diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index d531857..2863dee 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,10 +1,17 @@
 > This project uses [Break Versioning](https://github.com/ptaoussanis/encore/blob/master/BREAK-VERSIONING.md) as of **Aug 16, 2014**.
 
-## Pending
+## v4.3.0-RC1 / 2016 Jan 27
+
+> This is a non-breaking feature release
 
 * **New**: added 3rd-party gelf appender [#147 @davewo]
-* **Implementation**: appenders no longer need to worry about using `force` instead of `@`/`deref`
+* **New**: new `:?hash-arg` data key for use by custom data hash fns
+* **New**: low-level `log!` macro for use in tooling (slf4j-timbre, etc.)
+* **Impln**: appenders no longer need to worry about using `force` instead of `@`/`deref`
 
+```clojure
+[com.taoensso/timbre "4.3.0"]
+```
 
 
 ## v4.2.1 / 2016 Jan 14
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 6975a7e..a7d89ed 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -5,7 +5,8 @@
 **[CHANGELOG]** | [API] | current [Break Version]:
 
 ```clojure
-[com.taoensso/timbre "4.2.1"] ; Stable
+[com.taoensso/timbre "4.2.1"]     ; Stable
+[com.taoensso/timbre "4.3.0-RC1"] ; Dev, see CHANGELOG for details
 ```
 
 # Timbre
@@ -356,4 +357,4 @@ Copyright © 2015-2016 [Peter Taoussanis].
 [JProfiler]: http://www.ej-technologies.com/products/jprofiler/overview.html
 [VisualVM]: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/technotes/guides/visualvm/index.html
 [ClojureWerkz-logo]: https://raw.github.com/clojurewerkz/clojurewerkz.org/master/assets/images/logos/clojurewerkz_long_h_50.png
-[ClojureWerkz]: http://clojurewerkz.org/
\ No newline at end of file
+[ClojureWerkz]: http://clojurewerkz.org/
diff --git a/project.clj b/project.clj
index 25c5bff..cf637fe 100644
--- a/project.clj
+++ b/project.clj
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-(defproject com.taoensso/timbre "4.2.1"
+(defproject com.taoensso/timbre "4.3.0-RC1"
   :author "Peter Taoussanis <https://www.taoensso.com>"
   :description "Pure Clojure/Script logging library"
   :url "https://github.com/ptaoussanis/timbre"