Carrying the Tiger: Living with Cancer, Dying with Grace, Finding Joy while Grieving received a 4+ star review, making it an IndieReader Approved title.
Following find an interview with author Tony Stewart.
What is the name of the book and when was it published?
Carrying the Tiger: Living with Cancer, Dying with Grace, Finding Joy while Grieving. April 29, 2025
What’s the book’s first line?
Prologue: “Lynn is leaving us faster than I expected.”
Chapter 1: “It’s an unseasonably warm Sunday in late September.”
What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.
Carrying the Tiger is an inspiring memoir which begins on the day I learn that my wife, Lynn, has incurable cancer, and ends when I finally begin to climb out of shattering grief and move forward. The book encompasses our entire journey, from the twists and turns of Lynn’s treatment, through the intimate grace of her departure from this world, and finally my struggle to form a new relationship while still deeply grieving. There is uncertainty, fear, and sorrow, yes, but also tenderness and joy, along with a renewed perspective on what it means to live and love with one’s whole heart.
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
Carrying the Tiger began as a series of private posts on CaringBridge.org that I wrote to keep friends and family informed about Lynn’s cancer. Having a private audience freed me to be more open than I would ever have dared in a public forum, and our friends told me that they enjoyed reading the posts, which encouraged me to keep going.
Then the drugs stopped working and Lynn died beside me. At that point, I had assumed that I would stop writing. But I found I couldn’t – the act of writing had become integral to my healing. Also, several readers asked me to keep going, because reading my journal helped them deal with their own grief. I think that was when I began to realize that my words might be valuable to a wider audience. And using our story to help other people would transform Lynn’s death into something meaningful.
What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
Carrying the Tiger demonstrates that beauty, grace and joy are always present, even at the worst of times. It takes you on a journey through a series of end-of-life experiences that are all too rarely shared. You watch while Lynn and I navigate the medical system and are confronted with difficult choices, then you get to see how those choices play out, and that our love continues to sustain us – and, later, me – even when there are no more choices left.
I hope that after reading Carrying the Tiger you will no longer fear the journey, but instead find it miraculous, unexpected and enriching. You will be better prepared if something like this happens to you, and understand what this journey may have felt like for someone you love.
Is this your first book?
No. I’ve always loved writing, and early in my career I wrote a novel. At the time I was making documentary films for a living. but they didn’t pay particularly well, so I hoped that writing a book would broaden my career choices. I managed to land an agent, but he never sold the book, and during the year he was shopping it around I fell in love with writing software, so I headed in that direction instead.
Carrying the Tiger brings me back to where I started, though I’ve lived a pretty full life in the intervening forty years.
Is there something in particular that motivates you?
I wrote Carrying the Tiger specifically to help people. This is what gets me out of bed in the morning, as I work on the marketing and prepare for its launch.
What’s a great piece of advice that you can share with fellow indie authors?
I learned this from Meghan O’Rourke, a writer I greatly respect. She posted a note on Substack suggesting that rather than waiting until you can set aside several hours for a writing session, try to write for at least fifteen minutes every day. Even on the craziest day, you can almost always find fifteen minutes. This works beautifully for me. It keeps your book alive in your subconscious even when you are not consciously working on it, so that when you finally do have time for a longer session, the words and ideas come tumbling out.
What’s the best and the hardest part of being an indie?
The best part is being able to bring your book to market. My friends in the business advised me not even to bother finding an agent for Carrying the Tiger, much less a traditional publisher. As an unknown author nearing the end of his career writing about a non-sexy subject (cancer, death, grief and loss!), no one was going to take me on. I saved years of frustration by doing this myself.
The hardest part is having to do so much myself. Designing, publishing and marketing a book is a huge project. I’m lucky because I’m retired and have the time. I can only imagine how hard this must be for someone who is at an earlier point in their career, having to juggle all these publishing activities while earning a living and raising a family.