Hey everyone!

I have sort of an announcement to make...no--strike that! A challenge!

November is coming, and all you writers (either aspiring or published) know what November is:

NATIONAL NOVEL WRITING MONTH!

I first heard of NaNoWriMo a few years ago, but this is the first time I've ever taken part. The mission of the program is to encourage people to write the first draft a 50,000 word novel between 12:01 a.m. November first and 11:59 p.m. November 30.

Can it be done? You bet.

Will your novel be perfect? Absolutely not.

Could there be some really good stuff in your first draft that you can make even better with your second? Almost always.

A lot of you write me emails or come up to me at conferences and say things like "I'd like to write a book someday, but every time I try it ends up sounding stupid." And you know what I have to say to that? Join the freaking club.

Seriously.

Every writer I know has a box of really bad books (or, in my case, screenplays) hidden under a bed or in the back of the closet or something. I mean it, guys--we ALL have them! I like to call them "the dirty water books."

What are the dirty water books, you might ask. Well, I'll tell you.

You know how when a garden hose lays outside for too long without being used and then one day you turn on the water? You know how the water that comes out first is always dirty and rusty looking and full of spiders and leaves and stuff?

Well guess what? Writing is exactly the same way. What comes out first is ALWAYS the dirty water--full of nonsense and trash.

How do you get to the clean water? You let it run.

Same with writing. The only way to get to the good stuff is to just let the water run and run and run until the words start coming better and the story makes more sense and you know who your characters really, truly are at their cores.

The only way to find the center of the story is to let the water run.

So that's what I'll be doing this November. I plan on turning on the tap on November 1 and I expect a lot of trash to come out--but that's okay.

A lot of extremely talented writers are going to be doing this with me, and if you want to join then I think that would be great as well. Sign up is free at www.nanowrimo.org.

AND...they have a junior NaNo program this year for you teens and pre-teens so...

Let that water run!

Oh, and just in case you're wondering, I'll be writing a little book called Gallagher Girls 3, so if you sign up and take part...we would technically be writing our books together.

Just in case you're interested.

--Ally

Hi everyone,

It's time for another blog in bullets, I believe. Because I can't seem to string together a blog that makes any long-run sense. So we're focusing on the short-run, people.

And that's not necessarily a bad thing.

* I made some major progress yesterday evening on the "email replying" front. I'm still not finished by a long-shot, but I'm getting there!

*I have a paper cut on my finger.

* It really, really hurts.

* Which wouldn't ordinarily bother a person.

* But I'm a wuss.

* And speaking of wusses, I think I'm kind of sick.

* And speaking of sick, does anyone have a REALLY good broccoli/cheese soup recipe you could email me or leave in the comments? That would rock.

* And speaking of recipes here, it's about popcorn ball time again. Do you guys have any idea how many people find this website by searching for "popcorn ball"? It's kinda scary.

* Like the number of trick-or-treaters I get at my house every Halloween. Like an INSANE number of trick-or-treaters. Like I open the door and there will be a dozen kids on my porch. All night long.

* And do you know what else is scary? Moving. Which I'm going to be doing soon. But first I have to find a house and I think that might be really, really, really hard because...

THINGS I NEED (AND/OR REALLY, REALLY WANT) IN A NEW HOUSE

* High ceilings. Seriously. My current house has 10 foot ceilings and anything lower than 9 now feels cave-like to me. I'm incredibly spoiled.

* Either an AWESOME kitchen or an utterly awful kitchen I won't feel guilty about tearing out and re-doing

* A washer/dryer that is NOT in the basement (and preferably really near the master bedroom)

* A "writing room"

* A office

* NOTE: the writing room and the office are two very different rooms since one will have internet access and one WILL NOT!

* A good place for my treadmill

* A good street

* Close proximity to my sister and brother-in-law's house so that when Niece #1 decides to run away she won't have to go too far to reach a safe place

* Preferably at least on bedroom on the first floor

* The writing room should be a looooooong way from the kitchen

* Oh, and a garage. Preferably an ATTACHED garage.

So see...

I'm totally going to be homeless....

But at least I should soon know how to make broccoli/cheese soup and popcorn balls.

-Ally

Hey everyone,

My name is Ally Carter

And I'm a very, very bad blogger.

I know that you guys are coming here, looking for something funny or wise or embarrassing, or something. But instead you've been getting squat.

Because I'm a very, very bad blogger.

But please believe me when I say that I've been crazy busy with a bunch of really random stuff. However, this week things should slow down quite a bit and I vow to return to blogging as usual. Seriously. I mean it.

Also, I'm sooooooooo happy to report that I think I finally have my computer situation resolved!!!! Which means that this week I hope to finally get back to answering reader emails!!!!!!!!!! So if you've written to me lately and I haven't written back, hopefully that will be resolved within the next week or so.

So...in conclusion:

1. I'm a bad blogger

2. I'm a bad email replier

3. This week I vow to be better at both 1 and 2

4. Oklahoma State University won a REALLY big game last Saturday!!!!

5. I'm fully aware that 4 doesn't really pertain to 1 or 2 or, by extension, 3

6. But 4 makes me happy and therefore unaffected by 5

7. And if you can't embrace the 6s in life then...heck.

8. Good night.

9. Ally

Hey everyone,

I want to start by saying THANK YOU to all of you who have bought, read, and written to tell me you've enjoyed the books. It means more than you will ever know.

And now I have a lot of news to share and not a lot of time to share it cleverly, so I'm just going to put it out there if that's okay.

1. We got word yesterday that CROSS MY HEART AND HOPE TO SPY will be on the NY Times Bestseller list again next week! How happy does that make me? So insanely, giddy happy.

2. I can FINALLY tell you guys officially that yes, there will be a third Gallagher Girls book! We just finalized the deal, and I'm thrilled to be continuing the series with Hyperion, my publishing home.

However, I can't tell you any details about the book or even what the official title will be (we're calling it GG3 for now.) I don't know an exact publication date yet but it will (sadly) probably be AT LEAST a year away (and likely longer).

3. Not only have I sold GG3, but I'm also over-the-moon excited about Project K!

What is Project K? Well, it's the codename I gave for a new project I was working on a few weeks ago, but since the project has been sold I now consider it declassified, so you guys can read all about it!

Project K isn't really the title (I was just using that for blogging purposes.) In truth, it doesn't have a title yet, but I call it KAT.

Why? Because it's about a girl named Kat.

Who is a thief.

It's hopefully the first book in a new series pitched as Ocean's 11 meets Veronica Mars, about a girl from a family of high-end conmen who must choose between leaving the family business or saving her art thief father by pulling one last heist.

I'm excited about Kat. I mean...really, really excited. And I hope you guys are as well.

3. And I guess my final piece of news is that in the very near future I'll be quitting my day job in order to write full-time! Yay. It's not often a person gets to do what they wanted to do when they were 12.

And very soon I'll be one of those people.

The last thing I'll say is that I know you guys have TONS of questions about the girls. And the boys. And the history of Cammie's family. And Cammie's future.

Well, let me just say that all of those questions have answers, but I don't think you want to know them...not yet.

I mean, do you really want to know if/when Bella from the Twilight books will become a vampire? Or if Princess Mia from the Princess Diaries will end up with her high school boyfriend, Michael? Or if Stephanie Plum (from Janet Evanovich's amazingly funny series) will marry Morelli or Ranger?

Sure...we may WANT to know those things, but do we really want them TOLD to us? Outright? Ruined?

Or would you rather keep reading?

I don't think you REALLY want the answers to those questions, so that's why I'm not going to give them to you.

I will, however, say that I do plan to do several more books and that each one of those books will be important in answering all of those questions. And more.

You guys will just have to trust me when I tell you that the Gallagher Girls have only just begun to fight.

Good night, everyone. And happy reading!

Ally