Edits, proofs, first drafts

I had just reached page 300 in the first draft of my current book when the UPS man rang my doorbell. A nice fat package with the galleys for my Aug.08 book for final proofing. I put aside my current WIP to begin reading a story I'd written about a year and a half ago, and which I'd edited for the final time about a month and a half ago. This will be the last time I read it before I see it again as a real book.

I had to wrench my thoughts from my current hero and heroine and get back into this other couple. Then this morning the doorbell goes again, and what? The UPS man again? Another fat package with a manuscript. This was my Oct.08 book, written about a year ago. My editor has just line-edited it, and now it's my turn to go over her changes and suggestions and do any final editing of my own, before seeing it as a galley.

By this afternoon, I was knee-deep (?) in the trials and tribulations of yet another hero and heroine.

I remember once reading an interview of an author who said he was usually working on about three writing projects at a time; he'd put one down and take up the other. I shook my head thinking at the time, I could never get out of my current story and into another at the drop of the hat like that...

Well, I guess you never really know till you try.