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Elizabeth Eulberg was born and raised in Wisconsin before moving to New York City to work in the publishing industry. She is the author of novels for teens and young readers, including The Lonely Hearts Club and Better Off Friends, and the Great Shelby Holmes middle-grade series.
Jen Calonita graduated from Boston College where she majored in communications. She writes books for teens, including the Secrets of My Hollywood Life series.
Calonita's The Taylors (Scholastic) is a middle-grade novel featuring four girls named Taylor who dedicate themselves to attending the Eras Tour; Eulberg's Love Stories (Scholastic) is the first in a YA series about the very same Taylors.
Jen Calonita: So, our The Taylors books just came out in the world!
Elizabeth Eulberg: And Taylor Swift gave us the best gift by releasing a new album to help promote them!
Calonita: We both got to see illustrations of our girls--Teffy, Tay Tay, Taylor, and TS--on display cases for the Scholastic Book Fairs today.
Eulberg: I freaked out, and I'm often told that I need to calm down so I was A LOT. I had no idea this was going to happen: our girls on huge displays in schools around the country. It made me so excited, like I was going to the Eras Tour all over again. What about you?
Calonita: For me, the moment came last week when someone sent me a Scholastic Book Fairs poster with our girls on it. As someone who has taken my own kids to countless book fairs at their schools, having a book on a poster is peak coolness.
Eulberg: Writing these books has been amazing, since I got to work with you! Honestly Jen, there's nobody else I could imagine doing this with.
Calonita: Same! We have known each other for, what, 20 years now? Fun fact: you were my publicist when my first book, Secrets of My Hollywood Life, came out in 2005.
Eulberg: And we hit it off right away. I like to say we're basically the same person. We even share our childhood number one fandom: New Kids on the Block. I love you Jen, but I'll still fight you for Joey McIntyre.
Calonita: We've also road tripped together for our books. I remember one time you made us an epic playlist and we wound up singing so much my voice was hoarse. And we've been roomies countless times.
Eulberg: And now we're writing together! On my first trip to New York after living in London for five years, you were one of the first people I saw. You and I were walking the High Line and you said that David Levithan was going to talk to me about a project. I saw him that night at dinner and he told me the project was going to be about four girls named after Taylor Swift and that you'd write their middle-grade origin story while I tackled their first loves in YA. I may have screamed, "Yes, yes, a thousand times yes!"
Calonita: I don't think anything like this has been done before, releasing a middle-grade and YA book at the same time about the same characters?
Eulberg: Yes! What I loved about creating these characters and this world was how we were able to use our different strengths. We started a Google doc so we could keep everything straight: secondary characters, family, hobbies, etc. And you're so good at description, I just let you have at it.
Calonita: And you are the best at capturing personalities! I felt like I could see each one vividly when I read your first draft. I loved having you as a partner in all this. Being able to share our books with each other and fine-tune the characters and the stories together, then working with our amazing editor, Maya Marlette, was such a gift.
Eulberg: I really do feel like they are OUR girls. I got emotional when our cover artist, Liz Parkes, did character illustrations of them side by side from both books. We saw them grow up. I'm so proud of our work. And I won't give any spoilers away, but I still SOB at something you did at the end of your book. GAH! I mean, I did beg you to do it, and I have no shame.
Calonita: It was your idea, and it was a great one.
Eulberg: And, of course, this gave us an excuse to listen to Taylor Swift 24/7 and study videos for "research." I did a deep dive into her lyrics and pushed myself to include lots of fun Easter eggs for the real ones.
Calonita: The girls are trying hard to get tickets to the Eras tour in my book, which is something I went through. I didn't get in the lottery and was sure I wasn't going to get to go. I kept freaking out to my friend Elpida about the Ticketmaster debacle and finally she texted me: "Call me." She'd somehow gotten into the queue and snagged six tickets, including one for me, that was supposed to be a birthday gift, but I was so upset, she had to tell me early. I was very fortunate--I had so many friends who didn't get to go. But the stories! About trying to get tickets, how certain kids were traveling abroad for shows, what people were paying. I knew I wanted to write a book that showed kids who had a budget and stuck to it and had to find another way to make their Eras dream come true.
Eulberg: But mostly these books are about the friendship between four girls. I love how this one thing they have in common starts their friendship in The Taylors. When I was at Wembley Stadium for the Eras Tour, I really felt like I was there with 90,000 new friends. We traded friendship bracelets, got dressed up, and sang along like our lives depended on it. It was such a joy.
Calonita: Taylor Swift brings people together! I think that's what I'm most excited about: going to bookstores and schools and meeting readers and Swifties, talking about favorite songs and trading friendship bracelets.
Eulberg: I think I'm going to spend more time singing and dancing with readers at our events than signing books.
Calonita: After 20 years of friendship, that doesn't surprise me at all.