I’m knee-deep in one of my least favorite parts of a biography. I’m putting together the index. It’s painstaking work, where each page has to be scanned for keywords, and the correct page number has to be assigned to it. With a biography, it’s even more complex. Under the heading of Anthony Boucher, I have to list all the sub-categories, birth, death, marriage, children, etc.. With a man as busy as Boucher, that means that I have 100-120 categories just for him. All which need page numbers and references. It’s a bit easier with some software, but given the amount of work that needs to be done, I don’t have the time to learn a new software package.

This task typically takes hours upon slow hours to complete. I’ll be at this for at least 2 weeks, with multiple passes through a 300 page book.

I’m going back to it now. You can find me on Anthony Boucher, editor of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction page 168.