•10 Shoes Every Guy should Own•

I am a way too practical person to own ten pairs of shoes. I own three: a pair of very worn and falling apart leather “work” shoes (not every day work shoes but Saturday work-around-the-house/yard-shoes), a pair of leather work/church shoes, and a pair of seriously worn-out sneakers. That’s it. I know, it’s sad. As Yoda would say, ” Fashion conscious I am not.”

monkyseemonkydo

If you ask me what is your favorite part of any outfit I will answer shoes. I am obsessed with shoes and I have more shoes than any other clothing item. Anyone I meet for the first time, first thing to catch my attention is his shoes. Also, the way they are styled. A lot of my guy friends take me with them to shop for shoes  and often ask me how they should wear them ( I’m pretty keen on men’s fashion!). So I decided to create a list of my favorites!

1.Dress Long-wings/Toe cap Oxfords

Every man needs one pair of leather brogues. Brown ones can be dressed up or down. Black ones go for work or for fancy nights out.

2.Casual Brogues/Suede Derby Shoes

These shoes look best when worn with shorts or folded up pants.

3.Boat Shoes

I myself own 2 pairs of this type of shoes…

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Week Three Winner Announced

Yes, I forgot to announce a winner of the book giveaway last week. I had a very busy second half of the week and it simply slipped my mind. I remembered on Saturday . . . then forgot again. Such is life: AHHH. You know what I’m talking about; I know you do.

So, better late than never.

The winner of the week three giveaway of A Thousand Sleepless Nights is . . . Susan S.!

Congratulations, Susan!!

I am afraid of this indisputable pro-choice argument

This is a great article and Matt makes some very strong arguments all of which I’m sure I’ll use at some time or another. Compelling stuff.

9 Ways to Defuse a Disagreement

Excellent, excellent post on disagreements, something every marriage (and relationship) has to deal with. Love this post.

Loving Life at Home

My father was one of the friendliest, most gregarious men I’ve ever met. He loved people — but he also loved a spirited debate. Mom always said Dad would argue with a fence post.

My mother was decidedly not fond of fiery discussions. She has always detested conflict of any sort. Dad would often tease Mom, trying to get a rise out of her, but she would not be baited. He might as well have been arguing with that famed fencepost, for all the luck he had in drawing his wife into an argument.

By nature, I tend to take after my father, but by conscious effort, I try to follow my mother’s example.

Scripture says it would be better to live in a desert or in the corner of a roof than in a house with a quarrelsome and ill-tempered wife. (Proverbs 21:19; 25:14) My mother’s…

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An Open Letter to Dads of Daughters:

For any dads of daughters . . . this is good stuff. I needed to be reminded of these things.

You Are Crazy-Loved

Here’s another excerpt from The Purpose of Man (Regal, 2009), a collection of writings by A.W. Tozer:

There is another facet of faith for our consideration. That is, we do not believe we are as dear to God as He says we are. We do not believe we are as precious or that He desires us as much as He says He does. The enemy of man’s soul has sold this lie to us to not only beat us down, but to also keep us from the loving fellowship of God’s presence. He cares not a whit for us, but his hatred of God drives him to do all in his power to deny God that which rightfully belongs to Him. If everybody could suddenly have a baptism of pure cheerful belief that God wants and desires us to worship, admire and praise Him, it could transform us overnight into the most radiantly happy people in the world. We would finally discover our purpose: that God delights in us, and longs for our fellowship.

We were made to delight God, to worship Him, to fellowship with him. That is our sole purpose: To delight God. Wow.

“. . . the most radiantly happy people in the world.” That’s attractive! What do you think keeps you from realizing how much God loves you? From fully embracing your single purpose?

How to survive a relationship with a writer

I love #4. I often wonder if I’ll have the FBI knocking on my door some day. Some of the places my research takes me on the web . . . oh boy.

Learning to Pace Myself

I’ve finished the second draft of my next novel, Centralia, and now plan to let it simmer for a couple weeks before going over it a third and final time with the hope that I’ll look at it through fresh eyes and make further improvements. So now the question is what to do with my time? For the past five months all my writing time has been spent working on Centralia, weaving the plot, creating the characters, tweaking this and re-writing that. And now there’s nothing, a void.

And I wrestle with guilt. Why? Because I feel like I should be doing something. There are so many projects I could be working on. Stories to begin, articles to write, speeches to craft. I could revamp pages on my website . . . again. I could write a short story. I could work on a writing craft book and self-publish it. I could write a bunch of blog posts for future use.

But here’s the problem . . . while my head is saying yes, go for it, be productive, get moving! my heart just doesn’t feel like it.

And so I sit and stare at a screen or mindlessly scroll through Facebook or begin writing something and scrap it . . . and feel guilty about all the time I’m “wasting.”

I’m an overachiever, see?

What I need to do is follow my heart and take some time off from my own writing. Take a true break. Let my mind rest. Push out a couple blog posts here and there, maybe work on a speech as the inspiration comes, update a website page as needed, but don’t pressure myself to be productive every second of every free moment. I don’t need that.

Sometimes, you have to know when to slow down, you have to know how to pace yourself. That’s one of the things I want to work on this year: pacing myself. I tend to rush, rush, hurry and write as much as I can, post as much as I can, be as involved in social media as I can and then burn out.

So how about you? What’s one thing you tend to get too gung-ho about that you need to learn to pace yourself in?

Taking a Break ‘Cause I’m Ready to Break

Writers need breaks too. I need one. I’m taking one.

I try to be transparent and open with my social interactions. I want to be real. I want others to see me for who I really am,  not who or what I want to be seen as. But sometimes it gets overwhelming and I just need to pull back the personal boundaries. When that happens I go into social hiding for a while. I’m in social hiding now.

So until I return I’ll leave you with my favorite Doctor Who quote of all time.

D’YOU KNOW, IN 900 YEARS OF TIME AND SPACE I’VE NEVER MET ANYONE WHO WASN’T IMPORTANT BEFORE.

It may be a silly show but that’s some powerful stuff.

Watch This! THE LAST HUNT Fan Video

Recently, a reader and member of The Darlington Society was so . . . disturbed . . . by my short story The Last Hunt that he was inspired to make a video.

Call it a fan video and enjoy . . . The Last Hunt video.

Note: It’s best viewed with the volume WAY up!