Topic: “Mama Mayhem and Memories”

Karen S. Zacharias leads off at the Clarksville Writers Conference

By Turner McCullough Jr. | July 16, 2008 |

Fourth annual writers conference opens with exciting author from the Fairhope Center for the Writing Arts

Karen S. Zacharias at the Clarksville Writers Conference

July 11th was the first day of presentations at the 2008 Clarksville Writers Conference. With registration completed and name tags attached, attendees moved onto their choices of the various author presentations of the morning. Karen Spears Zacharias, current author-in-residence for the Fairhope Center for the Writing Arts, in Fairhope, Alabama, proved a most intriguing introduction to the conference. She told of not starting her own writing career until age 40 as a way of allaying the fear that anyone is too old to become a writer. Karen titled her presentation after her book, “Mama, Mayhem and Memories.” A breakdown of the primary elements showed her admiration for her mother as she struggled to sustain her family, the mayhem that struggle incorporated and the memories that grew out of their collective struggles.

Having been reared in a military family setting for the first half of her young life, she chronicles the upheaval that followed her father’s death as the family struggles to adjust to this new reality. Everything from having to vacate on-post housing to the sudden lack of structure and support the family faced when they could no longer utilize the military family support system.

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