404 x 2016.

About five months ago, we tweeted saying we were going to make a magazine. That was it. Hundreds of submissions later, just as many hours trying to whittle it down to 180 or so pages of fiction, non-fiction, comics and poetry, and we made it. It's been a bit of a whirlwind, the obvious highlight being launching it alongside our pals in Interrobang at Bongo Club in Edinburgh just a few weeks ago.

We spoke at PPA Scotland's MagFest just a few weeks after launching with just an idea, were invited to Universities to chat about starting up from scratch and going for it, and just as we caught our breath and sent Issue 1 off to print, we thought, "Hey, the world's falling apart, how about we do a book?"

That book is Nasty Women, publishing in International Women's Day, and on January 1st, it begins. 2017 is the year to push back against post-truths and sensationalism and we'll be doing just that from day one, so we hope you'll help us in telling women's real stories really bloody loudly.

We're off to bring in the New Year, maybe squeeze in a final book to read for 2016, and get ready to kick things back off at 100mph tomorrow. In the meantime, we should really thank a load of people who've made the first few months as 404 Ink pretty bloody good.

Huge thanks Creative Scotland for supporting Issue 1 and having faith that we were doing something worthwhile, and PPA Scotland for taking a punt on us before we had a magazine, a cover, really anything other than a theme. And to all the folks who we've been chatting with about all the behind the scenes stuff in the first few months. You're cool.

Our ace Issue 1 contributors: Ali George, Alice Tarbuck, Beth Cochrane, C. Scott Davis, Cara L McKee, Chris McQueer, Christina Neuwirth, Claire Askew, Deena Jacobs, Elizabeth Gibson, Fleur Beaupert, Gavin Inglis, Helen Sedgwick, Ian J McKenzie, Jamie Norman, Jen McGregor, Jonathan Macho, Karyn Dougan, Katerina Sidorova, Kellie Huskisson, Kevin MacNeil, Lori England, Lucy Goodwill, Mark Bolsover, Max Scratchmann, Nicholas J. Parr, picklish, Rachel Plummer, Robbie MacLeòid, Seonaidh Charity, Simon Brown and Thomas Heitler.

And our incredible Nasty Women authors that we've been working with. Since most of that hasn't actually been announced yet, we'll just have to thank them as a collective. Maybe check back in tomorrow to see if there's any update on that front, yeah?

We've got a lot of exciting announcement for 2017 involving the book, festivals, and more, so thanks for being part of the first few months of 404. See you in the New Year. It's going to be something, we promise.

- Heather & Laura
404 Ink