January / February 2009 Issue (Shaolin Special)

[GeneChing]

That's not supposed to be on newsstands until Thursday. Just goes to show how inexact newsstand dates are unless you're name is J.K. Rowling.

I've started a parallel review thread on our Shaolin forum, since this is a Shaolin Special. We'll be posting the cover story in about a month - we like to give it a month to 'breathe' on the newsstand - but in answer to your questions about Dechao's size, here's the opening paragraph of that story:

Shi Dechao exemplifies the stereotype of a big Shaolin monk. At 5’ 11” and weighing in at over 220 pounds, Dechao may not be as gargantuan as many MMA fighters, but in person, he’s big, thick and solid, towering above the average Chinese citizen. With such an imposing physique, he doesn’t really need martial arts to defend himself. Add his bushy beard and his gentle demeanor, Dechao looks like he just walked out of the pages of Shaolin legend. He is the quintessential big monk.

Our Shaolin Specials are a tradition here. Shaolin is like a Chinese box - open one and find another inside. I probably won't have the answers to all the questions you might have, Simon, but ask them and we'll see.

[SimonM]

Well the majority of the questions were contained in the review post. I guess my big one would just be if you could pass my message the next time you have dealings with folks at the monastery.

[GeneChing]

I'm not sure Dechao is at the temple anymore. He used to be very close to Deyang, but there's been a few odd rumors circulating. I'm not going to add to those now. I swear, it's so hard to keep track of Shaolin politics.

As for the Canadian Shaolin Wenhua Zhongxin, I'm not sure of the details. I want to say Toronto, but please don't quote me on that. I'm not even sure why I say that - must be some memory frag of mine and if it's all left to my memory, well, that's why I write stuff down (now if I can only remember where I've written it.) I've seen documents establishing the Shaolin Wenhua Zhongxin in Rome, a location that completely escapes Yanran's review my The Temple and the Auto Shop article. That too raises more questions than answers.

[SimonM]

Understood. KFM isn't an academic journal and as such citations aren't precisely NECESSARY anyway. I'm just a *****ly stickler that way.

It was a good article.

[Shaolindynasty]

I bought mine at barnes & noble last friday(day after thanksgiving)

[GeneChing]

"On Sale Date" is a very loose term in the publishing industry. We set a date with our distributors (you can see our 2009 schedule in our Advertising Information section) but that's very soft. The distributors deliver a bunch of magazines each week to the retailers and the retailers put them on the stands whenever they get around to it. It's only with major releases like the upcoming Tales of Beedle the Bard (which is ironically this Thursday as well) when the timing is exact. Once Hawaii got issues before we got our advanced copies, which just goes to show.

As for us not being academic, indeed we aren't. I was trained in APA format in grad school. Took me years to break that habit. Some say my writing still reeks of APA.

Like I said above, Dechao is 5' 11", 220 lbs. At least he was at the time of the interview, which was around September sometime. I figured that was a major point people notice about him, so it was one of my questions.

[SimonM]

Writing fiction prose is a good way to train yourself out of that habit.