January seems to be submission time. Clever competition and event organisers must have twigged we’re all waking up from our festive slumbers and starting to panic about where the hell our lives are going… making us vulnerable to submissaphilia.

I’ve been a victim of this cruel complex myself in the past, it drives the weary artist to reach out at any deadline they see advertised in the hopes that if they enter everything then they will at least get something. I am here to counsel you against this. Like taking pointless, creatively barren unpaid jobs, entering film competitions or multi-media showcase events which do not actually suit your style or workable ideas is a fruitless and thankless task.

However the myriad beauty of existence hinges on precisely the fact that what for one person is a pointless, desperate, self-indulgent waste of a stamp is, to another, the opening of a doorway to a paradise of excitement, fulfilment and delight. Consequently over the next few days I’m going to bring to your attention some of the cool sounding competitions that I’ve heard about recently. Don’t try and enter them all – but perhaps do try and enter some of them.

More in a moment…

(just in case the Carry On stamp wasn’t geeky enough for you…)