On Saturday, we took the train into Glasgow, unaware that we would be joined by fellas headed to the football game. The train has never really been crowded during any of our trips. Saturday was different. It was only 10 in the a.m. but that[..]
He did something good, y'all, and for a brief moment, albeit very brief, I saw Trump as the president he could be - if only. If only he wasn't hateful. If only he put the best interest of the country ahead of his own selfish[..]
He sat in the booth directly across from us, eating his dinner. Behind him four big-screen televisions were tuned to ball games. The waitress brought our waters, took our orders. He thought the man with the beard was my boyfriend, not my son. I didn't[..]
There I was at my desk working my way through some pretty awful crime scene photos. A girl I once knew splayed out on the floor in a pool of blood. They aren't the first crime scene photos I've seen. I've witnessed a bloated[..]
Editor’s Note: This is the third installment in a series of interviews I’m conducting with people across the country. This is an effort to get to know the stories of the people whose status updates I see on Facebook. It is the discovery of how[..]
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