"Seriously?", she asked with a raised eyebrow.

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At last count I have 21 poems out for review to five different places.  Holy. Shit.

First, I kind of want to pat myself on the back for keeping up with my goal of one submission per month.  So "go me"!  Second, I kind of want to tear all of my hair out because this waiting business is for the birds.  Seriously, I know that I have touched on this topic before, but it does not make me any less impatient.  I have a hard time waiting for that self-addressed stamped envelope to boomerang back.  I can handle a rejection letter with much grace and aplomb (no really, I totally can).  I am simply very uncomfortable thinking about what goes on between the time someone opens my submission envelope and my SASE is returned.  Who is reading my stuff?  What do they think?  Am I conveying emotion?  Am I making connections with readers?  SO. STRESSFUL.  I mean, I am a creative person!  (Read: overactive imagination.)  I am able to go from zero to worst-case-scenario is less than 5 seconds!  It is way too easy for me to dream up the most horrible situation, including raging editors and giggling editorial assistants who scoff at my feeble attempts to publish.  Sigh.

Oh well.  There will always be hazelnut coffee and the interwebs to keep me sufficiently distracted for a bit longer.  Ending pity party sequence - now.

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