indexes in fiction 6

I recently read the novel Racing the Moon, written by Terry Prone,  and I was surprised that it mentions indexes.

Racing the Moon is the coming-of-age story of fraternal twin sisters, Darcy and Sophia, in Dublin from the 1980s to the 1990s. It begins with an accident at their fourth birthday and follows their life through school and adulthood. Most of the book is written in the third person and the rest is written via letters and later emails showing the development of technology in the 1990s.

The blurb on the cover describes the sisters as:

Darcy and Sophia. Twin sisters. Complete opposites. Sophia: beautiful, successful and a keeper of secrets. Darcy: fat, red-haired - and always meeting trouble halfway. Racing the Moon is their story: the story of a generation moving from a cautious convent background to international careers and contact through the Internet.

On page 97, Sophia and her mother are discussing the quote “tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow…” and wondering where it comes from. Sophia’s mother thinks it is from a Scottish play, and that the dictionary of quotations will have it. Sophia finds the dictionary, looks up the index and finds the whole quotation. Interestingly, the whole quotation is printed but not the name of the Scottish play, ‘Macbeth’.

 For anyone writing a book which needs a proofread or an index, hire a professional from AFEPI (Association of Freelance Editors, Proofreaders & Indexers of Ireland) , the Society of Indexers, or CIEP (Charter Institute of Editing and Proofreading) to lighten your load!