Heck on Heels: Still Balancing on Shoes, Love & Chocolate!

by Mary T. Wagner

"There's a guilty pleasure I just have to confess. Not that there isn't already a list. Belgian chocolates. High heels. Coastal Georgia. Guys in uniform. The movie "Gladiator." But this is a chapter, and a phenomenon, all its own. I'm a grown woman over forty...and I like the Taylor Swift song "Love Story." There I said it. Out loud." (Excerpt from "The Romeo and Juliet Song..."

Just add coffee…and sigh! Adding a portfolio of lovely nature photographs to her second collection of award-winning and inspiring essays, author Mary T. Wagner again takes her readers on a tour of ordinary moments viewed with extraordinary grace. Whether reflecting on the view from the side of a dormant volcano or enjoying the cleansing effect of a good bonfire after a post-divorce garage cleaning, these essays again conjure what one reviewer called “life writing at its best.”

WHAT OTHER AUTHORS HAVE TO SAY...

Praise for Heck on Heels "Whether coping with aging parents or a new-found love, Mary Wagner brings wit and candor to stories that are universal in their appeal and revealing in their honesty."

-Paul Salsini, author

THE CIELO and SPARROW'S REVENGE

"Watch out...Mary T. Wagner will pin you right where you sit with her stilettos until you read all of her wonderful essays-and you won't even mind the heel marks!"

-Kris Radish, author

THE SHORTEST DISTANCE BETWEEN TWO WOMEN,
DANCING NAKED AT THE EDGE OF DAWN, and others

"Mary Wagner writes beautifully about all the large and small things that make our lives memorable. From the mundane to the major, her meticulously worded prose places the reader at her side and into her thoughts on her journey as a mother, attorney, journalist and all those other roles that she and each of us assume as we wend our way though life. A great read!"
-William Rawlings, author
CROSSWORD, THE TATE REVENGE and others
"Mary's stories are thought provoking and entertaining. You feel the life in her words as you're reading them.
-Gracie Hill, author

WHERE THE BROTHERS AT? and SORROWS OF THE HEART

"Both funny and touching, "Heck on Heels" is a wonderful slice of Midwestern life."

-Maureen Lipinski, author
A BUMP IN THE ROAD: From Happy Hour to Baby Shower

206 pages, Paperback

First published November 12, 2009

About the author

"It's never too late to make mid-course corrections!" That's the mantra of 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. After living for several decades in rural Wisconsin, drawing inspiration for writing from daily walks in the countryside with her dog and cat, she has now settled in "coastal Wisconsin," close to Lake Michigan where the sight of the horizon on the lake never fails to inspire.

Despite the career shift to law, Wagner never could step away from the keyboard entirely, and since returning to writing has published three award-winning essay collections: Running with Stilettos, Heck on Heels and Fabulous in Flats.

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. 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.

Reviews

[Angelique Jurd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heck on Heels is the second book from award winning author, Mary T Wagner.
The journalist turned lawyer turned to blogging after an accident and Running with Stilettos was born. Before long a collection of the essays from the blog were gathered and a very successful book by the same name emerged.

Heck on Heels is the next installment of essays from Mary and she has recently repackaged them into an e-book to created what she calls “some lovely ‘take me away’ moments”.

And they are lovely. Not to mention often funny, sometimes sad, and very inspirational. Whether she is talking about munching M&Ms while trying to stop her promotional poster being blown away at her first book fair or removing a dead mouse from the hood fan over the stove, Wagner is entertaining and down to earth at the same time.

Non fiction can be tricky to write; it often ends up either cringingly self lampooning or so deadly serious it is depressing (which is not to say that it always does, simply that there is that risk). Wagner has deftly sidestepped both pot holes and produced a wonderfully entertaining series of snapshots of her life that will leave you wanting to read more.

(Originally written for The Kindle Book Review)

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won this book from Firstreads.

This is a great collection of thoughts, feelings and memories.
Easy to read, like chatting over tea with a friend. A lot of the book is very funny (especially the parts about Mary's animals!)
The only thing I would change about this book is to put the wonderful photographs in colour!
I have recommended this book to my mother who has bought the Kindle version from Amazon.

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

The fabulous follow up to RUNNING WITH STILETTOS. A great collection about life, love, and womanhood, Wagner has a knack for words and an insight into human nature.

I am anxiously awaiting her third collection, FABULOUS IN FLATS!

[Alison]

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