(Book) -- Henny Penny the Singing Rooster...

(Sneak preview...seeking publisher...excerpt...send links to friends...by Daniel J Hay.)

Once upon a time, a very long time ago, there was a chicken named Henny Penny. She thought the sky was falling and began a long journey to go tell the king about the falling sky. Of course, she was mistaken as you can clearly see. Go outside and see if the sky has fallen.

It hasn't.

However, this is not the story of Henny Penny of "the sky is falling" fame. No. Not her. This is the story of somebody else who just happened to have the same name. Yes. It is the story of Henny Penny. (Remember, this is a different Henny Penny. Okay?)

Now, since Henny Penny didn't live a very long time ago we have to start the story over. So...

Once upon a time there was a rooster with a magical voice. His name was Henny Penny. It is true that most of his friends thought his name was really the name of a hen, but since his parents gave him the name, well then, it must be a name for a rooster. People who came to visit at the farm where he lived might laugh at his name, but once he stood up and fluffed his gleaming feathers out, puffed up his chest and sang ?awk-a-doodle-doo? at them they stopped laughing.

Everybody praised Famer Dan for his wonderful rooster. The first awk-a-doodle-doo they heard caused them to admire the handsome Henny Penny. Why, if Henny Penny had been a king they would have bowed to him. Many people came just to hear Henny Penny singing his rooster song.

That's right, his rooster song. If you ask around you will find that most people say roosters crow. That just isn't right. Roosters are not crows. Maybe some roosters sing so poorly that people think they sound like crows, but not Henny Penny. In fact, Henny Penny had blue ribbons and gold medals from many contests because he sang so well. So, no, he didn't crow, he sang.

If you remember, we said that Henny Penny was a rooster with a magical voice. When he sang at contests and sang to the visitors at Farmer Dan's farm he didn't use his magic voice. The magic was very special and had to be saved for his job.

Yes, roosters have jobs. They are supposed to sing every morning and every evening so that all the animals and all the people on the farm know when to wake up, and when to go to sleep. Some people use an alarm clock to wake up and then just guess when to go to sleep. But all the best farms use rooster song. And at Farmer Dan's farm they used Henny Penny songs. They did not know that his song was magical but they knew he had a very fine awk-a-doodle-doo. Just ask anybody ................. (the rest is hidden in the book...)

Henny Penny...

We had a rooster named Henny Penny when my children were young. He would dance around your feet, drag a wing like he was injured, and if ignored would bat your legs with his "injured" wings until you picked him up. He liked to be hugged and would tuck his head under my beard and go to sleep.

I remember this because I was given an idea to write a story. The idea came from a friend to whom I was telling about the rooster in my story The Lost Lullaby. So I did research on Henny Penny and learned that the oldest stories about Henny Penny came from a time when he was a hare, or a rabbit. But the stories in England were of a hen named Henny Penny, also known as Chicken Little.

I have lost a great many of my memories but they tend to come back when jarred loose by similar thoughts, or hands on experience, etc... It is difficult at times to feel normal. Heck it is down right nerve wracking, but as with all problems it is something to overcome and to deal with.

Back to the friend and The Lost Lullaby... she suggested I expand on the rooster. She then told me about the rooster they'd had (until recently) named Henry. So off I go working on a new story...

This story is about a grumpy rooster who won't let anybody go to sleep because he doesn't want them to know he can no longer wake them up. I chose to use the name Henny Penny even though most people expect that to be a woman's name, err... a hen's name.

Since I am actively trying to get my books published via traditional publishers, via literary agents to them, and by author paid publishing, I think I'll take this story and run a different route and use Print On Demand.

That would give me three channels of potential publication. It is also one of the channels I am perusing for publication of my music. (Arrrggghhh, got a reject notice today on the music.)

Factoid: In some areas chickens were known to have gold in their crops. Yepper, tiny little Chicken Nuggets.