My son looked at me and my accoutrements with skepticism through narrowed eyes. This would be the son with the tattoo between his shoulder blades, the hand-rolled cigarette, the assortment of earrings, and the riot of curls that-at the right length-give him a jaunty, Viva la Revolución Che Guevara vibe. He's a hard one to impress when it comes to unorthodoxy. "Mom, you look like you're ready to break into a chemical plant." From out of the mouths of babes... As though adjusting to courtrooms, spike heels and a chainsaw after forty weren't enough... Following in the high-heeled footsteps of Mary T. Wagner's two earlier inspiring and award-winning essay collections, "Fabulous in Flats" starts with the author's hair-raising introduction to running a chop saw, an endeavor lending itself more to flat shoes and safety goggles than stilettos. Whether decked out in a rhinestone tiara and a recycled mink at a Viennese Ball, embracing her inner "mother tiger" at her son's hospital bed, or reflecting on how nice it could be to channel Nancy Drew's fictional life for just a day, Wagner once again shares her wry and insightful style in essays sure to resonate. WHAT OTHER AUTHORS HAVE TO SAY... "I can't remember the last time I've laughed as hard as I laughed while reading Mary T. Wagner's wonderful memoir Fabulous in Flats." --Ann Hite, author "Ghost on Black Mountain" "A pleasure to read. I'm convinced Mary T. Wagner is the reincarnation of Erma Bombeck...in sexier shoes." --JOHN DeDAKIS, CNN Senior Copy Editor, "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer"author of "Fast Track" and "Bluff" "Stilettos, heels, even flats - I couldn't possibly walk in any women's shoes, but if I could without severely pulling a hamstring, I would want to walk in Mary Wagner's. Her personal stories are warm, funny, engaging, and fit perfectly - even on the feet of a man. These wonderful stories are not just observations about women, they're about all of us." --DAVID W. BERNER, author, Accidental Lessons: A Memoir of a Rookie Teacher and a Life Renewed "Mary Wagner is a brilliant essayist who combines wit with poignancy, bravado with humility, and can write her way out of the boxes in which most mere mortals place themselves. The hilarity of real life situations in court, at home and with shoes and power tools made me laugh out loud. Ms.Wagner's work is like the best, most compelling sweet treat... you just want to keep consuming until it is gone." --RICHARD McGINNIS, editor and publisher "Mindful Metropolis" Magazine "Mary's writing is honest, which is the best thing I think writing can be. Her humor, sincerity and attention to detail make her a writer for anyone in need of a good story. Heartfelt and witty, her pieces move to the beat of a woman-who-knows marching in stilettos. Brilliant!" --ALYSON LYON, co-founder Chicago's "Essay Fiesta" "Mary Wagner has an artist's eye for detail, a keen sense of what is meaningful in life, and an unerring ability to capture it all in wonderfully readable prose. No woman who loves or works or dreams or simply lives in the world today will fail to find something with which to connect. Wagner's slice-of-life essays offer both a mirror into our own lives and a connection with a remarkable woman who, after a few paragraphs, feels like an old friend." --CYNTHIA CLAMPITT, author, Waltzing Australia
About the Author: "It's never too late to make mid-course corrections!" That's the mantra of award-winning Wisconsin author and photographer Mary T. Wagner, who has been described as the Midwest's answer to Carrie Bradshaw and favorably compared to humorist Erma Bombeck...but "in sexier shoes." Wagner is a former newspaper and magazine journalist who changed careers at forty after a serious accident, going to law school and then becoming a criminal prosecutor. She lives in rural Wisconsin, where she draws much inspiration for writing from daily walks in the countryside with her dog, Lucky, and the cat who thinks he's a dog...Meatball. Despite the career shift to law, Wagner never could step away from the keyboard entirely, and since returning to writing has published two more essay collections-"Heck on Heels" and "Fabulous in Flats"-which have also earned national praise Featuring ordinary moments limned with extraordinary insight, Wagner's slice-of-life essays first appeared on her signature blog, "Running with Stilettos," as well as other websites such as MORE.com, Flashionista, and The Front Porch Review, and RedRoom. Life experience includes being the mother of four, and a former girl scout troop leader, truck stop waitress, office temp, judicial clerk, and radio talk show host. She counts both wearing spike heels and learning to use a cordless drill and chainsaw among her "late blooming" discoveries, and would be hard pressed to surrender either her favorite stilettos or her power tools. Before taking up law as her second profession, Wagner was a newspaper and magazine journalist for nearly two decades. Over the years her print by-line has appeared in the Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, San Francisco Chronicle, and Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, as well as in magazines across the country