In late 2025, I was contacted by

D  Magazine’s creative director, Stephen Arevalos, about a potential new brand that publisher Christine Allison and editorial director Kathy Wise were beginning to cook up. ¶ As it was explained to me, the idea was a brand and magazine centered around the game of mahjong. I immediately grinned. It resonated in my earholes with the same kind of wonderful hairball energy Garden & Gun  had some 18 years earlier. ¶ For me, these things always come down to the spirit of the people involved. The quality of their energy. Their belief. Their willingness to chase something that sounds a little unlikely until, suddenly, it doesn’t. Stephen, Christine, and Kathy had that vitality in spades. I could feel it right away. The idea was rooted in joy, and the three of them clearly had a whole lotta passion for what it  could become. Not to mention, all three possess brilliant minds and sharp editorial instincts. ¶ After a couple of conversations, and perhaps an, ahem, long yammering about the journey we were about to embark on, we began the discovery phase. What I didn’t know then was how much this new enterprise, with these wonderful, joyful people, would reawaken and stoke my love of magazine making and brand building.

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