This is Ridiculous!

[L Verge]

I just received this notice from Amazon:

Hello,

We're writing about the order you placed on May 22, 2011 (Order# 105-3666361-9855438). Unfortunately, the release date for the item(s) listed below has changed, and we need to provide you with a new delivery estimate based on the new release date:

Phil Sherman Taylor "Montreal and the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln: John Wilkes Booth's Unexplained Visit to Montreal in October 1864"
Estimated arrival date: June 04, 2015 - June 08, 2015

You can tell by the title that I would really like to get that book. However, notice that I first ordered it in May of 2011, and I am now getting another notice that its publication has been pushed back to June of 2015. Four years to wait for a book? It better be damned good and hold the secret key to who planned the assassination!!

[BettyO]

Ridiculous, yes!

I was WONDERING what happened happened to that book. My publisher has pushed Alias back again; from March to July to now, November.....No reason given other than that they are "swamped...."; oh, well - gives me a chance to add MORE!!

[Kieran McAuliffe]

Hi Laurie
I know the author Phil Taylor.
I will call him tomorrow and see what is up with the book. As a matter of fact he and I were supposed to go hunting for the gravestone of Godfrey Hyams’ son, who is supposedly buried in a closed cemetery about a mile from my house here in Toronto. There’s a story...
Kieran

[Susan Higginbotham]

Ridiculous, yes!

I was WONDERING what happened happened to that book. My publisher has pushed Alias back again; from March to July to now, November.....No reason given other than that they are "swamped...."; oh, well - gives me a chance to add MORE!!

Bummer! I have the Kindle version of your book, but I prefer dead-tree books for research and have been holding off on buying the hardback until the revised version appears.

[STS Lincolnite]

Ridiculous, yes!

I was WONDERING what happened happened to that book. My publisher has pushed Alias back again; from March to July to now, November.....No reason given other than that they are "swamped...."; oh, well - gives me a chance to add MORE!!

Betty, I too have been anxiously awaiting your updated book and am sorry to hear about another delay.

I know very little about the publishing world but I can't help but wonder if both these books (and maybe some others) continue to be delayed so as to have release dates closer to the 150th anniversary of the assassination. No matter what publishers might say the reasons for delay are, I'm sure there would be great marketing advantages to release dates at or nearer April 2015.

[BettyO]

Thanks ya'll!

And yes, I agree.....it'll sell better if it's released closer to the Sesquicentennial - and I DO have more information I can add - that's the FUN part!

[L Verge]

Hi Laurie
I know the author Phil Taylor.
I will call him tomorrow and see what is up with the book. As a matter of fact he and I were supposed to go hunting for the gravestone of Godfrey Hyams’ son, who is supposedly buried in a closed cemetery about a mile from my house here in Toronto. There’s a story...
Kieran

Kieran - That's wonderful. Pump him for all the information you can get. Has he found anything new about the Montreal situation to supplement Come Retribution?

[PaigeBooth]

Betty-- I stopped at my local book store last week to check on my pre- ordered copy of Alias Paine, and they told me it was delayed until November. I was sorry to hear it, but I will check again in November. I'm so excited for it! Oh yes, and I completely agree, the thought also crossed my mind that your publisher is probably waiting until closer to 2015, and the anniversaries approaching to release the book.

[BettyO]

Sorry, Paige - but such are the whims of a publisher.....

Still, it gives me more time to add new stuff as well as take advantage of having it released in 2015....

Thanks!

[Gene C]

Betty, I think it great that you are taking a frustrating experience and making a positive situation out of it.

[brtmchl]

November. Long time to wait, but now I know what to hint to my kids for Christmas. I am looking forward to it.

[BettyO]

Look for a copy coming your way, Mike!

[L Verge]

Back to the book on Confederate activities in Montreal, here's one reason I would really like to see if there is anything new and different: There is a statement by Godfrey Hyams in The Evidence by Steers and Edwards that says he (Hyams) first saw Booth in March 1864 at Montreal’s Dourganua House. He was in the company of several men and was introduced to Hyams by Capt. Davis and Col. Martin of Stonewall Jackson’s brigade. George Sanders was “stopping” at the Dourganua at the same time. He then saw Booth in Toronto about two weeks afterwards – first at the billiard saloon of the Revere House and then that evening at the Queen’s Hotel and everyday thereafter for ten or twelve days in April of 1864. He saw him next in October last at the Queen’s Hotel in Toronto in company with Southerners where Jacob Thompson and W.W. Cleary were staying at the same time. Thompson’s room was the general rendezvous for Southerners. Hyams claims that he had seen Booth previously on the stage in Philadelphia, New York, Baltimore, New Orleans, and St. Louis.

P.S. Hyams was a known Confederate agent working from Canada and helping with Dr. Luke Blackburn’s attempt to spread yellow fever in various Northern cities. If Hyams spoke the truth, that means that Mr. Booth was hob-nobbing with some dangerous men (especially Sanders) at least a year before the assassination.

[BettyO]

"...at the billiard saloon of the Revere House...."

Laurie, is this the famed Revere House in Boston or another in Canada? Or is it the Revere House in NY where Powell staid. Do you know? Just curious.....

[L Verge]

I think this particular Revere House is in Canada.