Please Help 'Touched by Hannah' Get Published

Hey gang,

After a ten-year journey for the ages, the manuscript for my memoir, Touched by Hannah, is DONE and currently being proofread. Pinch me. (The approximate completion date for proofreading is mid-March 2025.)

Proofreading is being achieved by Twila Belk, one of the best in the business. Your Donations made this a reality. Thank you so much to my GoFundMe Givers! ($1400 donated)

To be at this point after daydreaming about this incredible accomplishment for ten years, “When your dream is no longer a dream, it's a dream come true."

Watch the Touched by Hannah trailer. You will see Betsy and me at Hannah’s incubator, literally being touched by Hannah.

I produced this two-minute version of my thirteen-minute documentary, Miracles on College Street, to promote Touched by Hannah. Miracles was the ‘Film Heals' award winner (most inspirational) at the 2022 Manhattan Film Festival, NYC, and a top-five finalist documentary. The film was also runner-up, 'Best Episode West Coast,' at the 2022 ACM Western Region WAVE Cable TV Awards.

The immediate goal is to find a literary agent with the right connections who believes in me and my book. He or she will present Touched by Hannah to appropriate book publishers.

Attending a writer’s conference is the best way to meet and network with reputable Literary Agents. Your recent generous donations ($3500) got me to the November (2024) WCCW conference and the February (2025) San Francisco Writers Conference.

At those two conferences, I pitched Touched by Hannah to five agents. All five wanted to take it to the next step—see my book proposal and sample chapters, a rare occurrence. According to most estimates, the odds of securing agent representation are between 1 in 3,000 and 1 in 6,000. Right now, I’m feeling really good about our chances.

If you want to help a pretty cool cause, Touched by Hannah will uplift, inspire, and show support and love to many—first, the book, then the movie.

Immediate donation request that will help make publishing Touched by Hannah a reality. (See my GoFundme )

• I want to attend another spring writers’ conference to meet face-to-face with more agents. (I am not 100% sure which one) ($500 deposit requested)

• Publisisct. It’s crucial to collaborate with a professional publicist. A 1/2 deposit is required upon booking. ($500 deposit requested)

Two agents wanted to see the sample chapters before proofreading was completed. Yesterday, I emailed them my twenty-page book proposal, plus fifty pages with a table of contents, a short synopsis of each chapter, and three sample chapters = Phew!

I will send the package to the other three agents after proofreading. (mid to late March)

For the last two years of my TBH journey, Nov. 2022 through Sept 2024, I was a protege of retired prolific author Cecil Murphey (25 million books sold). Cec helps aspiring authors he chooses by reviewing their entire manuscript and pointing out areas that need a more detailed description, better explanation, editing, etc. Cec’s brilliance and old-school methods--the first six months were hard, like boot camp. Cec helped transform me into the author I aspired to become, and I'm forever grateful.

I’m proud that I was able to persevere the past 4 1/2 years while battling stage four prostate cancer (lungs, spine), high-risk drugs with painful life-altering side effects, and several life-threatening complications--pulmonary embolism twice (multiple blood clots in lungs) and pulmonary effusion (massive fluid build up in my left lung).

It all somehow pushed me to my potential. This is an epic personal achievement, but there is still much to do.

“Touched by Hannah is an incredible story with excellent writing.”

-Matt Kirby, Creator of Mattel's Apples to Apples (15 million sold)

About Touched by Hannah

A man with cancer (Chris Hennessy). His one-pound newborn, Hannah. And their fight for life.

Chris Hennessy battled life-threatening side effects after almost dying three days after radical prostatectomy cancer surgery (Aug 3, 2009). The doctor told Chris they got all of it, but subsequent blood tests soon revealed a grim reality--the cancer was still present, continuing its invasion of his body.

His daughter was due Dec 7 but entered the world prematurely on Sept 1, 2009. Hannah was classified as a micro-preemie weighing only one pound, nine ounces—with a fifty percent chance of surviving. Doctors said that if she lived, her odds of having a normal, healthy life were poor.

 

For months, Hannah and Chris fought for their lives. Chris would still plant himself at Hannah's incubator, staying late into most nights, long after the other parents had left.

The only physical contact with Hannah was reaching an arm into the small hole on the side of her incubator. Hannah's minuscule hand latched onto her daddy's pointer finger and held it for hours while he sang improvised songs and prayers. 

My story will uplift and give hope and uplift parents of micro premature babies in NICU and help people with Cancer persevere while living life as usual.

Excerpt from Chapter One

The odds were that one or both of us wouldn't make it. Tomorrow would be a frightening thought. However, when living in the moment, there wasn't a tomorrow. And when tomorrow doesn't exist, there's no stressing about it. I felt honored, blessed, and cherished every second I sat there, Touched by Hannah.

Testimonials from a select group that read a 7-page excerpt from Chapter One

Project Details

• Memoir, approximately 62,000 words

• Manuscript in proofreading and to be completed approx. March 15

• Target audience- USA: survivors, their spouses, friends, relatives, and health care providers affected by 400,000 premature births, or from the 2,000,000 cancer diagnoses and 609,000 cancer deaths yearly, and the 18 million living with cancer.

• The screenplay for Netflix or the big screen will follow after the book is published.

Story Exposure

• The Touched by Hannah story was featured on NBC TV, KGO-810 San Francisco, and reached tens of thousands on social media.

• Miracles on College Street, a thirteen-minute documentary produced as a trailer and promotional film for Touched by Hannah, was a top-five documentary finalist and ‘Film Heals’ award winner (most inspirational) at the 2022 Manhattan Film Festival, New York City, and runner-up best episode at the 2022 ACM West Coast Region WAVE Cable TV Awards.

About Chris Hennessy

• Full-time independent filmmaker, author, and speaker

• Serves on the board of directors at California Writers Club, Sacramento

• Producer, writer, and director of multiple national award-winning films

• Has produced 1500+ films for companies such as Google, SF49ers, Apple Computer, eBay, Stanford University, Office Max, and more.

• Hennessy’s highly regarded monthly Substack newsletter, HennSchtick, receives commendations from authors and readers.

• “The Prostate Cancer was diagnosed in 2009 and invaded my lungs in 2020. I’m living life as usual with stage four cancer, achieving my best work.”

To mail a check, please make it to Chis Hennessy

830 College Street

Woodland, CA. 95695

Chris Hennessy

henchris.com

HennSchtick Hennessy’s Free Monthly Newsletter on Substack