Linda Trout, one of my long time writer friends, wrote about a dear friend of ours. I couldn’t help but share it. Here’s one talented writer writing about another.
Enjoy!
As a writer, do you zip books out practically in your sleep? Or do you struggle for each and every word in your story?
Regardless of impressions to the contrary, I think most of us fall into the latter category, big name authors included.
As writers we’re all at different aspects of our writing careers; no matter whether you’re multi-published by the traditional publishers, or self-published, or you’ve gone between those two extremes and published with a small press.
We all started at the same place…with a desire to see our written words in print.
In addition, everyone single one of us have to overcome obstacles in order to see our works-in-progress completed. A dear, dear friend is one of those who struggles to even get a few words written each day, depending on how her health is that day.
Writing – the essence of creating something unique, of telling…
It’s nearly Independence Day, already! They’re even doing 4th of July weather reports, so we know it’ll be here in a matter of days. How’d that happen?
That means it’s time to buy a few chickens and haul out the cast iron skillets. Why? you ask. Because, in the Shay household, 4th of July means FRIED CHICKEN!
(Hooray!!!)
I put flour, salt, pepper and a little garlic powder in a bag (paper or plastic) and shake my chicken up in it (a few pieces at a time) then fry the pieces in canola oil. With the heat on about medium, I cook the chicken with a lid on for a few minutes on each side, then take the lid off and turn the heat up a little to give the chicken a good color and great crunch. I’m not the best chicken fryer in the world (can’t be, since I only practice my magic one time a year) but nobody complains while they’re chowing down. LOL.
I’m not sure when it started, but sometime in the distant past, I started frying chicken one day a year. Only on the 4th of July. One of the first Fried Chicken Fourths I remember, the kids were all fairly small. (grade school/middle school age.) I fried up a few chickens and we loaded up and went to Oklahoma City. We found Thunderbird Park, which had old military equipment (tanks, jeeps, helicopters, planes) for the kids to play on, and some picnic tables, and had our lunch.
There was a military museum nearby, the 45th Infantry Museum, and since our family never saw a museum we didn’t love–at least that’s what our kids thought– we had to check it out!
Since G-Man’s dad was in WWII, our boys had a great time.
This is not a picture of Gary’s dad. LOL.
Finally, after our fried chicken and a stroll through history lesson, we all went to the Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Garden.
Since we had three little boys in tow, you can probably guess how much time we spent in the Botanical Gardens. LOL. But we had a great time at the zoo. Especially when we found the Tiger Cage. (C-Town and Pryor Creek Tigers! Yay!!!)
I have some great memories tangled up with our fried chicken. Times when Mom and Dad came up for chicken, and afterward we parked on the Salina Bridge to see the fireworks, and times when we took our Party Barge out on the lake for tubing and chicken. I’m SO looking forward to grandchildren and the fun time we’ll have with them eating my fried chicken on the 4th! (And possibly any time they want it.)
Loving the Fried Chicken 4th!
Do you have any traditions you practice on the 4th that you can share? We might want to add them to our chicken. 😀
Susan Spess Shay 