Students in grades three through six at Holliman Elementary School gathered in the auditorium Monday morning for a rare opportunity and special treat to hear from an established author.

Jen Calonita, who has written many books, including multiple series, stopped by the school to speak with students about how she developed her love of reading and writing and what she learned along the way to becoming a successful author. She also shared examples of her early work as a writer.

Melanie Cluley, a member of the Holliman Parents Teachers Association (PTA), knew Calonita because she attended high school with her husband and jumped at the chance to bring her to the school to talk with students.

“I love her work. She had always done young adult books, but I got excited when I heard she did a children’s book,” Cluley said. “Any chance you have to [engage] kids in reading and writing, you want to jump on that.”

Cluley said she received support from school principal Joe Coffey, who she said “is very supportive of outside education enrichment.”

Coffey introduced Calonita, saying, “We’re very fortunate to have Jen Calonita here today. It’s an admirable thing to write a book; not a lot of people can do that because it takes a lot of skills, like the things you’re learning about now.”

Calonita began by asking how many students like to read and how many like to write (more preferred to read).

“The more you read, the better you write,” she said. “It took me a long time to learn that.”

Calonita told students how she initially struggled with reading in school because she had a hard time sounding out words and hated to read out loud. She said that all changed when one of her teachers asked her what she wanted to read about.

“I wanted to read about girls my own age going on adventures,” she said. “I discovered the more I read, the better I would write.”

Calonita told students she joined her school newspaper and began writing. Eventually she landed a job at Teen People magazine.

“I started by opening up mail, picking up coffee and dry cleaning and putting flowers in the offices to make them look nice,” she said. “I did that for the first six months, then I started working as an assistant to one of the editors.”

Calonita said he perseverance paid off.

“It came time for the MTV Movie Awards and the reporter that was supposed to cover it was sick, so I got the opportunity to fill in,” she said.

Through that experience, Calonita said she was able to interview celebrities like Jennifer Lopez, Beyonce and Justin Timberlake and she realized she wanted to write about celebrities and did that for five years at the magazine.

“It was a fun job and I loved what I did,” she said, adding she was able to go backstage at concerts and visit movie sets to do interviews. “I thought about what it was like growing up in Hollywood and when I was interviewing Anne Hathaway, I asked her that, thinking it would be a lot of fun.”

Calonita said Hathaway told her it can be hard growing up in an environment where you’re always competing with someone and you have a camera following you around. That inspired Calonita’s first book, “Secrets of My Hollywood Life.”

“The book is about a girl on a hit TV show growing up in Hollywood,” she said. “I wanted the main character to reveal secrets of Hollywood that she knew, real life secrets that I learned from interviewing celebrities.”

Calonita told students when she had the idea for a book, she had never written one before so she called a publisher and asked if anyone would be willing to take her out to lunch and help her with the book.

“The woman that answered the phone was an editor and she became the editor for eight of my books,” she said. “When you write a book, you have to write a book proposal first and then outline all the chapters.”

Calonita said after she turned in her first draft, she was told she wrote a lot about Hollywood but not a lot about school. So she went back, did another draft, turned it in and was told she wrote a lot about school but not enough about Hollywood.

Calonita said she was getting frustrated and started wondering if she had what it took to finish the book, but she turned in a third draft and was finally told she got it right.

Colanita told students writing a book is a lot like putting a puzzle together – there are many pieces that need to be shuffled around – and it requires several drafts.

“Usually there are three to four drafts before the book is published,” she said. “I love revising now because I love improving the book.”

Calonita said it can be overwhelming to receive criticism, especially when you write for six months and may only have one month to implement all the changes.

“I realized that my editor wasn’t trying to make me feel bad, but rather she was trying to make the book better,” she said.

Calonita also told students it helps to write what you know. In addition to writing the series about a child actor, Calonita has also written two books about sleep away camp, having been a camp counselor in the past.

Calonita said she is the mother of two young boys and one of them asked her when she would write something that he would want to read, since most of her books were young adult and about girls.

“I started thinking about fairy tales and decided I wanted to approach them differently,” she said. “So I came up with the concept of Fairy Tale Reform School, which is run by the wicked step-mother from Cinderella who has a change of heart. She opens the school with other fairy tale villains to help set children on the right path so they don’t become villains.”

Calonita said she gets good suggestions and feedback from family members about her books, including from her mother who reads everything before its published as well as her sons, one of which even picked the villain for her next book in the Fairy Tale Reform School series.

“My son would read it and give me ideas. He would be excited about the chapters, but he would say there’s not a lot going on; there’s a lot of talking but not a lot of doing,” she said. “He said he wanted Gargoyles coming to life, and now that’s one of my favorite parts of the book.”

Calonita said she finished “Flunked,” the first in the Fairy Tale Reform School series, about a year ago and has already finished the next one in the series called “Charmed.” She has already started another series called VIP, with the first book titled “I’m With the Band.”

“When I was growing up, I was a big fan of a certain boy band that shall remain nameless, and I always thought it would be great if my mom became the band’s manager and I got to go on tour with them all summer, so that’s what the book is about,” she said.

Calonita answered questions from students, who lined up in front of her and took their turn at the microphone. She answered everything from if she would want to write a book with another author (she would) and does she receive and answer fan mail (she does, via email), to how long it takes to write a book (usually a year to a year-and-a-half from when starting a book to seeing it in book stores) and what is her favorite part about writing books.

“My favorite part is hearing opinions from the readers and seeing the finished book in stores,” she said.

When asked how she deals with negative feedback, Calonita said it can be tough but she knows she’s doing the best she can with the story and that’s the most important thing.

“Sometimes you need a break to clear your head when you run into writer’s block,” she said in response to another question. “If you’re distracted, you won’t do your best writing.”

Principal Coffey said he knew Calonita would be good, “but I was floored at how good she was.”

“There’s a world of experience that she brings with her, and her lessons were practical about reading and writing,” he said. “We have a character theme each month, and this month it’s perseverance, and I think she spoke to that perfectly with overcoming her struggles to be a writer.”

Coffey said Calonita was articulate and thinks well on her feet to answer all of the students’ questions.

“I hope to have her back in the future,” he said.