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Hell & Back book


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Does anyone know if the book "Hell & Back: A People's History Of The New Jersey Devils" was ever published?

You mean this book?

TO HELL AND BACK

By Doctor Maurices S. Rawlings

To Hell and Back is not a religious book, even though it is about life after death. Dr. Rawlings (the author) is not a theologian or a pastor, but a cardiologist. Dr. Rawlings writes of the experiences of his own patients brought back to life. Here are some excerpts from his book.

"With the advent of new resuscitation techniques people can now be brought back to life after being dead several minutes. Just what happens after death. Eleven million Americans have reported near death, or out of body experiences. The typical description involves a beautiful light at the end of a tunnel.

Semi Professional hockey player Alexander Mogilny recounts one of his near death experiences.

I almost died when Lou Lams(General Manager of the New Jersey Devils) signed me to a $3.5 million dollar a season deal. I was lucky I wasn't wearing my legs when I heard the news because I would have fallen over. I recall sitting in my wheel chair when hearing the news. As soon as he said the three I kind of got bummed out because I was expecting three hundred maybe three thousand but three million? I was in such shock my body and brain froze. I remember seeing green dollar signs flying around me. I remember it being very dark and cold but there was a bright gray light at the end of the tunnel. It turns out when I got to the end of the tunnel a giant rat with a hockey stick appeared. It started asking me to play with it, or maybe it said for it, I cant remember but it was out of body experience that I

Edited by Elias26
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Soooooooooooooo did this guy fall of the face of the earth or what? It says published early 2005 and obviously it's not for sale yet. Whats the deal? :noclue:

The lockout messed them up in terms of publishing the book. The date had been pushed back a few times already, and it seemed like 2005 WAS going to finally be the release date, but then the lockout came and screwed everything. Can't blame the guys for that.

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Hey all...sorry I didn't chime in earlier on this thread. I've been fighting a cold all week.

Quick update on "Hell & Back: A People's History of the New Jersey Devils," which for those that don't remember is a history of the franchise augmented with stories and memories from Devils fans.

Our schedule was pushed waaaaay back after the lockout, which scared off publishing houses from hockey books and didn't exactly put Devils fans (and Devils book authors) in the mood to chat about the team.

Ric and I turned our attention to other projects, including my first book which is due out in April. We're back on track now with the NJD book project, and hope to have it out by the end of the year.

The only issue with the book right now is with the submissions. In the last two years, we've been able to collect hundreds of great Devils stories from fans about the Cup years. We simply don't have enough fan memories from the red-and-green years, even with some wonderful material from people like Ed Bogaert (R.I.P.) and some of the 228 Crazies. So we've redoubled our efforts to get some of the old school Devils fans involved with the book via phone interviews, which seem to work better than having people submit their own material. The Devils Fan Club has helped get the word out, and I'll be at Stevens Night handing out fliers to anyone I see wearing a Christmas Tree jersey.

If you know any veteran Devs fans (or are one yourself) and want to be interviewed for the book, PM me or e-mail me at jestersquart@hotmail.com.

Meanwhile, the delay has allowed us to do some restructuring of the book that makes it read a hell of a lot better. We've also completed some "celebrity" interviews that are going to be very insightful. There's going to be trivia, top 10 lists, and we're basically grading every trade the team ever made. We're both huge Devils fans -- we're not going to be happy until this is a book we'd throw down our own money to buy.

And hopefully it'll be worth the wait...

Thank again for keeping us in mind,

<JESTER>

(greg)

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Hey all...sorry I didn't chime in earlier on this thread. I've been fighting a cold all week.

Quick update on "Hell & Back: A People's History of the New Jersey Devils," which for those that don't remember is a history of the franchise augmented with stories and memories from Devils fans.

Our schedule was pushed waaaaay back after the lockout, which scared off publishing houses from hockey books and didn't exactly put Devils fans (and Devils book authors) in the mood to chat about the team.

Ric and I turned our attention to other projects, including my first book which is due out in April. We're back on track now with the NJD book project, and hope to have it out by the end of the year.

Thanks Greg.

Everything said is absolutely true. The publishing industry is a fickle beast and when it gets scared, it takes a looong time for them to feel comfortable again. The deal was all but off when the lockout happened, but they have since started warming again to the idea since hockey seems to be making a comeback.

Rest assured that we have not forgotten or discarded this project. Like Greg said, we want this book to be something that we would slam our hard earned $ down to buy. We could have rushed out some half-assed edition just to capitalize on the vacancy in the market, but we just couldn't bring ourselves to do that. We want this to be the de facto essential tome on the franchise, and that's what we aim to deliver.

Thanks so much for hanging in there, I know how much you guys want this thing out, and believe me, we want you to have it!!

I'll be at the rink tomorrow night for Scotty. Anyone is welcome to stop me and say Hi or ask any questions. I'll be in 233. I'm the tall skinny guy in the white 2000 Stanley Cup jersey with signatures all over the crest. :)

-R

Edited by RicPerrott
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Well, we clearly couldn't find anyone more famous to host the Cup party in '03.

Yeah that is kinda sad, Joe seems like a nice guy, but out of ALL the HUNDREDS of celebs from NJ, he was the best they could get. But I also don't think the criteria to be called a "celebrity" is high. I caught a few minutes of "Dancing with the "Stars"" and the only guy I could pick out was the old tan guy Hamilton. So compared to some that hold the status "celeb" Joe's done a lot more.

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