It seems to get harder the nearer I come to the end. I've done almost all the writing, with the exception of the SLS Final Say (the very last page) and the movie and music reviews, which I'd like to be as current as possible. Laying everything out without the proper software is a challenge, but it seems to look decent, anyway, as long as I get the little details like margins right! I just finished working on all the major feature stories: "Generation YouTube", which just needed some freshening up, "Martyrs, Mediators and Men in Skirts", a piece about women leaders, "The Good Samaritans" an old foreign aid story that I fixed up, and "Superwoman", which is more of a feel-good trivia piece than a story. I hope the writing is good enough to make up for what I lack in design talent...

I have a few stories in. So far, so good. Finding material for stories has not proven difficult at all. It's a woman's magazine, so it has to have the girly basics: fashion, beauty, health. Throwing in a bit of culture and intelligent commentary shouldn't be a problem, either. The real problem? Putting it all together.

SLS is about halfway done now. Working on the ads has been my biggest challenge. I started off creating ads for imaginary companies, and now it's time to start designing some for actual businesses. Technical problems constantly threaten to ruin everything, but I've learned to be pretty resourceful...

Welcome! It's day 1 of the official "creating SLS mag" process. So far I've managed to get in three fashion shoots and the cover shoot. I have a long way to go, of course: researching content, design and layout, but I've got the ball rolling and I'm excited about the outcome. Here's to SLS, and her future readers!