Image of Tony Stanford, author

Tony Stanford

About Tony Stanford

I am from a small town in Southeast Missouri. I was born and raised on Crowley’s Ridge and have spent my life in and around the Ozarks. I am a descendant of a full-blooded Cherokee known as Leatherface (from the 1800’s). My great grandfather was Cherokee and my great grandmother was French. On my dad’s side, I am of an English/Scots descent.

I’ve always had a passion for the arts and have always been very creative. I think outside the box and have the gift of imagining things in a unique and odd-dinary way. I’m a person of wishful thinking. My favorite plant is the dandelion which I encourage their growth and spread throughout my yard.

At eighteen I fell in love with a lady a few years my senior. Sharon’s grandfather, also a full-blooded Cherokee, was a “practicing” medicine man. Sharon’s mother was of Dutch descent.

After four years of sharing life together, Sharon and I were married in secret with only two people in attendance (the witnesses). It was months, before I mentioned anything about it to my family.

Sharon and I are in our fourth decade of marriage. We have one daughter and two grandchildren.

Being the passive rebel that I am, I was kicked out of high school my senior year for passive insubordination. Twelve years later, I got an opportunity to attend college, but lacked the diploma. Finding out when the next GED test would be held in my area, I took the test and scored high enough for a scholarship. I went on to earn an Associate degree in civil engineering. I was a member of the Senate in college and was listed among America’s Who’s Who of 1993. While in college, I also earned a “Director’s” degree in child care and worked with my wife who was self-employed as a licensed child care provider having her own business for nearly forty years.

In my thirties, over the southeast corner of the state of Missouri (with Sharon at my side) I served as a Divisional Commander in Royal Rangers (a youth /scouting program sponsored by the Assemblies of God).

In my forties, I took a seven-year “sabbatical” from writing and practically everything else to dedicate an average of 40 hours a week for Bible study, research, and teaching. I had questions and I sought God for the answers.

Image of field of dandelions taken by Tony Stanford, author
Image of a dandelion by Tony Stanford, author

What inspired you to write a novel?

“I wanted to write a story that I wanted to read.”

And what kind of story was that?

“A story that was free-range and not hindered by any specific genre.”

Image of Tony Stanford, author, sitting on a chair made of stone he carved into a chair in the woods

The Dawning of an Author

I have always been about the creating of worlds and its characters. As a child, when playing by myself (and I aways preferred to play by myself), my play revolved around those ideas. I’ve always been very detailed oriented. When I was young and was asked questions about this or that, or something that happened, I would go overboard with the details and was constantly rebuked for it and for taking too long to tell about something.

In the fifth grade, I was given an aptitude test to assess a career suitability. When I got the test back, it assessed me as an Author. I was delighted with the assessment. However, I was really bad at spelling and grammar. English and grammar were my worst subjects in school. I struggled to pass those classes. It was very discouraging and being discouraged by the skepticism of others who lacked confident in my ability to be a writer, I gave up the idea as something I could seriously do.

In my twenties, I fell in love with reading novels. The more I read, the more I wanted to write. And then, in my late twenties, I read a novel that really inspired me and I thought, I’ve got to do this!

Again, being a passive rebel, I wanted to write a novel that I wanted to read. Not one hindered by genres and rules, but rather one that was free-range taking the reader to where ever the story wanted to go.

So, one day, while my wife was in the kitchen fixing a pot roast, I sat down with pencil and paper to see if I could write. I had no story. No plot. No characters. I begin to write about a character that popped into my mind. The more I wrote, the more I learned about this character, allowing my imagination to run free, the more fun I had. It wasn’t long before I became obsessed. I haven’t stopped since. I currently have three books published, three more written (not yet published), and two more in the works.

sand texture
Image of a clock with rocks in the background taken by Tony Stanford, author
Image of the rock chair Tony Stanford, author, carved in the middle of the woods
Image of a close up of a black mushroom in the field taken by Tony Stanford, author
Image of wasp on top of a rock surrounded by yellow flowers taken by Tony Stanford, author

 More about me

Image of the family of Tony Stanford, author

  • Be yourself but be a positive and not a negative.

  • Contemporary Medieval with futuristic accents.
    I lean toward being an Introvert.

  • Create. I enjoy walking about my property in search of beauty, things interesting, and things inspiring. I like imagining things in odd-dinary ways. I like to take things from nature and create with them.

  • Fall

  • October

  • A dark, windy, snowy, day. I also love the approaching of a storm. Very energizing and inspiring. I enjoy the sound of deep rumbling thunder.

  • I like music from the fifties all the way to the present. Over all, the music of the 70’s is my favorite.

  • The Beatles.

  • John Lennon

  • The Beatles: Dig a Pony.

  • Dandelions and mushrooms.