When the Shoe Fits – Essays of Love, Life & Second Chances

When the Shoe Fits
244 Pages
Waterhorse Press LLC
ISBN 978-0615991740

Inspiration. Empowerment. Reinvention.

From soccer mom to prosecuting attorney. From body cast to the back seat of a Harley. From sneakers to stilettos. When a hard fall from a tall horse landed Mary T. Wagner—then a freelance writer and a soccer mom with four young children—in a body cast for three months with a broken back, she didn’t take it as a sign to ease back on the throttle. Instead, she changed careers, went to law school, took a job prosecuting criminals, and bought her first pair of spike heels. And THEN she started writing again. This time, straight from the heart.

In essays ranging from “Turbo Dating—the Year in Review” to “Riding Pillion,” “The Limoncello Diaries” and “Angels in the Snow,” Wagner’s signature writing style combines humor, insight, and grace under pressure, and serves up the author's signature theme that “it’s never too late to make mid-course corrections.” Whether reflecting on subjects as diverse as motherhood, the view from the back of a Harley, the impending loss of a parent or the therapeutic effects of a post-divorce bonfire, Wagner’s honest and heartfelt essays resonate with universal experiences of love, life and reinvention. A must-read for any woman who’s asked herself “is there at least one more dream I can reach for?”… and then answered “YES!!”

Mary T. Wagner

About Mary T. Wagner (Chicago, Illinois Author)

Mary T. Wagner

Mary T. Wagner is a former newspaper and magazine journalist who changed careers at forty by going to law school and becoming a criminal prosecutor. However, she never could step away from the written word entirely, and inevitably the joy of writing drew her back to the keyboard.

A Chicago native, this mother of four and recent new grandmother now lives in "coastal Wisconsin," where she draws much inspiration for writing from frequent trips to the shore of Lake Michigan, watching the waves ebb and flow and make shifting mosaics of sunlight on the sandy lake floor. Wagner's ongoing legal experience has ranged from handling speeding tickets to arguing and winning several cases before the Wisconsin Supreme Court...sometimes in the same week!

Her latest essay collection, "When the Shoe Fits...Essays of Love, Life and Second Chances" rounds up her favorites--and reader favorites--into a "best of" collection available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats. Her newest publishing venture is a series of children's chapter books for young readers based on "Finnigan the Circus Cat." Wagner's life experiences includes the defining watershed of motherhood, and stints as a 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.