The Hardest Part

I've never been good at waiting.

I'm the kind of person that can't wait for toast, so I set the toaster on the quickest setting, but then when it pops up, I decide it's not done and shove it back in, only to set it on fire. I know this is going to happen, but I do it anyway. Hugh Jackman in Kate and Leopold where are you when I need you?

Somehow though, I manage to be reasonably patient with little Boone. Oh, he's not so little anymore. He weighs at least twenty pounds and eats his chow like someone coming off the Atkins Diet. So far, he's just about potty trained and can(when he's in the mood) fetch, sit and come. I have to keep remembering he's only ten weeks old, so this is pretty darn good.

Did you know Bill Clinton had a Chocolate Lab named Buddy? I saw it on a VH1 Hottest Celebrity Pets special. (Yes, there are plenty of ways to divert myself from working if I really want to be diverted.) So, if I understand correctly, Boone is going to be a sexy pet when he grows up.

But back to the waiting. Waiting to hear on submissions out in the wild shouldn't be so stressful. I should be heading back to the keyboard and not worrying about the things I cannot control. So why is this so easier said than done? Not to get all Deepak Chopra or anything, but I think I've got it figured out...

The unknown is easy to imagine. In your mind, all the possibilities spin themselves out into the void of unknowing. All the things that could happen become more important than what is at that moment. Your mind thinks it's working on the problem, making headway, but in reality it's keeping you from moving forward.

So, onward I go. I'm writing some new scenes today on my YA and trying to forget about what may or may not happen with my submissions.

The waiting is the hardest part. Tom Petty was definitely right about that.