Karen Myna Cantor
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Karen Myna Cantor
@karenmynacantor.bsky.social
460 followers 220 following 65 posts
Swamp enthusiast, writer of extremely chaotic YA fiction. She/her. Repped by Ismita Hussain at Great Dog Literary. ALEX, BY PROXY (Holiday House 2026); SNAKETOWN, FLORIDA (HH 2027). https://linktr.ee/karenmynacantor
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karenmynacantor.bsky.social
ALEX, BY PROXY is now available for preorder (see link in bio), and will be published 7/21/2026 with Holiday House!
Trope map of ALEX, BY PROXY. The cover is overlaid onto a starry background, surrounded by text identifying tropes or story elements of the book. These include: • mental illness rep • chaotic found family • exploration of true crime genre • podcast that grows more and more unhinged • overthinking MC + best friend who's never had a single thought in his life • what happens AFTER the Munchausen syndrome by proxy reveal • podcast transcripts, news, articles, letters Blurb of ALEX, BY PROXY. Blurb reads: HARROWING NEW DETAILS IN ‘MONSTER MOMMY’ CASE… SHOCKING INFORMATION SURFACES AS ‘MONSTER MOMMY’ CASE HEADS TO TRIAL… HOW COULD A MOTHER POISON HER SON? Welcome to sixteen-year-old Alex’s life, ripped straight from the headlines. Alex is a victim of Munchausen by proxy, but he’s also a witty, sarcastic kid with unusually good crossword skills and a penchant for astronomy. At least he used to be. Now that he’s recovered from years of illness induced by his mother, he sort of has to figure out who he is all over again… And most importantly, he’ll have to decide if he can testify against the woman who gave birth to him. As Alex awaits the trial, his friends convince him to start a podcast as a way to tell his story. Lethal Lullaby brings Alex closer to his old life—hanging out with friends, cracking jokes, having fun—but at the same time, dark memories surface, forcing Alex to acknowledge that the podcast could be making things worse. It seems like he’s got deeper issues than he’d like to admit, and this time, he can’t blame them on his mom. Day by day, Alex’s mental health crumbles, until he can no longer distinguish between truth and fiction. Should he trust himself to testify? And if he gets up there, what version of the truth will he share?
December 3, 2025 at 4:33 PM
karenmynacantor.bsky.social
ALEX, BY PROXY is on Edelweiss!!!! I still don't know how to use Canva, but I was excited so I made this (my wife: "It's giving Animorphs??")

Preorder links are live in my bio!!!!
The cover of ALEX, BY PROXY, getting smaller and smaller on a black background. Text reads, "ALEX, BY PROXY is on Edelweiss!!!! You can request it and stuff!!!! Wooo!!!"
October 24, 2025 at 9:31 PM
karenmynacantor.bsky.social
So excited to reveal the cover of ALEX, BY PROXY, out 7/21/2026 from Holiday House!

I love this cover and design—thank you to Chelsea Hunter (of Holiday House) for an incredible design and Beatriz (@/naranjalidad on IG) for a stunning cover.

Preorder links are in the LinkTree in my bio!!!
Cover of ALEX, BY PROXY! It features a boy in profile view, the focus zoomed in on his head and shoulders as he falls against a teal background. The boy has his eyes closed, with pale skin and dark brown hair that seems to ripple as he falls. Other items fall around him: a microphone, newspapers (including one that reads, MOTHER POISONS HER SON), and a pillbox with pills falling out. The whole scene has a sort of glitched out quality to it, with portions of Alex and the falling items blurring into rainbow static. The blurb of ALEX, BY PROXY, overlaid on top of a version of the cover without Alex's face (so just the blue background and the falling items around the edges). Blurb reads: HARROWING NEW DETAILS IN ‘MONSTER MOMMY’ CASE… SHOCKING INFORMATION SURFACES AS ‘MONSTER MOMMY’ CASE HEADS TO TRIAL… HOW COULD A MOTHER POISON HER SON? Welcome to sixteen-year-old Alex’s life, ripped straight from the headlines. Alex is a victim of Munchausen by proxy, but he’s also a witty, sarcastic kid with unusually good crossword skills and a penchant for astronomy. At least he used to be. Now that he’s recovered from years of illness induced by his mother, he sort of has to figure out who he is all over again… And most importantly, he’ll have to decide if he can testify against the woman who gave birth to him. As Alex awaits the trial, his friends convince him to start a podcast as a way to tell his story. Lethal Lullaby brings Alex closer to his old life—hanging out with friends, cracking jokes, having fun—but at the same time, dark memories surface, forcing Alex to acknowledge that the podcast could be making things worse. It seems like he’s got deeper issues than he’d like to admit, and this time, he can’t blame them on his mom. Day by day, Alex’s mental health crumbles, until he can no longer distinguish between truth and fiction. Should he trust himself to testify? And if he gets up there, what version of the truth will he share?
October 24, 2025 at 9:25 PM
karenmynacantor.bsky.social
More examples, in case anyone thought insurers were actually looking out for patients. The only incentive is money.
Other drug companies adopted similar tactics — a playbook that would prove effective even as the opioid epidemic spread. A manager at the drugmaker Mallinckrodt succinctly explained the access game to colleagues in 2012, after a group of large insurers imposed restrictions on one of the company’s painkillers. “We need to remove the barrier to growth, and that will require us to ‘pay to play,’” the manager wrote. Express Scripts, the P.B.M. for the insurance plans, helped arrange a “rebate enhancement,” and the insurers loosened the restrictions. Purdue and other leading drugmakers focused on avoiding two types of restrictions. The first was the requirement that doctors provide additional evidence to insurance companies or P.B.M.s that powerful painkillers were warranted. In 2014, a large Blue Cross Blue Shield plan in New Jersey imposed such a requirement on Mallinckrodt’s drug Xartemis XR because of “safety, policy and chronic use concerns,” the drugmaker noted in an internal presentation. But after “assertive action” by Mallinckrodt and a P.B.M. called Prime Therapeutics, the Blue Cross Blue Shield plan “quickly reversed the decision.”
December 17, 2024 at 2:57 PM
karenmynacantor.bsky.social
Since the UHC CEO killing, I've seen health insurers claim they are a safeguard against "unnecessary care". I wondered: what did they do during the opioid crisis, when restricting drug access may have saved peoples' lives? You will not be surprised to learn they caved to Purdue Pharma for $$$.
An important test came in 2003. At a meeting with Purdue, an executive for the insurer UnitedHealthcare raised concerns about abuse of OxyContin, noting that some patients were being prescribed as many as 1,000 pills a month. The insurance company planned to limit prescriptions to 60 pills; doctors would need to call to get authorization for higher amounts. For help, Purdue turned to Merck-Medco, the P.B.M. that UnitedHealthcare had hired to handle prescription drug benefits for its customers. The effort culminated in a meeting at UnitedHealth Group’s offices. A Merck-Medco official delivered a presentation on the “potential loss of rebates” to the insurer if it went forward with the limit, an executive for the P.B.M. reported to Purdue. “That information convinced the UHG team to change,” he wrote.
December 17, 2024 at 2:35 PM
karenmynacantor.bsky.social
I am so thrilled my disaster YA contemporary books will be coming to Holiday House! We've had gay rights, now let's have some gay wrongs (or at least, incredibly ill-advised decisions involving 600 pythons).
Screenshot of a Publisher's Marketplace deal announcement for June 25th, 2024. The announcement is titled: SNAKETOWN, FLORIDA, A HISTORY OF UNNATURAL DISASTERS by Karen Myna Cantor Imprint: Holiday House Announcement text reads: Mapmaker Karen Myna Cantor's SNAKETOWN, FLORIDA, in which a group of teens plot to save their hometown in central Florida--and its zany residents--by faking a disaster and unleashing hundreds of pythons; and A HISTORY OF UNNATURAL DISASTERS, in which a victim of Munchausen syndrome by proxy starts a true crime podcast to tell his side of the story and investigate his own mother's crime, to Sally Morgridge at Holiday House, at auction, in a two-book deal, by Ismita Hussain at Great Dog Literary (world).
June 26, 2024 at 12:24 AM
karenmynacantor.bsky.social
Hi! My name is Karen Myna, and I mostly write YA contemporary that leans hard into shenanigans and chaos.

My current MS is a Florida Man-inspired story where two teen girls try to put their South Florida town on the map in the worst way possible--by staging a (fake) disaster.

Enjoy some turtles!
Photo of three turtles sitting next to a placid creek. The first turtle is climbing over the second while the third watches, bemused. Leaves and ferns frame the scene.
October 24, 2023 at 11:28 PM
karenmynacantor.bsky.social
Lately I've gotten really into this lil app that's like Tamagotchi but self-care??? My bird is named Blueberry and I have learned that he has no thoughts, no thoughts at all. A role model for us all
A screenshot from the Finch app. It shows a little cartoon bird jumping in the air, surrounded by confetti. The little bird is blue with a gray beak, and wears a yellow frog costume. He looks proud! The text reads, "Congratulations! You and Blueberry completed 200 adventure days together!"
October 21, 2023 at 1:44 AM