Growing Bolder Community

I'm back to the beach. South Beach, that is. As in South Beach diet.If nothing concentrates the mind like a hanging in the morning, nothing concentrates diet motivation than the desire to look good in the wedding pictures of your son's upcoming nuptials. They're exactly three months away. I've ordered a dress a full size smaller in which I hope to cavort gracefully through the garden reception....

Just add coffee..and sigh! I'm happy to share that I finally managed to upload a full-color version of my second book, "Heck on Heels," to Amazon's Kindle Store, where I've priced it at $2.99. The paperback sells for $14.95. Here's the link to check out a free preview, some very nice reviews, and a description:...

Here's a link to an interview I did by email recently with Victor David Giron of Curbside Splendor Publishing in Chicago. http://curbsidesplendor.com/curbside/readings/interview-mary-t.-wagner If you get all the way to the bottom, you'll find a very old photo of a very small "me" as a little girl sitting on a park bench with my father in Chicago's Humboldt Park.Victor is a wonderful template...

I figured this morning was just right for using the "Mom's Taxi" mug for my tea and a late breakfast. Just four hours ago I rolled up to Chicago's O'Hare Airport with, as Charlie Chan used to put it, my "number one son" all packed up for a trip to a destination a few thousand miles away. It was a two-and-a-half hour drive to the airport from my house (okay, he drove most of the way there!). He...

John Doyle and John Williams make Irish music magic. Accompanied by a marvelously talented young fiddler, Duncan Wickel , Doyle and Williams recently played a concert in Wisconsin, to a packed house at a local college. If you ever have the opportunity to see these guys, GO without a second’s thought! RUN like the wind to the ticket counter! Doyle is a songwriter and guitarist, originally from...

My favorite "spare" cat has embarked on some new frontiers of his own. Since moving in three months ago, he's become the first four-footed critter to check out the fresh dog food in Lucky's bowl...though he also scarfs up leftovers, cat food and senior cat food. The other day he made a dash for the tennis ball that I threw across the living room for...the dog. Meatball got there first. But in the...

As I set off for my "after work" walk early this evening, I didn't know if I felt more like Red Riding Hood or the Pied Piper. These jaunts are taking on a slightly surreal quality, and at times are absolutely HILARIOUS.For starters, my traveling companions are a fifty-something pound dog and a six pound housecat named Meatball. I've written about both these guys before, Lucky is the border collie...

When I first set out to self-publish my first collection of essays, "Running with Stilettos," my sights were not exactly what you'd call high. All I was really looking for back in 2008 was to get ten copies of my book in 3-D format so that I could give one to each of my four kids, one each to me and my guy, and a few to send out to agents and publishers to take a look at. A second book, "Heck on...

I never thought much about the personality and variety of daylilies until I stepped outside the other day with my pocket camera and snapped a bunch. Yes, of course I've planted them all myself over the past several years, but I can't say I really looked all that closely.What a wonderous display! Some throw their narrow petals outwards like cheerleaders enthusiastically waving pom poms. Others...

One of my very best friends, journalist Liz Welter, and I made an impromptu dash to Chicago to check out the seventh annual Printers' Ball at the historic Ludington Building on July 29 to see what all the advance hoopla was about. I've been doing a lot of literary things in my home town in the past few years, such as reading essays and giving presentations, and this just floated across the radar...