Resources/Contact

A book report on me? Promise you’ll email me with your grade or share any artwork you did for your project (I love seeing your hard work pay off!) I can give you all the basics about me and my writing, but for book stuff, you’ll have to revisit your favorite sections of the book and write up character info yourself (I know, I know, it’s work, but that’s why it’s called homework, right?) You can also poke around this website and try using Google or taking to your local librarian. I know you’re going to rock this paper so let’s get started!

The basics:
Jennifer Calonita
Birthdate: December 14
Birthplace: New York
Siblings: One sister
Where do you live now? Long Island in New York
Family: I’m married with two boys and a feisty Chihuahua named Ben Kenobi

Me in 5th grade

I have a lot and the list keeps growing! Soman Chainani, James Ponti, Stuart Gibbs, Sarah Mylnowski, Meg Cabot, Alyson Gerber, Ally Carter, Kieran Scott, Elizabeth Eulberg. (Ask me again in a month and I’m sure I’ll have ten more to add!)

A lot of what I write about is drawn from experiences I’ve had in my own life, especially what my life was like as a teen. As far as the Secrets series goes, I was inspired by my former job as an entertainment editor at a teen magazine. I interviewed a lot of stars like Dwayne Johnson, Zac Efron and Reese Witherspoon and seeing what their lives were like really got me thinking about their world. As you might have guessed, I also love fairy tales! While I grew up watching Disney movies, I was particularly interested in Cinderella, but not for the reason you might think. I was always worried about the Wicked Stepmother! I thought she was headed to fairy tale jail. That made me wonder: If the Wicked Stepmother apologized and decided to teach kids on the path to wickedness how to be good, what would that story look like? That’s how I came up with the Fairy Tale Reform School series. 

I’ve always loved to write! I started writing in elementary school and never really stopped. I wrote for our school journal, the school newspaper and was that persistent girl who would write to teen magazines and ask to be one of their teen reporters (one time it worked–a prom magazine asked me to do a piece for them!). I studied communications at Boston College and took all kinds of writing classes before settling on magazine work. I was an editor for ten years before I thought, “Hey, I wonder if I could write a book on all I’ve learned as an entertainment editor?” I’ve been writing novels ever since.

I have an office at home in my house that I work out of, but sometimes I need a change of scenery and you’ll find me writing at a local coffee shop.

I love taking pictures and scrapbooking, and I’m also running now. I’m even training to run the Disney Princess Half-Marathon in 2015. It’s been on my must-do list forever and this year it’s going to happen! I love TV. (Seriously, I love TV!) My current favorites are Ted Lasso, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, reruns of Good Luck, Charlie, and any and all romantic comedies!

I suggest picking up or borrowing from the library the latest edition of Writer’s Market to learn how to find an agent and a publisher. I also love See Jane Write: A Girl’s Guide to Writing Chick Lit by YA and MG author Sarah Mylnowski and editor Farrin Jacobs. Good luck with your submission!

I’d love to see that happen! It hasn’t yet, but as Ted Lasso would say, “believe!”