IWSG and Interview with Susan Oloier

It's time for the September meeting of the Insecure Writer's Support Group, hosted by Alex J. Cavanaugh, and as usual I can't believe another month has come and gone.

As I mentioned in a previous post, my "real life" job, meaning the one that pays the bills, has been very hectic the past month so I haven't had much of a chance to focus on blogging and writing. But that may be a blessing in disguise, because I am having a terrible time playing the waiting game with my novel that I submitted to a publisher earlier in the summer.

I was (and still am) thrilled to receive a request for the full ms of Polar Night and, while it's a good problem to have, it sure is hard to wait for an answer. The publisher told me they normally take about three months to respond, but I still can't help checking my e-mail constantly and hoping for a response. Of course, I know that response could be negative, so I also tell myself that waiting is definitely better than being turned down.

Still, patience is not one of my virtues, so it's been hard for me to accept that waiting (and then waiting some more) is an unavoidable part of the writing life. I knew this already from submitting queries to magazine editors, but since I tend to get more insecure with each day that passes, it's a difficult pill for me to swallow.

How do you cope with all the waiting involved in publishing? Is it something you struggle with as well?

Thanks as always to Alex for hosting this wonderful group!

On a side note, I interviewed my friend Susan Oloier, author of the recently released "Superstitions," for my books column and was thrilled to be able to write about her work. If you'd like the check the interview out, the article is available here. Thanks to Susan for chatting with me!