Karen McIntyre

Karen McIntyre is a mother, an advertising creative director, and a proud graduate of SUNY-Binghamton who now lives in New York City. She is a two-time finalist for the Lascaux Prize. In addition to having short stories published in the Lascaux Prize anthologies, she has been featured in the Arkansas International Review edition, "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place."

Things Are Different Now

Summer, 2002. Seventh grade is finally over. But here I am, sitting cross-legged in bed with the Hello Kitty 3-ring binder I carried against my chest that entire endless year, open to the section formerly known as “Social Studies.” Every morning, I make a neat grid with 10 perfectly square boxes, each square worth 100 calories, and that’s what I get for the day. It’s a good plan.