Editor's note: Meet my friend Ralph Mitchell. Ralph and I grew up in the same segregated Southern town in military families and both had our lives impacted by the war in Vietnam. Ralph is a veteran, a Lt. Col. in the U.S. Army Reserves. He[..]
Karen's Note: The following is a post from a veteran-turned-pastor friend. Many of you regular readers are already familiar with Roger. Please feel free to share your thoughts with him. I know he'd like to engage with you on these matters. Roger lives and serves in[..]
As if the NFL wasn't knee-deep in dookey already. Now comes a report that they charged the military millions to "pay tribute" to the troops. According to Military.com, this has been a common practice: The Guard paid NFL teams $5.6 million in 2013 and 2014.[..]
His life ended in a one-sided shoot-out. Police said he wanted it that way. They said Afghanistan war veteran Jed Zillmer was on a suicidal mission: Kill or be killed. He was allegedly heavily armed and suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, although that had never[..]
I took an ailing veteran to the VA Center in Boise, Idaho this week. He's a young fellow, in his mid-forties. A big lug of a guy, 6' 3", and hauling around too much weight on his broken frame of a body. Twenty years ago,[..]
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