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I have meant to blog so many times in the past year, but as you can see if you check this joint out, well, ever, that hasn’t happened. I forgot how busy things get when you’re on the staff of a TV show and you’re also trying to have a life around it. So I’m sorry, blog, for neglecting you.

But now that I’ve had some time to process the “Allegiance” experience, I wanted to write this to share my whole crazy journey with you guys.

Just under a year ago (literally, by about one week), I got a call from my agent that George Nolfi, the creator of “Allegiance,” wanted to meet with me. I had read the pilot early on in staffing season and loved it, put it on my wish list, and hoped I’d at least get in the mix for it. And just like that, I was.

My main goal at the meeting was to not geek out about talking to someone who had co-written “The Bourne Ultimatum,” which, if you know me, was a challenge of epic proportions. But I managed. George’s passion for the show and his excitement about doing TV were wonderful to be around, and I came away from the meeting wanting the job not just because it was another staff writer job and thus I could continue to be a working writer, but because I could feel, in my gut, that this was going to be a great show to be a part of.

I was not wrong.

Because George directed an astounding five episodes of our show (including the pilot), he was steering the ship from New York (where we shot) a great deal of the time. That meant I spent most of my writers’ room life with our other two EPs, John Glenn and Rashad Raisani. If any of you ever get to work for these guys, do it. They are great bosses. If Rashad is reading this right now, he probably just made a face at me because he hates the “boss” word. But I only speak the truth. If John Glenn is reading this, he’s probably just shocked I am doing something other than watching TV.

Our writers’ room was a great mix of folks at all levels, and a place where hierarchy wasn’t important, good ideas were. I’m also proud to note that I again worked on a staff with multiple female writers – four this go-round – so as scary as those numbers are about women and minorities not being hired on shows, don’t let them discourage you. Some folks get it.

Because this was my first experience in a writers’ room, it was a little intimidating at first, but I fell in love with it quickly and completely. While I was working on my outline and script, I came into the office every day so that when I took breaks, I could run down to the room and see where the story was going without me, and I honestly couldn’t wait to get back full-time once my pages were in. There’s something so incredible about knowing that even if you only know part of the fix, someone else will ride that wave with you and help fill in the rest of the connective tissue till the whole idea works. And then that moment when you all know, “Yes, this is our episode!” and you can send it off to outline… yeah, that’s pretty great.

Of course, sometimes it turns out that’s really not the episode – but then you all fix it together. TV writing is a team sport, my friends, and that’s never more evident than when everyone has to roll up their sleeves and figure out why something isn’t working when you were all sure it would. But that’s the beauty of the team part — someone solves this timeline issue, someone digs up new research for a different take, someone comes up with a new in to the scene, and voila — episode fixed!

I was fortunate enough to be at “Allegiance” long past my initial twenty weeks, and so I was there when our premiere numbers came in and left us all disappointed. I’m not sure I’m over that yet. But we still had work to do and a finale to finish, and so that’s what we did. I am so glad for our whole cast and crew that we got a chance to finish telling the story of the O’Connor family and give it a real ending.

One of the best things of all to happen was that the episode I wrote aired right before our cancellation, and my mom got to watch it on her very own TV in her living room. That was pretty awesome.

Despite our being off the air, I am happy that the fans “Allegiance” did have are getting to finish the ride online at NBC.com and On Demand, where the network is releasing the rest of the episodes. The finale will be out next week, and I hope people come away feeling like they had an intense, interesting run to the finish line with Alex, Mark, Katya, Natalie, Victor, Sarah, and Sam.

A few things that were extra great about this whole experience – I got to write more lines for my buddy Kenny Choi, who I worked with on “Ironside”; I got to help plot all kinds of evil things for Giancarlo Esposito, who I’ve loved since “Homicide,” to do as our big bad of the season; and I got the chance to work with my friend and a great editor, Phil Fowler, who I met while I was a closed captioner and he was an assistant editor over on “Grey’s Anatomy.”

But the best thing is that there are people on this staff that I will know the rest of my life. Whether we work together again or not, some of them are stuck with me… so in case they didn’t know that, fair warning. That’s what y’all get for being awesome.

I’m smack in the maelstrom that is staffing season once again, and so when I know what my next adventure is going to be, I’ll make the time to update here with the news. In the meantime, if you’re running back and forth across LA on the meeting-go-round as well, good luck! And if you want to be, make sure you’re up to date on all the writing program deadlines and getting those applications and scripts out there.

There are no guarantees that once you get a job as a TV writer it’ll last more than twenty weeks or longer than a season… but while you have it, I hope it’s the best job you’ve ever had. So far, I am two-for-two.

Here’s hoping number three is just around the corner… and just as great. But maybe a season two next time?