Addicted to Pop!

from CJ:

Have you seen those commercials about  Hulu turning your brain to mush? It may not be far from the truth.

I've recently developed an addiction. The dealers of my drug of choice? Hulu and Netflix's Watch Instantly.

Since I write full time that means a lot of time at home alone, just me and my characters. I write emotionally intense medical suspense/thrillers and am now broadening my horizons to mainstream thrillers--but the books are still more about the people and their relationships than the medicine or action.

Which means going to some pretty dark places....and I can't stay there very long, not without some relief.

And that is where my addiction began. Imagine a writer, toiling away, fingers cramping as she rushes to get the words filling her head into the computer, images of murder and mayhem and lives lost and lives saved rushing through her mind, filling her vision.

She takes a break, looks up--it's a weird time, twenty-one past the hour, too late to tune into a TV show, she doesn't want to take time to watch an entire movie, and she's not really a big TV person anyway, the TV isn't even in the main part of her house--it's exiled to a back room.

But she needs to get out of her head for awhile. Where does she turn for a quick diversion? Two clicks of her keyboard and she's watching an episode of Angel or MI-5 or Rescue Me or Battlestar Galatica....right there on her computer!

Sounds great, right? A marvel of modern technology! And it is, it is.....except it's too easy.

Stumped on a plot point? Click to Hulu, see what MacGyver would do. Not sure of your character motivation? See what's new on Netflix and watch a silly comedy, take your mind off those way too-serious folks in your story whose lives are dangling by a thread....

Pretty soon the chair and computer feel like the entire world as I feed my addiction. Whoa! Didn't know they had free online episodes of LOST!

Can too much Pop Culture be bad for you?

Someone help! Is there a screensaver that will time-out the computer, flashing a warning: Step Away From the Computer and Go Take a Walk In THE REAL WORLD!

Oh, wait, Netflix just added four seasons of Wire in the Blood available on instant watch!!!! I'll kick my habit tomorrow.....

So share, what shows have you gotten addicted to? Which of the new fall shows are you most looking forward to?

I'll add them to my Netflix queue!

Thanks for reading,
CJ

About CJ:
As a pediatric ER doctor, CJ Lyons has lived the life she writes about in her cutting edge suspense novels. Her debut, LIFELINES (Berkley, March 2008), became a National Bestseller and Publishers Weekly proclaimed it a "breathtakingly fast-paced medical thriller."

The second in the series, WARNING SIGNS, was released January, 2009 and the third, URGENT CARE, is due out October, 2009. Contact her at http://www.cjlyons.net





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