shiny

Posted by admin | December 14, 2018

It never fails that when there is something shiny, Milo goes nuts trying to get it. It doesn’t even matter that it is impossibly out of reach, he’ll still try to get it. It could be the most imperceptive thing in the world, like sunlight reflecting off my watch onto the bright patio pavement, and he’ll see it.

The other day, he was sitting there staring at the ceiling. We were sitting there wondering what he was looking at. Then when we found the tiny square of light, we had to figure out where it was coming from. We finally traced it to a cell phone sitting nearby and had to move it to see if it was indeed the source. Every time the light moved, he danced around hoping it would fall so that he could attack it.

What is worse is that sometimes he is so erratic that Zailey has to get in on it. She barks and dances around him. She wants to play with him even though he wants nothing to do with her and everything to do with that light. I hate Zailey’s barks, so the light source needs found and shut down asap.

When something shiny comes along, I can’t go nuts. Instead, I sit there and analyze it from every single possible angle making sure it is something good. This can be a story idea, a blog idea, or even just something I randomly encounter. Once I deem something good, then I’ll go nuts with it.

I was talking with a potential customer the other day. They asked what I liked to read and I started to respond with what I used to read. I haven’t done much reading lately, so that is what I replied with. I’ve been tied up with writing so much that I don’t have time to read. I least that is what I told her.

I’ve since realized that me saying that I don’t have enough time to read isn’t quite true. I spend a lot of time playing games on my phone. Time that I could spend reading (and even doing more writing). Since that realization, I’ve made a commitment to reading at least an hour a week. What will I read? I’ve been into a dark mystery series written by Linda Ladd. I’ve also been taking a look at some successful indies in just about any genre (Glass by Kate Kort is what I just finished and it almost lived up to the hype). I’ve had some recommendations from friends, mainly mysteries. I’ve been told some bad things about Andy Weir’s new novel, so I haven’t pulled the trigger on buying it, yet. Though I do plan to reread The Martian, which I now consider my favorite book of all time beating out Larry Niven’s A World Out of Time. I’m also going to read some classics that are considered the best all time. I feel like if anything else, surrounding myself with the greats may make me better. Many of these, I am looking forward to reading, but some I know are going to be a slogfest (like when I read Sir Arthur Cannon Doyle’s The Complete Sherlock Holmes).

My shiny object is reading and I hope to go as nuts over it as Milo does over his shiny lights. Hopefully, it’ll be good for me. At the very least it’ll give me a better response to a customer the next time they ask me this question.