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IRDA Winning Author Mary Dunnewold on her Motivation: “Writers gotta write.”

Fine, Thanks: Stories from the Cancerland Jungle was the winner in the MEMOIR category of the 2020 IndieReader Discovery Awards, where undiscovered talent meets people with the power to make a difference.

Following find an interview with author Mary Dunnewold.

What is the name of the book and when was it published?

Fine, Thanks: Stories from the Cancerland Jungle, published October 24, 2019

What’s the book’s first line? 

In the six months before I had cancer, I fell down three times.

What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”. 

In 2010, I was a yoga-practicing, organic-food-eating health geek. But six months after a clear mammogram, I was diagnosed with stage-three breast cancer. I had six tumors. The largest was the size of a summer plum. In the next two years, I endured a bilateral mastectomy, chemotherapy, radiation, and multiple reconstruction procedures. But I soon learned that navigating cancer involves more than suffering through the treatment gauntlet and dodging the pink ribbon promotions.

In the book, I consider questions like, how do you walk the aisles of a small-town Target, guilty of having cancer in public, wondering who knows and who doesn’t? Where do you look when the handsome plastic surgeon kneels in front of you to measure your body fat? What etiquette applies when, during a dinner party, your chest splits open like an overripe watermelon?  While answers to these and other questions did not come easily, the story chronicles how I moved from wanting answers to finding meaning despite the randomness that afflicts us all.

I especially hope the book will help the family and friends of cancer sufferers understand more about this often-unspoken experience.

What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event? 

I process difficult life experiences through writing. Having cancer was one of the most difficult experiences I’ve had, and I was compelled to write about it.  As I wrote and shared my writing with my family and friends, I realized how meaningful sharing the depths of this experience can be, to both reader and writer. I also learned that others who have supported friends and family through cancer were hungry to have more insight into what their “person” had gone through. Not everyone can find the words to share about their cancer experience. Because I am compelled to find those words, I wanted to offer my experience to others.

What’s the main reason someone should really read this book? 

While at the surface level, the book is about cancer, at a deeper level, it’s about questions we all struggle with. Why did this bad thing happen to me? Is this my fault? How can I respond to challenging circumstances with grace and dignity? What does it mean about me when I DON’T respond with grace and dignity? I think we can all learn from each other’s experiences as we contemplate these questions.

Also, almost all of us have someone in our life who has experienced cancer, or cancer will enter our life somehow, at some point. Understanding the interior process of a person going through the cancer gauntlet helps us respond with compassion and empathy.

Finally, I think it’s really important to keep a sense of humor about every experience that comes our way, even the most difficult ones—like facing mortality. I hope this book will help people see that it is possible to find the humor in almost any experience, including cancer.

Plus, in the end, I think it’s a pretty compelling story that makes people both laugh and cry.

If they made your book into a movie, who would you like to see play the main character(s)?

I don’t know who should play me, but George Clooney should definitely play my husband, Jeff.

When did you first decide to become an author?

I’ve been a writer my whole life. Most of my published writing has been in my professional sphere of legal writing, where I’ve published dozens of articles and a book about judicial clerkships. Of course, creative writing is different from that kind of professional writing. But learning to manage the anxiety that came with putting my writing out there in my professional sphere helped me develop the confidence to put my writing out there in the creative sphere. So when I first started thinking about writing this creative non-fiction book, I knew I could do it, because I’d done it elsewhere.

Is this the first book you’ve written?

I’ve written one novel that I know will never be published. I choose to view that venture as practice and preparation for everything that has come after, including this current book, and try to avoid seeing it as somehow wasted time. I’ve written a second novel that needs some major re-working. Getting deep into that is one of my pandemic projects.

I have also written a book called Judicial Clerkships: A Practical Guide, with two co-authors. I know it may sound boring, but it’s actually a pretty useful book for anyone who needs it.

What do you do for work when you’re not writing?

I do Title IX work—sexual misconduct investigations—for higher education institutions. It’s difficult work that takes a lot out of me emotionally. Writing helps me take a break from that world.

How much time do you generally spend on your writing?

It ebbs and flows, depending on where I am with my other work life. I find it takes a certain time and attention investment to get going on a project. Once I’m invested and on a roll, I might spend several hours a day writing. But when I need to spend most of my time on my other work, or when I need to spend my “writer time” on the business aspect of a book (querying, etc., which is a lot less fun than writing), I may not spend any time actually writing. During those “ebbs,” I am usually thinking about a writing project while I walk the dog or cook dinner, so that kind of counts as “writing.”

Is there something in particular that motivates you (fame? fortune?)

Writers gotta write. That’s about it.

Which writer, living or dead, do you most admire?

I love Kate Atkinson for her ability to tell a happy/sad/funny/scary story with wit and brilliance. Currently, I’m in love with Paulette Jiles for her sly humor and her ability to fully humanize all of her characters.

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