Dumpster Fire Brigade, Assemble!

September updates

Hello! Here is our monthly update for September. Coming up this month, we’ll have a guest post from Writers HQ on accessibility in publishing, feedback from our database helper on what signs indicate a magazine might go defunct, some analysis of good lit mag publishing habits, and more. Thank you for your support! Paid subscriptions are what give us the ability to do all that we do. If you have the means, you can sign up here:

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There are only so many times you can use the excuse, "because we thought it was funny," before confusion outpaces the chuckles.

For example, our company's illustration slack chat is called,

Our social media chat

And our team channel:

After enough new employees (employees is a strong word) asked, "What's Business Daddy's Fuck Lab?" or "Karina's Dump?" or "Playground of fuckery," we relented and started giving things boring names like, "dev" and "editorial."

See, Chill Subs started as a fun project by Karina in Jan. of last year. I joined in April. We never met in person but talked every day. It was like we were each other's imaginary friends. We could name things whatever we wanted, like, "ew, people," and "shit we've kicked under the bed," and have no miscommunications.

Then, more people joined us. And more. And now there are roughly eight people who do one thing or another for Chill Subs on any given day.

Until last week, most of us had never met. So, we rented a home on an island off of Istanbul. I know what you're thinking, "Oo-la-la island in Istanbul," but keep in mind most of us live in Eastern Europe. Istanbul is Florida. But more liberal.

We didn't have air conditioning, fresh water, or windows that close. The un-closable windows might've been a quaint touch if Karina's cat hadn't exclusively wanted to reside in the rooms where windows were hardest to shut because some orange beast of a cat outside was screaming for it.

Yes, Karina brought her cat.

Earl.

But forgot the litter-box so…

Kailey and Business Daddy couldn't make it, though. Nor Art. Mikita has taken a hike (no, literally, he's starting a hiking business).

And yes, since you asked, Karina is exactly what it says on the box.

Nikita came and did Nikita things. Like swimming…and whatever this is.

We spent most of the time doing typical island stuff like spending three days straight coding our new beta tools.

And eating exotic foods.

and seeing the sights…

our mascott

And we learned that Marcin might know something we don’t.

See, when we presented him with the opportunity to live in a sweaty, creaky, 200 year old house with six shut-ins and a needy cat for six days coding and strategizing, he said, “Istanbul sounds amazing!”

Then used his vacation time to spend a beautiful week with his partner exploring the city.

Look at them. Look at all the stress and regret on their faces. They could’ve had all of this.

…

…oh hell.