Green-eyed girl

I am lucky, fortunate, and blessed. I have so many things others want and need. And, in fact, I don’t need that much. Seriously. I’m the kind of person who could probably live on a deserted island (as long as it was truly deserted—not like LOST where there are other people who can see you in your bathing suit.)

Oh, and would there be cable and internet on the island? If so, count me in.

But back to my original point: I don’t need a lot, which is why it’s weird that I have started morphing into a very jealous person—like supervillian jealous. Obviously, this is a point of concern.

It started with Opal, everyone’s favorite anthology (not really), and the fact that it was in both People and TeenPeople (no folks, I’m really not getting over that anytime soon.)

Sure, I have a movie deal (and unlike Opal, mine’s moving forward), and I’ve gotten tons of emails from fans who liked the book, and I have the best agent and editors in the world!

What else could a writer want—right?

The answer is… a lot. Basically, everything everyone else has.

As a farm girl, I totally should have seen this one coming. The grass really is always greener—literally. I have observed enough farm animals in my life to know this is absolutely true.

But there’s something else I totally know:

Jealousy = Bad

So I’m coming clean. I’m freeing my soul, right here and now. I'm trying to be a good person, so here's my list. These are the people I am jealous of and the reasons why:

--E. Lockhart for having a book coming out in the U.K.

--Alison Pace for being mentioned on Jennifer Weiner’s blog

--Jennifer Weiner for having the blog everyone wants to be mentioned on

--all the people who didn’t space out yesterday and totally forget it was the first Saturday in May and miss the Kentucky Derby!

--the writers of Veronica Mars because they actually have managed to top last year’s amazing season. Top it! How did they do that?

--all the people who haven’t written a book they’re 99.9% in love with, because it’s so much easier to write one book like that than to turn around and write another one.

--Megan Shull because she wrote Amazing Grace which is the kind of book every writer gets jealous of (at least this writer).

--my sister, who is pregnant, and therefore has a reason for looking pregnant in the pictures we took at Easter

--all the unpublished/uncontracted authors who only worry about pleasing themselves and who can take as much time as they need to do that.

--whatever lucky person gets to apply Wentworth Miller’s Tattoo for those shirtless scenes on Prison Break

--Felicity Huffman, who gets prettier every year and who also gets to be married to William H. Macy. Really, if you had to be married to a Hollywood guy, could you do much better than William H. Macy?

--the girls on Super Sweet Sixteen because they get amazing parties—but they’re also kind of idiots, so I take that one back—better to have a party with people who really love you and give the ridiculous amount of money to charity or toward college. Right?

I'm sure there's more--there's bound to be. But that’s a start.

I feel better already.

Tons of writing and deadlines await!

In the meantime, happy reading.

--Ally