Episode 63 — James Bernard Frost

Summary: James Bernard Frost is the guest. He's the author of the novel A VERY MINOR PROPHET, now available from Hawthorne Books. Raves Chuck Palahniuk, author of 'Fight Club': "To date only Gus Van Sant has depicted the grim, dim, greasy, cramped world of Portland, Oregon. Now James Bernard Frost has given us the best novel, ever, about this strange underground world of misfits and heroes." Raves Tom Robbins, author of 'Another Roadside Attraction': "Bucking a headwind of despair, Frost pedals his verbal bicycle into the belly of the Beast, only to return bearing a brand-new Gospel illuminated with Voodoo cream and composed in the edgy vernacular of Portland’s thriving freak scene." A pleasure to have Jim on the show—he's been a contributor at The Nervous Breakdown for the past several years, so it's especially nice to see a book of his make its way into the world. Topics of conversation include: Portland, Oregon, perseverance, George W. Bush, failure, agents, unorthodoxy, zines, hybrids, political outrage, Ayn Rand, self-righteousness, religion, shame, lectures, Catholicism, agnosticism, serendipity, awfulness, creative pain, discipline, perspective, outlining, structure, expertise, readings, quantifying success, marketing, the accuracy of social media, guidebooks, vegetarians, rental cars, dot com boom, food criticism, the impossibility of not writing, fantasy fiction, facilitating, time management, adaptability, screenwriting, and the quest. Monologue topics: Coachella, festivals, public nudity, the 1960s, Woodstock, and Segway bubbles. This episode of Other People is brought to you by the UCLA Extension Writers' Program, the largest open-enrollment creative writing and screenwriting program in the nation. For more info, please visit www.uclaextension.edu/writers.