JAMES STRECKER: Please tell us about one of or more projects that that you have been working on or have recently completed. Why exactly do they matter to you and why should they matter to us?
BEVERLY WILLIAMS: “Footsteps Through Time” is the result of a 13-year personal journey to discover my ancestry. As such, it began as an exercise in expository writing. This initial stage involved perfunctory research wherein names, birth and death dates became placeholders on a chart. I started with the 27 names that I knew of. As the intricacies of genealogical research were conquered, some 4066 people living in 1354 family units held a place at the family table. The span of time reaches back to the year 1460 BC.
In proceeding through the initial phase, primary sources of information began to reveal themselves in the form of photos, letters, archived documents, journals, and treasured memorabilia. These sources spoke silent, powerful messages. I listened intently as a life was revealed. I sensed that stories wanted to be told. I recognized that a voice should be given to those who had been silenced. This is the juncture of the project where I decided to write each person’s life story. Not only would I reveal their footsteps through their birth to death existence but I would capture their journey in the context of their extended family as well as the context of the times in which they lived. My narrative writing began to take shape. In composing the family biography and placing the lives of our ancestors in a context that embodies the political, social, economic milieu of their time, my overall goal was to trace our past in the hopes that those who are, and those who are yet to be, will understand and honour the legacy left to them.
Who cares? I have heard that from many. There tend to be two positions taken on the subject of one’s ancestry – rabid interest or abject disdain. There is no middle ground.
It mattered to me on several levels. In 1967 my father began to piece together our family tree. It was to be his “centennial project.” He devised a form for collecting information on his portable Underwood typewriter. He then mailed, via Canada Post, said form to immediate family members. One replied with a completed form. The remainder declined saying, “We don’t talk about these things.” Churches were contacted through a formal letter. All indicated that, “Records are private.” In one instance where hospital records were sought in order to find the final resting place of a loved one, a legal response declared, “If you can prove you are related, we will do our best to assist.” I felt that I had to complete his work in honour of his memory and the memory of those who could no longer speak for themselves.
It mattered to be on a personal level when one of my adult sons asked about my birthplace. That struck a chord that resonated with me throughout my writing. I wanted my sons and grandchildren to connect to our roots.
In following our footsteps through time, we realize that we are because they were. “Stories are part of the most precious heritage of mankind.” (Tahir Shah) I hope that each of us, no matter what our story, want to leave it for others.
It matters because in searching for our roots we uncover who we are and where we came from. It informs the basic question we all ask, “How did I get here? Revealed is the essence of our being as random circumstances through the ages. It also informs our life’s work and purpose. We come to realize that personal traits and characteristics are inherited generation to generation. As I uncovered each generation it became obvious that attitudes are also passed down through the generations. Our immediate future and that of those who will come after us was formed through time and it is ours to know. We are the accumulation of each of our ancestors and the future of each of our descendants.
JS: How did this project change you as a person and as a creator?
BW: My connection to universal truths was awakened through this project. I think in terms of larger contexts for situations encountered. I understand who I am to a greater degree. I know what motivates me. I have come to accept how each person lived their life as I now have some insight into what motivated their actions. I have become less judgmental. I no longer accept perception as being reality. I am now more evidence-based in forming my thoughts.
Project management was part of my forte before I began this writing odyssey. It was the essence of much of my career. There is an inherent difference between managing a project and being managed by a project. In exhausting all avenues to piece together these lives I needed to equip myself with advanced research abilities and freshly minted technical abilities. I learned when to let the creator stop, even for a short respite. It meant finding resolution strategies.
Risk management became a part of my everyday writing. How does one create a story line so as to preserve the dignity and integrity of the person without sacrificing the project? A sense of humour helps.
JS: What might others not understand or appreciate about the work you produce or do?
BW: The preparation required to write this family narrative was akin to being given the component parts of the Roman colosseum and being asked to piece it back together.
The process of gathering both primary and secondary sources of information on which to base my narrative was, at times, exacting, detailed drudgery. While exciting to have boxes of family photographs, not one of the 800 photos indicated who was staring back at me. Those from the early 20th century to the latter part of the century were identifiable by noting family resemblances. Cabinet card photos of the late 1800’s offered clues given the type of card stock, card colour, border type and lettering. The photographers name often appeared on these photos which assisted in narrowing who was portrayed. I sorted each photo by family, identified as best I could who was in each photo and then catalogued these photos for future use.
Personal letters dating back 130 years followed the letter writing etiquette of the times. With their heading, greeting and signature line I was able to assign them to their appropriate place. Preserving them and reading them presented unique difficulties.
Perhaps a concrete example will assist here. War heroes presented themselves throughout my research and subsequent story writing. I told their war journey through their eyes and that of those who had scribbled coded messages on their war records. Audiences read these with respect – not for my portrayal but for the actions of these heroes. To read about someone’s three-year internment in a concentration camp or four-year tour of duty is humbling.
What the audience did not see was the hours of research that went into being able to follow the footsteps of these lives. I waded through digitized records and personal letters written home to loved ones that were so time-worn as to be barely recognizable. It took weeks to parse the military nuances used in recording the details of those who served. At times the work was emotional for me. There were records that caused anger, frustration and profound sadness. These times prompted my opinion voice to seep into the narrative. Denying that opinion was often a struggle.
JS: What are the most important parts of yourself that you put into your work?
BW: I left a chunk of myself in my writing. Readers will know me through my writing. My respect for history which runs DNA deep nudged me ever so gently to keep searching for answers. My sense of humour, ability to empathize and my compassion peek out from the pages. I wrote from my gut without trying to please with words. I wrote as I speak. I disclosed aspects of my humanity through the lives of others. I grieved when they did. I felt afraid when they did. I applauded through their celebrations.
The part of the narrative on this side of the 1940’s is semi-autobiographical. I included discreet objective details based on evidence and laid bare my personal feelings.
JS: What are your biggest challenges as a creative person?
BW: In a word – WORDS! In fact, some 180,751 of them!
As an author, one can’t write without them but there are times when one can’t write with them. I try to be friends with words but we do quarrel at times.
With each draft, edit and re-write, a plethora of components come under scrutiny. Does my syntax create well-formed sentences? Have I overworked words that serve as qualifiers? Have I eliminated unnecessary words? Are my adverbs redundant? Are my adjectives overused? Have I used clichés? (Here I will confess – guilty! As much as I try to avoid them, they follow me) What tone do my words convey? Did I get to the point? Have I used a passive or active voice?
JS: Imagine you are meeting two or three people, living or dead, whom you admire because of their work in your form of artistic expression. What would you say to them and what would they say to you?
BW: “James Clavell, what an honour to meet you. Allow me to begin with an apology. Of the many books you have authored I have read only one – “The Children’s Story…but not just for children.” Perhaps the fact that I have read it countless times and provided a copy to every graduate of my “Foundations of Education” classes, will give me a pass. “
“You present two teachers in this allegory. How would you compare and contrast each of their styles? What changes would you want each of them to make in their teaching styles? What, if any, similarities to current models of world leadership do you see reflected in this story?”
Richard Bach, with reference to your book, “There’s No Such Place as Far Away”, would you give me permission to use a line as part of my epitaph?
James Clavell and Richard Bach may ask me anything! I would cherish a discussion with Richard Bach about making changes to the education system so that students are taught how to think and not what to think.
As for Richard Bach I would hope he would ask me what specific line I would like to use.
JS: Please describe at least one major turning point in your life that helped to make you who you are as a creative artist.
BW: I’m going to sneak in two turning points if I may. Way back in the early 1960’s my father was being schooled at the Canadian Forces College in Toronto, Ontario. This military school for senior officers of the Canadian Forces provides graduate level military education courses which enable officers to provide leadership within the Forces.
Each evening he came home with his “homework.” Each evening as he sat at the wee table cornered in the kitchen, he would invite me to sit and help. The context for completing said homework is important here. We worked with his textbooks, a thesaurus, a tome of a dictionary and a typewriter. Additional references included a set of encyclopedias. Such was the world of research and writing of those times.
It was here that I developed a devotion to the art of research and writing. I would be invited to confirm spellings, forage for the perfect synonym, avoid idiomatic phrasing, help formulate ideas and structure sentences to form a thesis. The love of writing was imbued in me with this nightly ritual.
Developing a devotion to writing came before learning the mechanics of writing. That happened with my Grade 13 English teacher. She taught me to respect the nuts and bolts of writing in the form of formal grammar and punctuation. By the time she ran out of red ink on my work, I understood complex and compound sentences, rejected split infinitives, and identified parts of speech with ease. Initially, commas were the bane of my writing. That trend may have continued had it not been for said teacher who ceremoniously threw a marked essay on my desk while sarcastically asking, “Have you ever heard of a comma?”
JS: What are some of the hardest things for an outsider to understand about your life as a person in the arts?
BW: Why we do what we do, how we do what we do, when we do what we do and where we do what we do. To those looking in, the research, write and re-write process appears to be a monotonous activity. The fact that I have a notepad with pencil at the ready for those times I get an “Aha” makes me appear single focused rather than someone who draws inspiration from life around me. For the outsider, there is a disconnect between our product and the effort to produce it. External reward motivates most human activity. The majority of those in the arts are not motivated by external rewards thus making their motivation hard to come to grips with.
JS: Please tell us what you haven’t attempted as yet what you would like to do in the arts. Why the delay so far?
BW: It is my intention to write my autobiography in the form of a series of short stories. Leaving something of myself to my children and grandchildren is what motivates me to do so.
This current project, “Footsteps Through Time”, has consumed most of my time throughout the past 13 years. The notebooks that I referred to earlier have autobiographical ideas percolating on the pages that just need time to get them off those pages.
JS: If you could re-live your life in the arts how would you change it and why?
BW: My formal education would have included courses in the art and science of writing both fiction and non-fiction. The nuances of writing historical fiction would be my preference as this would sate my research passion.
With “Footsteps Through Time” I seized the opportunity to embed history into the story of my family narrative by immersing each “character” into an historical era. This gave people a context for each person’s life story. Learning the etiquette of merging a character within history would enhance my writing and boost my confidence as a writer.
JS: Let’s talk about the state of the arts in today’s society, including the forms in which you work. What specifically gives you hope and what specifically do you find depressing?
BW: Those who wish to express themselves through the arts will always be. As human beings each of us has the desire to create. I believe that to be a universal truth. Each of us, in our own way, acts on that creative nature, either formally of informally. Creativity is what advances civilization. That, however, is the picture from 30,000 feet.
In looking at the state of the arts in today’s society from ground zero, I am dismayed by what we say we want and what we actually want and get. An example, if I may. In education, business and politics, we call for (cliché warning) “Out of the box thinkers.” We don’t mean it. Again and again, time worn organizational structures and processes are what we honour. Those who challenge existing cultures are seen as a threat.
I am not proposing that we completely do away with that which is time-worn, However, I do see a dire need to include those who are able to massage existing realities and improve the status quo.
In terms of our education system, we most often ignore the research that ties traditional premises of academic success to studies in the arts. There is a positive correlation. We silo the arts. We don’t dismiss but we do ignore that research that indicates how music education improves literacy. Performing arts and theatre arts are shown to improve those skills valued in the workplace – teamwork, communication, problem solving and planning. Few schools can “afford” these programs. We can’t afford not to include these programs for each and every student throughout their elementary and secondary school experience if we want to advance the human condition.
JS: What exactly do you like about the work you create and/ordo.
BW: My writing allows me to venture forth and explore new learning journeys. Essentially, I enjoy researching more than I enjoy writing. Researching satisfies my curiosity to learn why and how and who and when and what! Writing is the vehicle of my research. It helps me solidify concepts and ideas and organize them into a meaningful context.
JS: In your creative life thus far, what have been the most helpful comments you have heard about your work?
BW: Earlier I alluded to wishing I had formal training in the art and science of writing. I have been involved in several informal “writing” classes and the feedback that I have received has been most helpful. Comments about my attention to details, allowing my sense of humour to show and ability to include the personas, both public and private of my “characters,” have kept my writing spirits up.
On the flip side, even more helpful are those comments in the “needs improvement” category. These include a need to avoid using clichés, to worry about the opening line in the final draft and not before, to use of more dialogue to tell the story and to not underestimate the value of “25 cent” words.
JS: What do you find to be the most intriguing and/or surprising things about you?
BW: I am comfortable in any setting with the exception being book clubs. I have no patience for pretentiousness. I am drawn to people who are practical and realistic. I am unable to recall or retell a joke. On the personality test that defines us by colours, I’m orange.