amberton is based on rumours related to a number of different actors and TV personalities. I know of two that I believe are true, one who lives in NY and one in LA, but neither of them were married to Nicole Kidman. Think harder.

[James Frey]

Greg - tour has been great. I love the UK, love being here and meeting people and connecting with the readers. Glasgow was cool. My first time there. A beautiful city. And the Aye Write festival was fun. Had a great event.

[Ellie]

thank you very much for your responses.and for taking the time to do this. its lovely to be able to have this opportunity to show appreciation for your work.

best of luck with the next book. i am looking forward to reading it!

[Gary]

Hi James - Hope your new book in paperback does really well - was also wondering whether you still used the Tao te Ching for spiritual guidance?

[Andy]

I'm half way through The Sheltering Sky because you reference Paul Bowles a couple of times in MFL. Do you have any other inspirational, edge of humanity type sh*t that we might not have heard of and that has meant a lot to you?

[Andy]

Hi again James,

I didn't mention before but I also loved all three books, a lot.

Was there any fallout from the things you revealed about Leonard at the end of MFL? And, is Amberton at least a little bit based on a short scientologist who used to be married to Nicole Kidman?

[Greg Eden]

James - how has your tour been going so far? Did you have a good time in Glasgow? Particularly interested in that since it's my home town.

[James Frey]

Ellie: Thanks for the kind words.

When I write I try to visualize a setting in my mind. I look all around it, try to focus on details in it. Those details are what often tells the story.

I wish everyone had read Lao Tsu, and listened to love songs, and had seen Breaking the Waves. There is, however, so much great art and music and film and writing in the world. I just hope people stay engaged with them.

[James Frey]

Kathryn: thanks for reading all three books, really appreciate it.

I doubt I'll ever write a book as focused on a place as BSM was on LA. I know I'm going to write about NY, and also the Hamptons, but I they will be settings instead of characters. I may, though change my mind. Time will tell.

[James Frey]

Andy: hope you're through your self-destructive period and are doing well.

I'm not anti-alcohol. I don't use it anymore, and never will, but there are millions of people who do without any problems. For those that do have problems with it, I say find some help and do whatever you need to do to change your life.

[Ellie]

you seem to have an eye for detail and beauty in our surroundings. especially in your description in AMLP. what inspires you? in particular any films/music/books that you wish every knew about?

[James Frey]

Ellie: thanks for the kind words and support.

I did not write as child or a teenager. I did, however, read constantly, and I loved books.

I started writing because I loved books, and figured if someone else could write one, so could I. And I just started. Sat down and went to work. It took a few years to be able to write anything readable. and then a few more to actually write a book. My advice would be to read, write as much as possible, believe in yourself, and don't let the word NO have any effect on you. I always say if I can do it, anyone can do it.

[James Frey]

Tom: lots of questions, glad you dug the book and thanks for reading it.

The book got savaged by the LA Times. They hated it. At the same time, it hit #1 on their bestseller list and stayed there for a few weeks. Readers seemed to feel it was an accurate portrait of the city. The LA Times didn't. I'll take readers every time.

I lived in LA for eight years. I didn't thik anyone had written a big serious book about it, especially one that used the city as the central focus. I decided to be the first.

I didn't plan very much of it. I knew the four major story arcs, and had lists of things I wanted to write about, but no specific outline. I didn't outline any of y first three books. Just sat down and wrote them.

Depth to my characters. Not sure really. Just try to make them feel full and real, and small details that inform them. You can say alot about someone very quickly. Tell me your greatest fear and wildest dream and I'd know much about who you are.

Next book is about the Messiah. He lives and walks the earth. Going to tell his story.

[kathryn]

Hi james, I too have loved all 3 books. Do you think you will write another book with the city as the centre piece, and if so which city?

[James Frey]

Lynsay - will I write a sequel to BSM, and do I have any regrets about AMLP.

I won't write a sequel to BSM. I feel like it's a complete book and the stories have been told. I hope they stay with readers, and readers continue them in their own minds, in whatever way they like. A couple of them are absolutely and deliberately left open to reader interpretation.

I don't have any regrets in terms of writing AMLP. The book is exactly what I wanted it to be. I would probably be more clear about the changes, manipulations and embellishments if I could do it again, but I can't. Whatever happened, happened. I'm happy people are still reading and connecting to the book.

[James Frey]

David: is the style natural of hard work?

It took me a long time to find the style, the voice. I wanted to write in a new, unlike anything that preceded me, devoid of influence, and appropriate to the times we live in. It took years to figure it out. Writing and rewriting and experimenting. And while I want to seem natural and easy and simple, it's very laborious. I'm very careful about word choice and flow, about rhythm, about speed and pace. I usually write about a page a day, which takes several hours.

[James Frey]

Ben: will any of the books become TV shows or films, and what did I listen to while I wrote BSM.

BSM might become a TV show. There are discussions going on right now. And I listen to music constantly when I write. It's a pretty wide-range of stuff, from punk to metal to hip hop to cheesy love songs from the 80's. I listened to a ton of LA punk, Black flag, the Circle Jerks and the Vandals, and some older rap, NWA and Dr. Dre. while writing BSM, sprinkled in with some of the other stuff as well.

[James Frey]

Simon: do I still feel the same way about my as I did in terms of it being a radically structured novel and a love-letter to LA.

Absolutely. My feelings about the book haven't changed, and the intentions I had when I wrote won't ever change, because I'll never re-write any of it.

[James Frey]

Kelly: the next book will be fiction, but there are elements of it that will be presented as non-fiction, even though they're not. It is being constructed as series of gospels written by the followers of the messiah. A disclaimer at the front will claim that they are real, even though I'm writing them. Sort of the way the real bible functions. None of the actual disciples wrote the gospels, though that is how they're presented.

[Ellie]

Hello James,
i am a massive fan of your and have been for several years. i think it is your writing style and poetic language which you construct which makes your books so powerful and moving. i was just wondering how you got started with writing? did you write as you grew up at all? my friend is a very good writer and i was wondering what advice you could offer her? thank you

[Tom]

Hi James

I found Bright Shiny Morning to be a superior novel - mainly because it was deceptively easy to read, completely engaging and lived up to its scope.

Some questions:

How has it been received in LA seeing as it's all about LA?

Why were you so interested in writing about LA as opposed to some other American city?

Did you plan the novel in much detail beforehand or was it something which flowed more spontaneously?

How did you go about adding depth to your characters?

What's your next project about?

Thanks!
Tom

[James Frey]

Greg: a movie of AMLP.

I don't know what's happening with the movie. Warner Brothers owns the rights and I don't think they have any plans for it right now. I sort of hope they never make it. Would rather have it continue to live as a book.

[James Frey]

Anne: thanks for the kind words. I did hope to do that to readers, and I'm happy it worked with you. Thanks for reading the book and for the support.

[James Frey]

Karen: the lists. Most of them were just information about the city. They provide a way to know it better, and differently. Some of them were written to make specific points. One I know I didn't expect anyone to read was the list of wounded soldiers who live in an LA veterans hospital. It was deliberately long and awful, the point being that the USA sends young men out to fight stupid wars. Many of them get wounded and come home and are ruined and forgotten. We need to face that fact, even though it's hard and terrible. The list was supposed to overwhelm you, and force to think about these men, and then turn away from them the way the country does.

[James Frey]

Georgina: LA is definitely the central character. The book is about the city more than any one specific story or character in it. The made up facts and statistics are spread through the entire thing. I had to make a list for the American publisher of all of the made-up stuff. The one that makes me laugh the most is about the first car in LA being crashed and the driver dying. The driver's name is the name of a friend of mine who lives in Washington DC and is a terrible driver. Did it just to make fun of him. There are tons of other little nuggets like that in the whole book.

[Andy]

Hi James. As someone who has been through, to say the least, a self-destructive period, do you think alcohol has a place in modern society?

[James Frey]

Jo: who do I identify with in BSM.

Almost everyone in the book.I feel like I sort of have to to be able to write about them. I don't really have favorite characters in it, though I do have sections that make me laugh. The one I think is funniest, aside from invented facts and statistics, is when Amberton is hanging around the Russian. The Russian is a cold-blooded killer who just wants to be in movies, and get dental insurance for his mother. Only in LA.

[James Frey]

Adele: what am I doing next?

I'm in the middle of writing a new book. Is about the Messiah, my idea of what it would be like if the Messiah were walking the streets of New York right now; what would he be like, what would he believe, who would he associate with, what would he think of the world we live in, what would he have to say about it. Right now it's called The Final Testament of the Holy Bible. We'll see if anyone lets me publish it with that title.

[James Frey]

Jo: glad you liked the way I made stuff up. Sort of my trademark now.

Writing all of BSM was fun. There was no pressure, no expectations. As I contructed the historical, statistical and demographic sections of the book, when I couldn't find something I liked, or made sense, or thought was cool, I just made things up. It was funny to do, and made me chuckle. Not just because I was clearly inventing supposed facts, but because I knew it would enrage people back in America who expect me to be penitent and apologetic. Nothing ever wrong with taking the piss out of self-righteous Americans.

[James Frey]

Iain: which books inspired me to write BSM.

I wanted to write about LA in the way Dickens wrote about London, Hugo did Paris, Tolstoy did Moscow, Dos Passos did all the US, Studs Terkel did Chicago, Tom Wolfe did New York. Make the city a central character, if not the central character. Construct the stories in a way that they could have only happened in LA, right now.

[James Frey]

Gareth: bestselling memoir or making Oprah look silly?

Definitely bestselling memoir, though I don't really think of it as that. It's just a book, a story. What the publisher sticks on the side is irrelevant. And I don't really care what anyone in the media, including Oprah, thinks of me. I want to move readers, entertain them, make them thibk and read live differently in some way.

[Lynsay Lambert]

Hi James

I'm very happy that you're doing this chat - i'm a massive fan, and was very pleased when we got BSM as one of the book club books last year!

do you think you'll ever write a conclusion to the characters stories from BSM, or do you prefer leaving it open to readers' interpretation?

and did you ever think MLP would stir up the controversy that it did? With the benefit of hindsight, would you change anything about how the book was written, for example, making it more clear that it wasnt completely non-fiction?

[David Kohn]

The writing style you employed in MLP was different to pretty much anything I'd ever read. It also reads like it is totally natural. Is this the case, and the style simply reflects how it came out, or was it something you had to work hard to achieve?

[Ben Hatch]

Love all your books, can't wait for more, I always recommend them to anyone who will listen ! Any plans to make any of them plays or film work ? Also does music effect you when you write and what were you listening to whilst writing MFL. Thanks.

[Simon Burke]

Hi James

I remember reading somewhere that when asked about Bright Shiny Morning when it was originally published you said that your intention was to do something quite radical with the form of the novel and also that it was very much your love letter to LA - for better or for worse.

Having had to time to reflect, do you still feel these statements are valid?

[Kelly Dixon]

Allo James -
Hope you're well. Have read your books and was lucky enough to get a proof advanced copy of Bright Shiny Morning early last year - WOW! Thought the descriptions were amazing and plot genius. Will the next book be another fiction or a autobiog?... And when???

[Greg Eden]

Hi, James

If a movie was ever made of MLP who would you like to see in the lead role? ie playing you? I definitely have Joe Pesci down to play Leonard, do you think that would work?

[Anne Whitcombe]

Hi James,
I loved 'Bright Shiny Morning', and especially liked the way you interspersed your huge lists of 'facts' with the various 'plots'. I found myself identifying with the city as the main character, and the characters as background, and I wonder if you intended this in any way?

[Karen]

Have read Bright Shiny Morning but I'm afraid I was not one of those who loved it. One of my big dislikes about it had to be the lists. I have noted that some readers loved them. As the author what did you intend the reader to get from the lists that interspersed your stories? I obviously did not get the point of them and confess to skipping most of them towards the end - sorry! - but I would be interested to know what you intended me to get out of them.

[Georgina Tranter]

Hi James

Looks like Jo beat me to it, but I found the 'facts' about LA in "Bright Shiny Morning" as interesting, if not more so, than the characters themselves. Do you consider LA to have been a character of the book, and as Jo asks, which facts were true?

[Jo James]

Given that you're now a hugely successful author, what are you working on next, and what do you hope to achieve with it?

[Jo James]

James did you identify with any of the characters in Bright Shiny Morning in particular, or can you recognise bits of yourself in lots of them?

[Adele Winston]

I loved Bright Shiny Morning; what are you doing next, please?

[Jo James]

Hi James. Despite the danger of sounding like a sycophantic stalker, I want to state right away that I'm a huge fan of your books. I read MLP, MFL and BSM last year, and all three have stayed with me ever since. I love the fact that you put the statement at the beginning of BSM saying that NOTHING in the book should be regarded as true, but how many of the 'facts' did you make up? And did you have fun making up any in particular?

Thanks
Jo

[Iain Martin]

Hi James: I loved Bright, Shiny Morning, I found it the amongst the most absorbing and entertaining of novels from 2008. I liked the attempt to write "the L.A. novel", and wondered which novels had inspired you by particularly successfully evoking a specific place?

[Gareth Buchaillard-Davies]

Hi James, which was better - having a best-selling memoir or making Oprah Winfrey look a little silly?