A memoir based on columnist, fashion-show TV host, podcaster and MS advocate Ardra Shephards award-winning blog, Tripping on Air.

Twenty-three-year-old Ardra Shephard is sleeping with the wrong guy, living in a crappy apartment, and spending money she doesnt have on designer shoes, boozy brunches and weekends in NYC. She hates her office job, but it pays for the lessons she needs to make it as an opera singer. She isnt thrilled about her current situation, but she isnt panicked. She knows shes got time! Making mistakes while you figure stuff out is what your twenties are all about. But then when a doctor tells Ardra she has MS, those two letters split her life into a Before and After.

While over a million people in Canada and the United States live with Multiple Sclerosis, there is no certainty when it comes to the progression of the disease. By her mid-thirties, Ardra is struggling to walk, and its terrifying. When she starts using mobility aids, she faces feelings of otherness and not belonging like never before. As Ardras deepest fears keep coming true, she starts to learn the most important lesson: Shes been sold a lie about disabilityit isnt a fate worse than death. Having so far survived all of her worst-case scenarios, she begins to realize that a difficult life doesnt have to be a joyless life.

Today, twenty years after her diagnosis, Ardras journey isnt over. MS will always be a force to be reckoned with, but the woman Ardra is, day after day, is no longer negotiable.

Fallosophy serves up wisdom like a seasoned bartender whos seen it all, and doesnt try to sugarcoat what its really like to live with a progressive, disabling illness in a world that would rather not build a ramp.

Paperback | 256 pages | 6.00″ x 9.00″