There are times when grief feels selfish. Today for instance, on the seventh anniversary of my mother's passing. It feels like an act of selfishness to even admit that I associate the holidays with her death, and that such an association leaves me feeling conflicted.[..]
I was not born in the United States. I am, in fact, the only family member who was not born in Hawkins County, Tennessee. My mother, my father, my sister, my brother - all born there. As far as I know all my aunts and[..]
She was telling a story, as people do when they gather together on a porch, or around a dinner table. Just a funny story, something that made her laugh, that made us laugh as she recounted it. But right in the middle of her story,[..]
Author/Journalist Karen Spears Zacharias is a Gold Star daughter and an alumni of Oregon State University.
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.
Karen's upcoming book 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