Once I started writing–just over a year ago–my television viewing dropped off dramatically. Other than a few shows my husband and I have watched for years, I almost never turned it on.

But now that I'm looking for insight into organizations like the DEA and military special ops, I find myself hunting for good viewing material everywhere. For example, I found a great show on Hulu that used to air on Spike TV–the network for the testosterone-fueled set–called DEA. Well, perfect! It's like COPS but it follows around DEA agents. I have two whole seasons of badness to plow through.

Today I watched The First 48 (A&E) for the first time while sweating on the cross-trainer. I may not stick to this one, but I started recording it, just in case. It's all about real-life detectives trying to find a suspect within the first 48 hours after a murder victim is discovered. I also added Manhunters to the DVR list so I can get some insight into tracking fugutives.

Netflix provided a boon of documentaries from the likes of National Geographic, Nova, and others about the DEA, FBI, special forces, and the secret service (though I do have a contact for that one). Unfortunately, they're not all available on instant play, so I put them at the end of my queue to move up when I'm ready.

Yes, I still watch fiction. I love my CSI (Original) and Heroes (although it may have jumped the shark this season), and we usually watch movies on the weekends. But now, if I feel like watching TV, I can still work on my writing.

For me, that's the best of both worlds.

Write on!