Now that I've embarked on the presumably lengthy journey to publication, I'm doing a lot of waiting.  I loan out the MS to a beta reader and then I wait for feedback.  I send the query to my editor cousin and wait for a thumbs up.  I email tentative query notes to a few select agents and wait for the no's to roll in.

I know that the process is going to be long.  But the waiting has go to go.  After pouring myself into my novel for months straight, I can't just sit back and twiddle my thumbs.  And frankly, I'm wary of writing the "next book" in the series until I sell the first.  It seems like I'd jinx myself with that kind of hubris.

So, I have a different plan.  I'm writing the book that isn't next.  I'm filling pages with violence, back stabbing, and disgust.  After I sit down to write a few pages like that, I feel better.  Creatively fulfilled, emotionally relieved, and much more patient.  Then I wait some more, but without the stress.  The stress I leave behind in the book that's not next.