I’ll confess it right up front: I have passed menopause and moved headlong into the crotchety stage of life. I’m a journalist who can barely stand to read the daily headlines. I’m a progressive who yearns for some of the ways of yesteryear. I support the legal right of gays to marry, but by the same token, I wish gays would keep their sexual proclivities to themselves. I wish all the heterosexuals would do the same. Having everyone, and their... Read more
She was bawling. Right there in Starbucks. In front of God and everybody. Just down the road from Nashville, in the Bible Belt, where people are loving and generous and not prone to let others cry in public without offering to pray for them or something. I had studied her throughout the afternoon as I visited with an old friend. She had thick dark hair, big-eyes, and gorgeous skin. She looked a bit like Adriana Trigiani, the bestselling novelist from... Read more
When I got old enough to buy cards on my own I used to give my mother a Father’s Day card. Mama thought the whole gesture ridiculous, but as a single mother she’d earned it. Besides, honoring my mother on Father’s Day was one way to not feel so left out as a child. It gave me a way to celebrate the day, too. But ever since I wrote A Silence of Mockingbirds, my perspective on this whole Father’s Day... Read more
Okay, y’all. Because you are such devoted friends, I have a little secret to share with you: This is the cover of my debut novel coming in September from Mercer University Press. We have all worked arduously on every aspect of this book for you all. So do me a favor and tell your librarian. Tell your bookstore owners. Tell your book clubs. Tell your bloggers and book reviewers. Feel free to share it any which way you please, but... Read more
I have been going to the same doctor for a decade. Dr. Nofry knows things about me that even Tim doesn’t know. My cholesterol count for one. My weight for another. When I checked in this time, however, the receptionist asked for my driver’s license. “Excuse me?” I said. “Don’t you all know who I am by now?” “I know who you are,” she replied, sweetly. “I just need a record of it.” Then she took my driver’s license and... Read more
So I was given the tour of Franklin, TN. yesterday by none other than the Gentleman of the South, Robert Hicks, author of the New York Times bestseller, The Widow of the South. And if you haven not yet read The Widow of the South, let me just tell you that you are missing out big time. Get you that book and read it. You can send me a thank you note later. First stop on our tour was... Read more
Melungeons: any of a dark-skinned group of people of the Appalachians in East Tennessee, of mixed Indian, White, and Black ancestry I begged my cousin to take me to Sneedville. (Doesn’t that sound like a town Dr. Seuss named?) My cousin said he would, too, come September, even though his momma warned us both that we had no business prowling around them thar hills. Everybody told me not to go. So you know what I did, don’t you? Yep. I... Read more
But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. Matt. 6: 20 The graveyard at Christian Bend First Baptist Church was littered with plastic flowers. It was as if the dead were sponsoring a yard sale for florists. If the dead held popularity contests (and whose to say they don’t?) Kelley and Susie Christian would have been crowned King and Queen of Christian Bend. Just... Read more
I visited with a friend recently who told me that he offered a family member a large sum of money if she would only relinquish her parental rights over her two-year old. If I didn’t know this man, didn’t know the situation, I might think that’s about the wildest story ever. But the thing is this man is doing his level best to save the young child from tragedy. Unlike the child’s mother, he knows the worth of a child.... Read more
I took a drive back up in the holler. I wasn’t sure were I was headed, couldn’t even tell you were I was when I got there. I was hoping to find somebody sitting on the porch. I intended to pull up in the drive and ask them if I could sit on the porch with them. Only thing was all the front porch sitters were busy. So instead I just kept driving until I came to this rise in... Read more
Karen Spears Zacharias
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