Author: Karen Spears Zacharias

  • Women in the Wild

    Women in the Wild

    I've just returned from a hike. A test run really. I strapped on a 30 pound backpack and grabbed my hiking sticks and took off. It wasn't a particularly charming hike like the ones I did in the Yorkshire Dales earlier this year. Nope. This[..]
    Read More
  • Who Really Killed the Decker Girls?

    Who Really Killed the Decker Girls?

    It's been nearly two weeks since three little girls were discovered murdered at a campground outside Leavenworth, Washington. I first learned that the girls were missing when my own daughter, Ashley, called me. She is friends with the family and had joined them in searching[..]
    Read More
  • Deportations Won’t Make Us Safer

    Deportations Won’t Make Us Safer

    I awoke with a bolt at 2:00 a.m. Tuesday. Well, not with a bolt. I woke screaming for help, over and over again. It's been awhile since I've had such a vivid nightmare. My dreams, like a lot of writers, are often memorable. Sometimes funny.[..]
    Read More
  • Appalachian Tradition of Rooting

    Appalachian Tradition of Rooting

    I come from a long line of Appalachian women. Strong-hearted, every single one of them. Not a regular church goer among the whole lot of them, but they could recite all the books of the Bible and John 3:16, and The Great Commission without hesitation.[..]
    Read More
  • No Better Angels

    No Better Angels

    I've been following Illinois Governor Pritzker for awhile now. If you haven't, you should. He has been fearless in his calling out of the Rapist-in-Chief. I looked for a full transcript of his recent speech in New Hampshire but it's not yet been posted. Here's[..]
    Read More
  • Yell Louder

    Yell Louder

    Sometimes I feel as though I am yelling across an empty canyon. I spend countless hours, thousands of hours of my short life writing stories that a handful of faithful friends read. Obviously I don't do it for money, this writing alone on days when[..]
    Read More
  • Enchanted & Entrapped

    Enchanted & Entrapped

    It was an exciting weekend in all sorts of ways. On Friday afternoon, Konnie, Miz M and I headed over the mountain pass towards Corvallis.Konnie had scored us tickets to watch the NCAA meet between OSU's gymnasts and the Air Force team. The trip also[..]
    Read More
  • They Will Never Abandon Him

    They Will Never Abandon Him

    They kidnapped him and shipped him off to an ICE facility in Louisiana. And if you don't think it could happen to you or your loved ones, you need to pull your head out of your arse. You are completely delusional. This is what they[..]
    Read More
  • Zelenskyy: Learn from Pushmataha

    Zelenskyy: Learn from Pushmataha

    I’ve been thinking recently about the way that Andrew Jackson betrayed his friend Pushmataha, Chief of the Choctaws. What has brought this all to mind was a convergence of events. I’ve been reading The Barn by Wright Thompson. An excellent and well-researched book about little known[..]
    Read More
  • The Women They Demonize

    The Women They Demonize

    One year after the treatise Malleus Maleficarum (Hammer of Witches) was released, a teenager took refuge in a cave outside the town of Knaresborough, England, where she then birthed a baby. I don't know if young Agatha Southheil was attended to by a friend sworn[..]
    Read More