E.J. Calderon
Queer coming-of-age, messy first love, hard homes, soft landings, brave choices, and becoming yourself before you feel ready.
E.J. Calderon writes stories for readers who like tender chaos, complicated families, safe adults, awkward crushes, sports boys, weird humor, and courage that starts small but still changes everything.
Currently Becoming
New releases, messy first loves, hard choices, and stories about becoming yourself before you feel ready.
For Safety, Wear Goggles
Available September 2026
A funny, tender queer sports romcom about hazardous eye contact, fake dogs, and bigger courage.
Theo Santoro is a senior water polo player who’s spent his life looking easygoing, normal, and impossible to question. Mason Grey is the openly gay baseball player with weird jokes, sharp edges, and no interest in being anyone’s secret. What starts with classroom notes and a fake dog named Waffles turns into something messy, sweet, and impossible to ignore.
Project In-Between
Standalone YA Liminal Horror
Fall 2027
A creepy, tender upper-YA liminal horror story about grief, strange kindness, broken worlds, and learning which monsters are actually dangerous.
After a paranormal investigation goes horribly wrong, eighteen-year-old Tansy wakes trapped in the In-Between—a moss-choked version of her world filled with masked spirits, silent little creatures, and rules she doesn’t understand.
The only other human she finds is Jude, a shadow-touched boy with too many secrets and a habit of disappearing when she needs answers most.
But when Tansy discovers her missing best friend may still be alive, surviving means trusting the quiet monsters, questioning the boy who saved her, and learning that sometimes the things that look the most frightening are the ones trying hardest to keep you alive.
Project Bear & Butterfly
Standalone YA Coming-of-Age
In Progress
A tender, complicated coming-of-age story about pregnancy, first heartbreak, hard choices, and building a life that still belongs to you.
At eighteen, Piper “Pip” gets pregnant after being told she was safe. Her boyfriend, Oscar “Oso” is scared, avoidant, and more worried about losing his own stability than taking responsibility.
​
So Pip stops waiting for him to become the person she needs.
She leaves the relationship without shutting him out as a father, gets her own apartment, learns to drive at eight months pregnant, and starts becoming someone she can count on.
Reader Notes
E.J. Calderon books are written for young adult readers and may include emotional coming-of-age themes, identity questions, anxiety, family conflict, divorce aftermath, bullying, hard homes, pregnancy, fear, and characters trying to become themselves in imperfect circumstances.
The stories are soft-hearted, but they may still touch tender places.
