Tagona Press is releasing Living Beyond The Shadow, a beautifully crafted memoir by Diane Sims, who forged a writing career despite having multiple sclerosis, cancer, and other serious, debilitating medical conditions as her constant companions since youth.
A book launch will be held in Sault Ste. Marie, which is where Sims was born and raised.
Among Sims’ many creative works’ successes are her previous books, including Gardens Of Our Souls (Macmillan Canada), and Solace (Novalis, St. Paul University Press), and various professional accolades received during her 40-year Canadian journalism career.
"Commencing with her Sault Ste. Marie roots, Sims’ story is a compelling amalgam of determination, health ebbs and flows, personal resilience, triumphs and tragedies – all told through her savvy journalist’s lens along with boundless good humour," a Tagona release said.
In 2023, Sims decided that she would control her own end of life destiny through committing to a medical assisted in dying (MAiD) program. This intense decision-making process is captured in Sims’ 2023 Maclean’s feature article How I plan to die, (a national magazine award nominee), one that provided the impetus for her fuller Living Beyond The Shadow story.
MAiD has been a controversial topic ever since the Canadian Supreme Court made its 1995 Rodriguez ruling. Sims is not a MAiD evangelist – she simply and persuasively explains why MAiD aligns with her own life and principles . . . a thought-provoking, ultimately human story with powerful lessons for all of us.
Living Beyond The Shadows is now available on our Tagona Press e-commerce platform. It will be offered across other channels (including Amazon) and through selected Canadian booksellers commencing mid-November 2024.
A book launch will be held Nov. 22 at Forty-Five Social, 117 Spring St., Sault Ste. Marie from 6:30 – 9 p.m.