Andrew Binks's Blog: Strip is now an e-book: http://tinyurl.com/ltfabhl

http://ubyssey.ca/culture/book-supple...

A new entry on my wordpress blog: http://andrewbinks.wordpress.com/2014...

I have mailed out signed copies of Strip to the five winners in the draw. Thanks to all who participated. I believe winners have been notified! Thanks for everyone's support!

Well it's that time of year, or one of those times. I wrote something new this year, something that has been gestating. Rather than unsuccessfully trying to pare down something to the brutal word count of 1200-1500 words, and then ruining a perfectly good piece that should never have been so short, I wrote something new.
Literary prizes are great motivation to add to your body of work, at least get a first draft done, if nothing else, and just maybe win a prize!
With the entrance fee of literary journals you get a subscription too, so it's never a bad deal!

There is nothing like reading a well thought out, considered and well written review. I have to say again that when you connect with a reader it is electricity. It is in fact the final step in getting something published -- to connect. I hope readers will find something in common with their own Strip experience: http://freerangereading.blogspot.ca/2...

I am working on something that has been gestating? fermenting? for some time inside of me. It's odd. The Arc poetry contest http://arcpoetry.ca/?p=7349 was the perfect excuse to get it down on paper.
The wonderful thing about working on a poem is the time you get to spend not going anywhere but deep into the world of the poem. It is a luxury of time to be able to work on a poem, it is the ultimate act of keeping the world at bay. It is the homemade construction of a photograph in order to keep those elements present and preserved.
All I can do is start a poem and then see where it will eventually take me. I do my part and the poem does its part.
Contests are a great motivation to get things down on paper.

Whatever that means! I was recently long listed in Prism international's annual non-fiction contest, among a group of fifteen from over one hundred entrants. I did not make the short list, but did spend 72 hours wondering what I would tell people, and what I would say when I won, and what they would say when they read the piece. Well, not a huge amount of my friends read literary journals, I usually have to foist these publications upon them. This I would do, so they would know a little more about me. That's definitely part of what it's all about. The prize? Well, sure, but getting your words published and having your voice heard? That's the prize my friends.

Well, I have to say that the three preview, interview reviews of Strip so far have been great. Loved the guys and what they had to ask. http://dailyxtra.com/search/site/binks
I imagine I'll be working backwards from here to let you know how the photo shoot for the cover came about, among other things!