HogansHope

Hogan's Hope Receives Benjamin Franklin Silver

IBPA Announces Finalists in the

31st Annual IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award™ Program

2019 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards #uPub2019

2019 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards #uPub2019

(Manhattan Beach, CA – April 6, 2019) -- The Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) – www.ibpa-online.org – officially announced finalists in its prestigious IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards™ program, recognizing excellence and innovation in independent publishing.

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Connie Bombaci, Killingworth author of Hogan’s Hope: A Deaf Dog, A Courageous Journey, and A Christian’s Faith received the Silver in the category of Inspiration. All finalists were recognized during an awards ceremony on April 5, 2019, in Chicago, Illinois where silver and gold recipients received their award in each of fifty-four categories.

Connie Bombaci was also the recipient of a full scholarship to this year’s IBPA Publishing University. Additionally, for two years in a row, different editions of her book both won the Benjamin Franklin Silver Award, which is quite a distinction.

The full list of finalists in all fifty-four categories is available at the IBPA WEBSITE. Over 1500 entrants were judged in this year's award program.

Hogan’s Hope is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and local bookstores.

"The mission of the IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards™ is simple: to recognize excellence and innovation in independent publishing," said IBPA CEO Angela Bole. "Unlike many other award programs, the IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards™ demand both editorial and design excellence and entrants are judged independently on both."

This year, over 160 librarians, booksellers, and design and editorial experts – most of whom have decades of book industry experience – judged the books submitted to the IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award™ program. The judging process took seven months, beginning in September 2018 and continuing into March 2019. At the end of the process, over 1,500 unique entrants will receive a written critique from each of the three judges who reviewed their book. The critiques include constructive feedback to help each publisher understand how their book is being perceived by industry professionals, upholding part of IBPA’s mission to serve the independent publishing community through education.

This level of detail has helped the IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award™ program remain one of the highest national honors for independent publishers for over 30 years. "When our awards program started,” said IBPA COO Terry Nathan, "we were one of the only ones around. Since then, many other programs have come and gone, but we are proud that our awards continue to do what they did when IBPA started, and that is to help our members improve their publishing programs."

IBPA members and friends were invited to help celebrate the finalists during the April 5, 2019 awards ceremony, a gala dinner programmed at the end of the first day of IBPA Publishing University. Both the ceremony and the conference took place at the Chicago Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile in Chicago, Illinois.

"I am truly honored to receive this outstanding award. Hogan’s legacy provided the inspiration to hope no matter what the challenge. IBPA’s recognition and spirit help support the mission of spreading his message that all God’s creatures are worthy of love and acceptance.”

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An Empowering Podcast

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Hogan’s Hope on Stories That Empower

I received wonderful news that my podcast interview with the wonderful Sean Fargadi is now available for listening. Here are his message and blog -

Hello Connie, great news!  Your podcast interview is ready to be enjoyed and shared with your friends.  Here's the link https://directory.libsyn.com/episode/index/id/8760077.  If you'd like to download it to your favorite podcast platform, you may do so on Mon Feb 25 at https://storiesthatempower.com/.  Thank you for your patience, your service and teaching us that we are worthy of unconditional love and acceptance.  I'm so happy that we connected.  It's an honor to have had the opportunity to hear your story.  Please let me know how I may be of service to you.  Warm regards, Sean.

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Sean’s blog:

Connie’s mother taught her that all living beings and creatures are worthy of unconditional love and acceptance. Rescuing a deaf and malnourished dog, Hogan, and nursing him back to health, taught her how to hope through suffering, which leads to perseverance and develops great character and confidence. Connie shares the message of hope with others. She imparts these nuggets of life wisdom:

– you are worthy of unconditional love and acceptance
– open your heart fully
– life offers hope to overcome any challenge
– once we choose hope, anything is possible
– choose to persevere
– see your life as a journey
– use your faith to center you
– refocus and recenter on your purpose
– reach out to someone in need of hope

Connie Bombaci, a first-time author and retired educator, is resolute in her love for animals, belief in the worthiness of all God’s creations, and desire to provide encouragement no matter what the challenge. Connie is an optimist and compassionate person whose Christian faith guides her to believe in the extreme goodness and immeasurable importance of every being. Her love for animals began in childhood and developed from her desire to be kind. She has enjoyed many adopted pets throughout her lifetime, especially ones that have needed help, rescuing domestic and wild orphaned, injured, or abandoned animals. Her desire for others to believe in the value of themselves led her to become an educator where she worked fervently to increase young peoples’ confidence and belief in themselves, despite any difficulty. She offered hope where frustration and failure seemed inevitable. While serving as a teacher and associate principal in a Connecticut public school system, she took great pleasure working within its community, finding it especially fulfilling to encourage and support her students and coworkers.
Connie grew up in a suburban neighborhold outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and now lives in Connecticut with her husband, Jim, and their two rescued pups in the rustic, puppy-friendly home that Jim built on their five-acre “piece of Heaven.” She is also surrounded by the love of four children, son-in-law, ten grandchildren, and five great grandchildren.
Hogan’s life is a story of success despite the odds. In her book Connie shares his story and the message that hope can be found in the kind and generous hearts of gracious people and that everyone is worthy of love and acceptance.

http://conniebombaci.com/ 
http://www.deafdogs.com/ 
https://www.facebook.com/ConnieBombaci/ 
https://twitter.com/conniebombaci 
https://www.instagram.com/conniebombaci/ 

About

Stories That Empower and its founder, Sean Fargadi

Hi, I’m Sean.  I am the host of the Stories that Empower Podcast.  Here’s the ‘story’ behind  my podcast.  I took my dad to a pub, where nearby clients were immediately drawn to and fascinated by his life stories and experiences.  As the evening wore on, people were saddened that he was departing and therefore no longer able to enjoy his stories.  I had the following awareness.

First, each of us has a story.  Throughout our lives, from childhood to adulthood, we are drawn to stories.  It’s what connects us.  As Terry Laszlo-Gopadze reminds us in her book, “stories link lives”.

Second, we’ve all experienced setbacks and challenges.  Loss of a job, loss of identity, loss of a loved one, etc …  I want people to know they are not alone and that there is hope/light.  It brings me so much joy, if/when I’m able to ‘lift up’ someone or empower them.  My goal is to provide a service that brings inspiration, hope and empowerment through the power of stories.

Sean / Host / Stories that Empower / Podcast