ANDREW BISS

The next installment from the Broken World collection is out now! Foreign Bodies is a darkly humorous dystopian short story that is part political commentary, part dark satire. Foreign Bodies is adapted from the stage play I wrote of the same name, way back in 2004, which was originally produced in New York by Emerging Artists Theatre in the spring of 2005. At the time I wrote it there was a conflict going on that I was deeply opposed to and had been since before its inevitable onset. The play was intended as a futuristic, blackly humorous vision of the result of this conflict, where the spoils of war were likely to blow up in your face. Interestingly, though, my dark vision of a future where people vacation at hotels located in war-torn areas of the world has now seemingly come to pass to some degree, which, in case you didn't see it, you can read about here . Anyway, here's a little more about Foreign Bodies : Victoria and Max have just arrived at their ho...

I would like to take issue with myself. There may be something schizophrenic in that, but I feel I must. It was something I said in my last post about “writerly isolation.” There is a clear implication in that – and one that was in my mind, no doubt, as I wrote it – that there is something lonely about the process of writing. I frequently read interviews with writers who talk about the loneliness of the writing process. It’s almost become an accepted truth that the act of creative writing is an inherently lonely occupation that writers must endure in order to do what they do; that it comes, as they say, with the territory. However, after pondering awhile on this piece of supposed conventional wisdom, I have come to the conclusion that I wholeheartedly disagree. When I’m working on a play, I am engrossed in a story that is unfolding before my eyes. More importantly, I am in the company of characters who are as much taking me on a journey as I am them. Hours fly by with me hardly noticin...