As if we didn't have enough meetings and retreats, today wuz the Hyphen ("hip hen" to those in the know) editorial retreat chez Todd in San Jose, which Stef really didn't know the way to. As I explained to a newbie, the Hyphen organization is actually 2 years and 9 months old, but we spent the first eight months of that essentially in one long editorial retreat. This is the first re-envisioning of our editorial scope since then. 'Bout time too.

We didn't make any radical changes, just dropped some sections we'd already long ago dropped, consolidated a couple of sections, gave more space to the creative friters and the visual fartists (yay more space!), disagreed rather less than usual (but rather more than not at all), and fixed our schedule of themes for the next three issues. No, I won't tell you what they are. Subscribe and find out!

What I Took Away With Me (*sniff*): some genius laid out all five issues in a row along one wall, a display I had somehow never seen before. I was completely taken aback at how many issues we've put out in the past year and a half (five!) and how substantial five (5!) issues all look together. When you lay out five (five!) covers in a row, an overall picture or brand image really does emerge. I've been too close to the process, and the product, to see it until now. I'm proud, I say, proud. And that's only marginally facetious.

Most importantly, we did all agree that we are targeting a broader range of readers than just Those Like Us, and that our focus needs to broaden. We need to recruit more good writers (no mean feat, since we still can't afford to pay) in more places than just San Francisco and New York. This is where you all come in. We need quirks and straight stories, fun and games, trauma and oppression, and things nobody but you knows about. Let us know who you are, let us know what you know, let us know who you know. Hyphen is a community effort. You're the community. Help us shape our magazine.

And if the spirit moves you, drop us a little cash, too!