I’m so happy to be able to tell you that you can now order Staying Alive Is a Lot of Work: Me and My Cancer, through Eckhartz Press! The QR code at the bottom of the page will take you right to the order page. You can also browse other books available from Eckhartz Press, who specializes in books related to Chicago.
Also happy to say that I have been interviewed by local author David W. Berner for The Writer Shed. Dave is a multiple award-winning author of books of memoir, fiction, creative nonfiction, short stories and poetry. His most recent book is Daylight Saving Time. If you haven’t read his books, you should! You can find more information at his website, www.davidwberner.com or visit him at The Writer Shed.
Interview: David W. Berner, The Writer Shed
Pat Camalliere is the author of The Cora Tozzi Historical Mystery Series. She has lived in the Chicago area all her life and became intrigued by the unusual, sometimes mysterious region along the Des Plaines River Valley and Sag Valley in the Southwest suburbs of Cook, DuPage, and Will Counties in the Greater Chicagoland area. She began writing historical mysteries set in this locale, finding that a hint of the paranormal fit perfectly into the setting for the stories she wanted to tell.
Her new memoir is a remarkable story of survival. The Writer Shed recently asked her seven questions about writing the very personal and important story, Staying Alive is a Lot of Work.
Why write a book that for many would appear to be a difficult endeavor, considering how personal and how troubling your health scare had been?
I spent forty years of my life as a health care administrator. My job was to make sure the physicians and support staff at Rush Medical Center provided the best care possible. Much of this was for cancer patients. I had direct contact helping patients in this position. After I experienced cancer myself, I was in a unique position. I knew cancer from both sides, I knew the concerns of both patients and medical staff, and I knew the lingo and how to translate that for non-medical people. I was also a published writer who knew how to tell a story. I knew the enormity of cancer. in my mind everything I stood for lifelong was at stake. If I could help others through what I went through, I had to do it.
What did you learn about yourself and about others through this experience?
No matter how much I thought I knew, I didn’t really know until I faced the experience. It’s hard for someone who has been in a leadership position to know when to make their own decisions and when to let professionals do what they do. I was grateful that I had worked at Rush and had complete trust in my medical team. Modern treatment methods are amazing, but not an exact science. There were surprises along the way. Try as I might, I couldn’t be prepared for everything that occurred. The main reason I wrote the memoir was to help prepare others.
What do you hope this book will do for those who read it?
Cancer is unique in that most cancer patients feel well when they start treatment. it’s hard to convince yourself that you really need to do this. You must be a strong participant and stick with the program, which is not easy. But the more you do proactively, the more you cooperate, the easier it will be, not only during treatment, but during recovery, and years later. I hope my story informs and inspires others and gives them practical tools to ease their cancer course.
What would you tell anyone who faces a cancer diagnosis?
Develop confidence in your medical team but also in yourself. Don’t feel ashamed to ask for help or to discuss your fears. There are a lot of people who want to help you, including not only your medical team, but your family and your friends. There are a lot of support groups for people who do not have family or friends, and for those who need the companionship of others in similar situations. Most of these groups are free, and some now offer virtual programs for those who are too ill or who find in-person meetings inconvenient.
The book’s title suggests how difficult this journey has been for you. How do you think being honest has impacted you?
It was a lesson learned! The fears that came to mind at the beginning were fear of pain, of sickness, and of death. Once I resolved those issues in my mind and determined to survive, the surprise was how overwhelming treating cancer is. There were months of very hard work, leaving time for little else. It was not all pain and sickness. It was fatigue because of how much I needed to do in order to not only survive but to minimize the effects that were taking place as a result of my treatment.
The book claims to “demystify the day-to-day struggles” of a cancer diagnosis. What do you mean by this?
That’s a good question. What I’m trying to say is that cancer is not what you expect it to be. Every day will change as different effects take place when your body fights not only your disease but the treatment itself. This is why in my memoir I took pains to explain what happens and what to do about it in a chronological way, and also gave the same information about groups of symptoms. This makes it easier for patients to find their particular problems, and gives them, their caregivers, and those who love them a tool to see where they are at any given time and what to do about it.
You obviously hope your book will benefit other cancer patients and their families, but can you tell us how sharing this story benefited you?
Well, it’s actually the third time I’ve written it. The first time I wrote a blog as I was going through treatment and early recovery. That was very cathartic. It forced me to understand and describe objectively what was happening in real time. It also kept me to a schedule, committing to weekly updates. One tends to feel useless when under treatment. There was satisfaction not only in having accomplished something worthwhile but in the thanks I received from people my words helped.
The second time I included some portions of my journey in my historical mystery novel, The Miracle at Assisi Hill. Through my main character, I based events in the book on some of my cancer journey and described how cancer affected my character’s life emotionally and religiously some years later.
Then I finished what I had wanted to do from the beginning — write a memoir to provide a tool to help others with a similar disease. Unlike other forms of cancer, there is not much written about head and neck cancer. Many head and neck cancers are curable, but the treatment is tough. I wanted to be sure people knew that it was worth going through that treatment and how to make it most effective for them. There is no greater satisfaction than knowing what you have done makes a difference.
Staying Alive is a Lot of Work is in some respects a how-to manual about surviving cancer. But it is also a memoir about one person’s journey. Throughout are snippets of my life as it was before cancer, reminding readers that this experience happened to a real person searching for strength to face challenges. In the words of E. L. Doctorow, “The historian will tell you what happened. The novelist will tell you what it felt like.” In my opinion, the author of a memoir does both.
Staying Alive is a Lot of Work is available now from Eckhartz Press. This QR code will take you to the site.
David W. Berner is the author of several books of award-winning fiction and memoir. His latest, Daylight Saving Time: The power of growing older is available now. His novella, American Moon will be published by Regal House Publishing in 2026.
