"For The Rooster"

About the Book

Rocky is a little bantam rooster that a young farmer discovers in an old barn and decides to save. The simple task of capturing the rooster foreshadows the events to come between the farmer and the mysterious little bantam who he finally takes back to his farm.

At his new home, Rocky meets the farmer’s flock, dog, and things that creep in the night. His many adventures will fill you with emotions, leaving you angry and happy, laughing and crying. Your heart will possibly be changed forever as you read and discover how Rocky is like no other bantam or, for that matter, any rooster.

This is an inspirational story that will touch both young and old alike and bond those who read it together just as Rocky does with the many characters he meets. May this story, Rocky’s story, inspire you to overcome any fears or whatever holds you back from reaching your dreams and accomplishing your goals.

About the Author

Tony L. Holland
Most likely was undiagnosed with Attention deficit, (A.D.D.) dyslexia, possibly just boredom, excessive daydreaming, or simply being a child growing up in the seventies with little parental supervision. Often preoccupied with his thoughts in classes at Scribner Junior High and then New Albany High School, he began to sketch and draw during most of them. He realized he loved doing art and went on to focus and major in it, culminating in attending an Art Careers workshop at Indiana University during the summer of 1981 and winning an Art Scholarship during his Senior Year at New Albany. During his Junior or Senior year of High School, he was influenced by a substitute teacher in his English class. She gave the class an assignment to each pick a photo out of a shoe box and had them write a story about whatever came to mind when they looked at the photograph. To this day, he still remembers the photo he pulled of a young adolescent boy in a baseball outfit who had fallen asleep on the bench in a dugout at his baseball game. He doesn’t remember all that he wrote of the photo, but what he does remember is the creative juice he felt and the substitute’s positive remarks and encouragement of the story he had written. That stuck with him, and he credits it being the start of his literary experience. Becoming a born-again Christian on Sunday, September 27th, 1981, focused and changed his life dramatically. Having no ambition before “Getting Saved,” he decided to apply to go to college and was accepted at Marion University in Marion, Indiana (Now known as Indiana Wesleyan) It was there that he Majored in Art and refined his artistic skills thanks to the encouragement and guidance of his Professor Rod Crossman. Returning to New Albany after his freshman year at Marion, he met and Married his wife, Amy Vanover. He attended I.U. Southeast, also the University of Louisville, and Ivy Tech vocational, where he earned a certificate in Desktop Publishing/Computer Graphics. He used his computer illustration skill to create User guides and manuals for his employers and a monthly newsletter for the Emmaus Walk community he and his wife were part of (Table of Peter Walk#21) His church minister at Georgetown Christian frequently began to ask him to write and deliver a meditation for communion, which led him to again fall in love with writing inspirational stories. Some of those communion meditations are part of stories in his “A Farmers Life” series. He and Amy had originally planned to be “DINKS” when they married. That was an actual term back in the mid-eighties. It stood for Dual Income No Kids (DINKS) seemingly a trend of young married couples of the day. They had planned to both work, earn, and spend their income how and on what they wanted. That plan began to falter around their quarter-of-a-century birthdays, and by the time Tony was 27 and Amy 25, they were no longer DINKS. Amy gave birth to Joshua Chase Holland, whom they would call “Chase,” in January 1992, to be followed by the birth of their daughter Cassie Lyn in October 1993. Tony found that Parenthood far outweighed the benefits of being DINKS, and he loved raising both Chase and Cassie. They inspired many art pieces hanging to this day in the Holland Home and many of the communion meditation stories he told at his church. The Rooster came from Cassie and her Soccer team that he coached. she and Chase both play a starring role in stories that make up the Series “A Farmer’s Life.” His Children have since grown to become parents of their own. Cassie and Quentin Carter gave birth to Jasmine and Journey Carter and are expecting their 3rd child in late May 2025. Chase and Sarah Holland gave birth to Rory Matthew Holland, who turned one this year, 2025. He suspects they will be expecting their 2nd and his 5th Grandchild by year’s end. Tony and Amy currently live in Nicholasville, Kentucky. It’s their 4th house in what as many years, which seems like an issue, except like many others their age who might also be recovering, DINKS they followed their grandchildren. They enjoy being active in their church and their grandchildren’s lives and activities. They enjoy spending time with all their family at their second home on St. George Island, Florida. A place they discovered in 1991 and have vacationed at since because “Bro, It never gets Old!”
In the year ahead and to come, Tony intends to work on writing and illustrating the rest of his series: “A Farmer’s Life”
Titles include:
“For The Rooster,”
“Chasing Shadows,”
“Pelican Pete’s Terrible Thing,”
“Daddy, What happened to our Baby Ducks,”
“Mr. White, Mr. Black, and the Journey Home,”
“The One and Lonely SpazzMaTazz.”
People always ask him if he writes children’s books, to which his answer is yes and no. His books can be and are “Children’s books,” but it is his hope and feeling that they are for everyone and anyone, especially those who like him are inspired by the creator and all creation. Nature, animals, gardening, farming, fishing, hunting, sunrise, sunset, Dawn and especially Dusk, clouds, cows, birds, domesticated pets, wildlife, trees, and children - all things he loves and loves to write and illustrate as part of his stories especially while listening to Seventies Music that he loves to sing along to when drawing or painting his illustrations for his books.