We have guests arriving tomorrow.  The house needs a thorough washing, the laundry too.  I also have a manuscript I need to work on and several other projects lurking in the background.

And what am I doing?  Obsessing over the submissions being reviewed.

My short story babies got on the big school bus.  Some left months ago, while others have been gone only a week.  In their absence, I worry how they are doing.  Then I tell myself not to worry, it’s in God’s hands.  Finally, I write another one and send it off too.  It’s become this strange parent-child dance.  Sadly, in this process I am avoiding my oldest baby: the unpublished, three-times rewritten, middle-grade novel that I plan to pitch next month.

Ok.  This all sounds a little over dramatic.  But what else is to be expected from a fiction writer?  I am, after all, an adult child making up stories.  My work is a product of an overactive imagination. And I love it!

How do you deal with the waiting after submitting your work?