I've been too busy to talk to my (fictional) boyfriend, George Clooney, lately, so imagine how happy I was when I got an (imaginary) call from him a while ago.

GC: Hey, you.

Me: Hey yourself.

GC: So now I have to hear about publication dates by reading your blog? I have to say...I'm not feeling very important.

Me: I'm sorry. It's been pretty crazy trying to finish the book.

GC: So what exactly does take so long about finishing books?

Me: George, don't you remember when I blogged about this? I thought I'd explained everything then but I guess you forgot.

GC: Yeah, I guess you have covered this before.

Me: Yes, I have.

GC: But why is it taking so much longer for GG3 than for other books?

Me: Actually, the hardback of LYKY came out a year and a half before the hardback of CMH. That's approximately how long it will take for GG3.

And most authors don't do more than a book a year. Sure, there are exceptions (Meg Cabot makes us all look like slackers), but a lot of really amazing authors do a book every two years, so I happen to think that a year and a half isn't too lazy of me.

Plus, let's not forget that I had a non-writing full-time job up until November.

And Cross My Heart was a really, really painful/stressful/terrible experience and I needed to take some time off to decide if I even WANTED to keep writing books.

GC: But some of the commentors said that it didn't even take that long for the Harry Potter books to come out.

Me: Well the commentors were...how do I put this gently? Wrong. Or mistaken. Let's go with mistaken. (Note: the dates on that link represent when the books were published in the United States. The early books were released in the U.K. first so that's why the early books came out more quickly here--they'd already been written and published elsewhere.)

GC: But can't you do something to make it come out faster?

Me: Me? You're the big-time movie star, can't YOU do something? I'm just the person staying up all hours of the night trying to finish the darn thing.

GC: Ally, do you need a nap?

Me: Yes. Yes, I do.

-Ally

OH MY GOSH!

My favorite Dennis Lehane novel has been made into a Martin Scorsese movie staring Leonardo DiCaprio!

How did I not know this!?!?!?!

--Ally

Wow, things are just blogtastic around here lately! What's this? Three blogs in 24 hours? I'm insane.

But I just had to tell you guys that carpenters are downstairs RIGHT NOW beginning the evil cabinet exorcism.

I'm expecting the priests to be here soon.

-Ally

Hello Gallagher Girls (and guys),

I'm pleased to report that I am, in fact, back from my top secret mission.

It was a lot of fun, and I had a wonderful weekend in DENVER!

Operative Ally Carter (hereafter referred to as "the Operative") traveled to Denver, Colorado to engage in a TOP SECRET mission.

My best friend from college, Crazy Beth, has been living in Denver for the past several years and, sadly, I've been too busy to go visit her until now.

The Operative recruited backup for a very important covert operation.

Have I mentioned that my literary agent, Kristin Nelson, also lives in Denver?

And then she recruited MORE backup.

So it seemed to make good sense for me to make the trip out to see Kristin and Beth. And then Beth and I were talking about books that we love and how Stephenie Meyer was going to be coming to Denver...

The Operatives went into a deep cover operation in order to infiltrate a very large (and potentially volatile) crowd.

There are occasionally perks to being an author and one of them is that you can have your agent call Stephenie's publicist (the uber-awesome and totally Gallagher Girlish Elizabeth) and set really TOP SECRET plans into motion...

The Operatives engaged in a clandestine rendezvous with very cool People of Interest.

Writing is such a solitary endeavor that I always enjoy meeting other writers, and obviously Stephenie was no exception. She was, of course, incredibly busy so we only got to speak for a second, but it was fun none-the-less.

Also, it was just AMAZING to see the crowd of screaming and crazy, yet patient and attentive fans.

Beth, Kristin, Sara (Kristin's co-worker) and I all had a great time, and I'm really glad I went.

The Operative tried to sleep on the plane because the vacation is now officially over and she really needs to get back to work!

-Ally

ps...if any of you live in Denver and would like a signed Gallagher Girls book, I stopped by the Tattered Cover and Barnes and Noble (both downtown Denver locations) to sign what they had, so check them out.