In order to tour the C.S. Lewis home, The Kilns, one must email in advance and arrange a tour. The home is not open to the public otherwise. I didn't know that, of course, until just a couple of weeks ago. I don't even know[..]
Sunday afternoon I was sitting on the porch, reading academic journals on narrative structure, you know as you do to relax. Tim was off running errands in preparation of the work week. The phone rang and I picked it up, expecting it to be one[..]
Two of my adult children made major moves right before the pandemic rocked the entire world and sent us into an isolation most of us had only read about in dystopian novels. Newscaster Gayle King said she spent 105 days never leaving her NYC[..]
Several years ago, while working on Mother of Rain, the beginning of the Appalachian novels I wrote, I snuck in late to the evening service at Christians Bend Church in Tennessee. I had not been in the church since 1968. The last time I[..]
Tim brought back yesterday's mail this morning, along with my Starbucks coffee. This is our ritual when he is with me. I write while he picks up the coffee. Like many who are seeking to follow the medical professionals pleas, we had a quiet[..]
My neighbor called me the other day. He had something for me and wondered when I might be around for him to drop by. It was raining. I didn't want him to be out in the rain and risk falling. He had taken a nasty[..]
I never liked Science Fiction as a genre. My brother was a Star Wars and Star Trek fan. Not me. I never wanted anything to do with people dressing alike. I dropped out of Brownies and later ROTC for those very reasons. You might have[..]
[caption id="attachment_5067" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Model Naomi Campbell in her new traveling gear during a pandemic. [/caption] The hospital volunteer switched the channel to the 700 Club. "Seriously?" I whispered. So she changed it to FOXNews. Sigh. I was waiting to be ushered into the isolation[..]
She carried a knitted hat as she walked into the restaurant. Her disabled son only a step or two behind her. He slid into the booth. She walked up to the table where I sat with my coffee. "Put this on my bill," she[..]
Author/Journalist Karen Spears Zacharias is a Gold Star daughter and an alumna of Oregon State University, Shepherd University and University of West Scotland.
Karen's work has been featured in the Washington Post, New York Times, CNN, National Public Radio, and Good Morning America.
Her debut novel, Mother of Rain (Mercer University Press), received the Weatherford Award for Best in Appalachian Fiction from Berea College and was adapted for the stage by Georgia's Historic State Theater, The Springer. In 2018, Karen was named Appalachian Heritage Writer by Shepherd University, and Mother of Rain was chosen as the One Book One West Virginia Read.
Her first true crime book A Silence of Mockingbirds was chosen by the city of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, as the One City Read.
The Murder Gene is her second true crime work.
Karen and her husband, Tim, make their home in Deschutes County, Oregon.
For more information on Karen and her books, click here