"Running with Stilettos: Living a Balanced Life in Dangerous Shoes" by Mary T. Wagner

by Mary T. Wagner
(Southeast Wisconsin, USA)

If you'd told me fifteen years ago that I'd be spending three months in a body cast after a riding accident, then ditch freelance writing in favor of going to law school, argue before the state supreme court five times, start wearing spike heels and then start my own website...I'd have called the cops and suggested a nice stay in a padded room for you.

But it all happened, and after that dramatic career change from journalism to law, a few years later I found I needed desperately to get back to the keyboard. I love my job as a prosecutor, but let's face it, legal briefs do torture and violence to the English language. And there are times that if strings of more creative words don't escape from my fingertips, the top of my head may just leave my body.

So I started writing essays on my own website, "Running with Stilettos," three years ago. Some won awards, some got reprinted elsewhere, and eventually some made it into my first book of the same name that I published in 2008. Some will make you laugh, some will make you cry, some will probably get you to say "hey, I've been there, done that!!" Dating, power tools, shoe shopping, chocolate addiction, friendship, tragedies, celebrations and the melancholy that comes with kids growing up and growing away, they're all in there.

Midwest Book Review gave it an "enthusiastically recommended" review, and Vannie Ryanes, work and family editor for BellaOnline.com said "Whatever the subject, this author's humor and resilience shines through." Nice words, thank you very much!

Here's an excerpt from the chapter about buying a chain saw of my very own...

You can look at it finally abandoning the last of the feminine "rescue" fantasies. Or maybe it's just a dose of latent pioneer spirit finally coming to the surface. Though Davy Crockett never had one of these. (Of course, Davy Crockett never had a pair of leopard-print stilettos in his closet either. Or so we hope.)

I finally bought a chain saw.

Check out my website or contact me at www.runningwithstilettos.com!