Tell us about your book.

Memories of the Beach reveals a part of Toronto, now described as “trendy”, which hasn’t changed much in appearances in the last fifty years. The boardwalk, the sand and the lake; Beach fixtures such as the Leuty Avenue Life Saving Station, Balmy Beach Canoe Club, Nova Fish and Chip Store, the Beaches Public Library, Kew Beach skating rink, Glenmanor ravine; these were the touchstones of my early years. I recall the time when play originated in the imagination, when life on the streets was safe, when commitments were firm. My coming-of-age was influenced by the movies, music and books of the day, the lessons learned observing my relatives and my parents’ fun-loving friends, and the experience of growing up with a soul mate in a tight-knit community that time forgot. Those who were lucky enough to live at the Beach, surrounded by the same neighbours, living by the same standards, formed a bond that would last a lifetime.

How did you come up with the title?
I originally wanted to call it “On the Boardwalk” but it turned out there was another book with a title too close to that, so we settled on Memories of the Beach. The subtitle, Reflections on a Toronto Childhood was to indicate that the book had a wider scope historically and geographically than just that one district of Toronto.

What was the hardest part of writing your book?
The hardest part was to figure out what to put in and what to omit to enable me to strike a common chord with a reading audience. When your book is based upon your own life experience – which is what a memoir is – you have to “sift” though your life as to what is relevant to the reader as well as to yourself. The entire premise upon which a personal memoir is built is that it will evoke memories and emotional and rational responses in the reader, even though the situations that evoke those responses will be different from the author’s. In other words, all human experience has a universal quality to it, and it’s up to the author to focus on those to which readers can respond.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received as a writer?
The best advice I received is to keep on writing even when you get stalled. Worry about editing later. The important thing is to get the story out! However, an equally important step is to belong to a writing group or find a mentor or writing program to which you can submit your (weekly, monthly) work for constructive critiques by people whose writing judgment you trust!

What are you reading right now?
Three Cups of Tea, Aristotle’s Ethics on Friendship, Ann of Green Gables, and my actor-comedian-author son Harland Williams latest book, What You Don’t Know You Don’t Know.

Memories of the Beach will be available from your favourite bookseller and library in April.  Lorraine O’Donnell Williams lives in Markham, Ontario.

Every summer, myself and a group of university pals  go up to my old roommate Natalie ”Ruby” Rubino’s cottage for a weekend of fun: food, drinking, swimming, more food and drinking, and games (this particular group of friends, which includes myself, my sister Kris, Ruby, her boyfriend Dan, and his old roommates, is generally referred to as The Gang). While at Ruby’s cottage, The Gang often combines these elements of fun (eg swimming and “Who Would You Rather…?”; drinking and TABOO; eating and EVERYTHING), and a good time is had by all. My favorite game that The Gang plays at Ruby’s cottage is, hands down, TRIVIAL PURSUIT.

I have been playing this game since I was a very young Jenna. We would play the ORIGINAL Trivial Pursuit at my Nana’s house, and before I was old enough to know any of the answers, it would be my job to secure the teeny tiny little slices of “pie” as they were won. Later, when the 90s version of the game came out,  I was old enough to really play, and I LOVED IT. The purple-haired, black-nail polished, and orthodontia-sporting me had a blast competing against the grownups. On the occasions when I knew something that my Nana didn’t (eg What grunge rocker infamously committed suicide in 1994), she would get very irritated and announce her disgust with the new version of her beloved Trivial Pursuit. Her reaction to the new version of the game wasn’t so different from her reactions to other new things. I recall one memorable evening when she tried to watch the futuristic thriller ‘Minority Report’ with Kris and I: (”What is this crap? What happened to ‘The Wizard of Oz’? ‘Gone With the Wind’? THOSE were movies!”). However, despite Nana’s annoyance with me and the evolution of her favorite game, she quickly learned that it was a good idea to get herself on MY team.

At Nat’s cottage, The Gang feels the same way. They all clamour to be on my team, but we usually play boys against girls. Then the girls always win every pie except for the sports one, and we wait and wait until the boys catch up with us and answer the crucial question about some quarterback or pitcher or whatever and then win.

As you have probably gathered by now, I like trivia and am very good at it. So when I picked up THE BIG BOOK OF CANADIAN TRIVIA, I thought I would for sure know most of the content already. I mean, a) I’m Canadian b) I’m really good at trivia and c) I have a degree in history.

Did I know most of the information in the book? Not so much! It turns out that I am far more ignorant about all things Canadiana than I ever would have expected. Sure, I know the names of the Group of Seven,  I remember that Roberta Bondar was the first Canadian woman in space. But the origin of the name ‘Canada’? Why Canadians say ‘zed’ instead of ‘zee’? The fact that LM Montgomery’s ‘Anne of Green Gables’ (first published in 1908) is still the best-selling Canadian book of ALL TIME? That the Jolly Jumper and the Bloody Caesar are both Canadian inventions?  I had no clue! And that’s only the tip of my ignorance iceberg. You better believe I’m memorizing the whole thing before I introduce The Big Book of Canadian Trivia to The Gang this summer!

To everyone who is reading this that plans to visit a cottage this summer, I suggest you pick up this book to bring along as a host or hostess gift. I plan to! After all,  flowers die and food and booze tend to disappear at a cottage, but your host/hostess AND their future guests can enjoy THE BIG BOOK OF CANADIAN TRIVIA forever!