Caitlin Lochner🖤🤍💜

Hello! Social media makes me very anxious and I’m not on much (on any platform), but I wish you good vibes and health 💕💕

Believe it or not, I actually WANT my taxes to fund SNAP & Medicaid, not golf trips for millionaires & military tanks for war

so crazy to just be living every day through the slow motion car crash of escalating fascism and it’s still like. aw man i have to go to the dentist

"Imma just wake up early and do it then"

A message from a Kindergarten teacher: After forty years in the classroom, my career ended with one small sentence from a six-year-old: “My dad says people like you don’t matter anymore.” No sneer. No malice. Just quiet honesty — the kind that cuts deeper because it’s innocent. He blinked, then added, “You don’t even have a TikTok.” My name is Mrs. Clara Holt, and for four decades, I taught kindergarten in a small Denver suburb. Today, I stacked the last box on my desk and locked the door behind me. When I started teaching in the early 1980s, it felt like a promise — a shared belief that what we did mattered. We weren’t rich, but we were valued. Parents brought warm cookies to parent nights. Kids gave you handmade cards with hearts that didn’t quite line up. Watching a child sound out their first sentence felt like magic. But that world slowly slipped away. The job I once knew has been replaced by exhaustion, red tape, and a kind of loneliness I can’t quite describe. My evenings used to be filled with construction paper, glitter, and glue sticks. Now they’re spent filling out digital reports to protect myself from angry emails or lawsuits. I’ve been yelled at by parents in front of twenty-five children — one filming me with his phone while I tried to calm another child mid-meltdown. And the kids… they’ve changed too. Not by choice. They arrive tired, anxious, overstimulated. Their tiny fingers know how to swipe a screen before they can hold a crayon. Some can’t make eye contact or wait in line. We’re expected to fix all of it — to patch the gaps, heal the trauma, teach the curriculum, and document every move — in six hours a day, with resources that barely fill a drawer. The little reading corner I once built, full of soft beanbags and paper stars, was replaced by data charts and “learning metrics.” A young principal once told me, “Clara, maybe you’re too nurturing. The district wants measurable results.” As if kindness were a weakness. Still, I stayed. Because of the small, holy moments that no spreadsheet could measure — a whisper of, “You remind me of my grandma.” a shaky note that read, “I feel safe here.” a quiet boy finally meeting my eyes and saying, “I read the whole page.” Those tiny sparks were my reason to keep showing up. But this last year broke something in me. The aggression grew sharper. The laughter in the staff room turned to silence. The light went out of so many eyes. I watched brilliant teachers — my friends — vanish under the weight of burnout, their joy replaced by survival. I felt myself fading too, like chalk on a board that’s been wiped one too many times. So today, I began my goodbye. I pulled faded art off the walls and tucked thirty years of handmade cards into a single box. In the back of a drawer, I found a letter from a student from 1998: “Thank you for loving me when I was hard to love.” I sat on the floor and cried. No party. No applause. Just a handshake from a young principal who called me “Ma’am” while checking his notifications. I left my rocking chair behind, and my sticker box too. What I carried with me were the memories — the faces of hundreds of children who once trusted me enough to reach out their hands and learn. That can’t be uploaded. It can’t be measured. It can’t be replaced. I miss when teachers were partners, not targets. When parents and educators worked side by side, not in opposition. When schools cared more about wonder than numbers. So if you know a teacher — any teacher — thank them. Not with a mug or a gift card, but with your words. With your respect. With your understanding that behind every test score is a heart that cared enough to try. Because in a world that often overlooks them, teachers are the ones who never forget our children.

I am so, SO excited to announce our next live stream interview is with the absolutely incredible Macmillan editor, @Holliambria! This time, we'll be hearing how the other side of the book publishing process works, so be sure to bring all your #editing and #publishing questions!

Our latest #podcast episode, featuring our interview with #author Margaret Rogerson, is now available on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube! This was SUCH a fun episode to record and I hope everyone enjoys it as much as we did during the live stream! Apple: shorturl.at/cyFNh

@pcarterwriter 💜

@caitlinlochner <3

I #amquerying yet again and feeling very defeated upon being asked three times in a row by different agents what the sales are for any previous book(s) I've published. One, I truly have no idea. More importantly, what's that have to do with me? I'm not in charge of marketing.

I'm so tired of this apparent attitude in publishing that an author is somehow at fault for poor sales. I've had a book rejected because of this. I've heard SO many stories of authors being told to get pen names because previous sales weren't good enough. This isn't our fault.

I promoted my books on social media. I told anyone who'd listen about them. I ran pre-order campaigns. I did launch events. One of my books came out April 2020, the height of covid lockdown. There's only so much I can do and sales isn't my job. Why should this reflect on me?

people who say “why do we need [fine arts, humanities degrees, mid-budget films] when they don’t make a ton of money?” are insufferable. why do we need chrysanthemums? why do we need bonfires or baleen whales or the color blue? we just do. we just do.

Talk Story to Me is a semi-monthly live author interview series/podcast, where I ask authors about their books, #writing process, publication journey, and any questions chat has! Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/5xalPgsrR… YouTube: youtube.com/playlist?list=… Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tal…

I'm happy to announce our new podcast episode interviewing YA contemporary author Katy Upperman is now LIVE! 🥰 Spotify: spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/kx4BFAlp3Nb YouTube: youtu.be/f_C_Arn1XtE

Join us TOMORROW, 10/18, for our next live interview with Shana Silver, author of Mind Games! 👀

Look at these gorgeous editions of MY BIG FAT DESI WEDDING I own!! 🧡🩵

Solidarity with Virginia Woolf and her summer writing goals

@AbroadInJapan @heyitssharla Ooh congratulations!! I can’t wait to stop by! Any chance you’ll be there in the next week so I can see the affable man himself?

🥳🥳 SURPRISE!!! 🥳🥳 Sharla and I have opened a cocktail bar in Shibuya! 🤩 Welcome to LOST: Cozy vibes, tasty cocktails, cheese plates and 80s tunes 🍸 Some of our best travel memories were created in cocktail bars around the world, so we’ve dreamed of making a space our viewers (and hopefully locals too!) could use to relax, meet new friends, chat about travel plans and just escape from the craziness of Tokyo for a bit. Can’t wait to give you the grand tour in an upcoming video but if you’re in Tokyo today swing by! (Open 2pm to 10pm 🍻) maps.google.com/?q=%E3%80%9215…

Our next author interview is confirmed with one of my personal ABSOLUTE favorite authors, @aidenschmaiden!! If you love laugh-out-loud humor, beautifully detailed world building, and incredibly lovable characters you'd die for, be sure to check out their books (below)! 💕