My New Writing Setup!

 

After years of what can kindly be referred to as procrastination, I finally buckled down and pulled my home office/writing space together. Join me now as I share its writerly awesomeness with you, my beloved readers, viewers, and colleagues.

Step one was to upgrade my tech. 

I boosted my desktop and monitor reality from an ancient Dell Dimension 8300 that was slowly failing, to a much more recent refurbished Dell OptiPlex 7020-SFF Core i7, 1TB SSD with 16GB of memory and a NVIDIA GeForce GT 1030 2GB graphics card. It purrs like a kitten and is a HUGE improvement over my previous machine. I got the refurbished desktop from Amazon. Admittedly, this was a budget solution, but it works just fine for me. I'll admit to being a little nervous about a "used" computer, but its been running great since December 2021, and I'm really pleased with its performance. 

As always, your mileage may vary.

I then purchased a new HP 24" monitor with a HDMI connection to take
advantage of the NVIDIA card. Another BIG improvement that I wish I would've done sooner. Age of Empires III never looked better!

Next, I installed a massive memory upgrade on my muscular, business-level Lenovo ThinkPad laptop. It went from 16GB-->32GB. This thing smokes now, especially when its hooked up to my 100ft. ethernet cable. 100ft. ethernet cable?! Yeah, that helps my burly laptop bypass lagging wi-fi in my house (lots of draws on my bandwidth) by directly hooking into the router which is on another floor. 

Step two was to take down my ragtag assortment of animation-related wall decorations and replace the dingy-looking tan walls with a restful/calming/classy "Sage Gray" paint in an eggshell finish. I absolutely love this new color. 

After that, I installed new baseboards and limited my wall hangings to select animation cels (not a typo) 😊 and posters I pulled in from another room.

Future upgrades will include having ethernet wall jacks installed in several key areas of my house and purchasing a lightweight laptop (Microsoft Surface perhaps?) for travel purposes that won't make me feel like I'm lugging around a backpack full of bricks. Recommendations on good quality yet affordable lightweight laptops are welcome.

Finally, I bought some relatively inexpensive yet great-looking office furniture including a wood/metal computer desk, matching finish wood storage cabinet, and, best of all, a comfortable office chair that smashes the thrift shop $6.00 special that's been killing my lower back and posterior for years.

While it took me way too long to start this project, it took less than a month to complete it and I couldn't be happier with the results. 

Want to show off your writing space? Drop a pic and a brief description in the comments.

#homeoffice #writingspace #writer #author #animation #novels #writing #writingcommunity #fortressofwritertude

**

Roger Eschbacher is an Emmy Nominated Freelance & Staff Writer, YA SciFi & Fantasy Author, Actor & Groundlings Alum. If you like SF/F adventure novels, feel free to check out his AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE. (affiliate link) Thanks!

New Gig Mystery Has Been Solved!

 

Welp, the unannounced series I mentioned in an earlier post has just been announced! Turns out I'm a freelance writer on Scooby-Doo! and the Mystery Pups at Warner Bros. Animation! Yay! 

#scoobydoo #animation #writer #grateful

GHOST STAR: The $1.99 Teen & Young Adult Kindle Book Deals for May 2022!

 

Ghost Star will be promoted via Teen & Young Adult Kindle book deals in the US marketplace for $1.99, starting 5/1/2022 and running through 5/31/2022. 

 

https://amzn.to/3La8krD  

 

#ghoststar #YA #scifi #scifibooks #spaceopera #kindlepress #kindlebookdeals #yay!

New Gig!

I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as a Freelance Writer on an Unannounced Series at Warner Bros. Animation!  I can't talk about the project at the moment (NDA), but I'll fill everyone in as soon as I can. 

Let's just say that even though it just started I'm already having a blast!

#warnerbros #animation #freelancewriter #grateful

Check out GHOST STAR, a fast-paced #YA #scifi #adventure.

 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀

How far would you go to save your family? Light years? Check out GHOST STAR, a fast-paced #YA #scifi #adventure. 

https://amzn.to/2SdgwA1 

#spaceopera #action #adventure #spacemarines #aliens #military #kindlepress

My Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades (aka My Writing Plans for the Rest of 2022)

While the pandemic years have been a bit of a slog for me and everyone else (let’s just say it can be challenging to stay upbeat and creative when you’re not feeling it), they’ve also been surprisingly productive.

In the past few years, I’ve stayed as busy as I can by pushing through this over-sized rough patch and…

          Freelancing scripts for Hello Ninja, a fun, animated pre-school show on Netflix.

         Freelancing scripts for two overseas animated series that will probably end up on Netflix.

·        Finishing and publishing Elvenking (Amazon 2020), the third, but not final, book in my YA Arthurian Fantasy Leonard the Great series. Not final because I recently came up with a fun idea for a fourth book!

Plans for this year include…

·        Completing and publishing Ghost Star 2 (working title), the action-packed second book in my YA Ghost Star Adventures series. I hope to have this one out by the end of April (or May) 2022.

·        Finishing and publishing the novel-length version of Undrastormur, my YA Viking fantasy adventure.
I’m 2/3rds of the way through with this fun novel and plan on releasing it in July 2022.

·        Compiling and publishing the Dragonfriend Omnibus (the first three books of the Leonard the Great series combined) and releasing it in August 2022.

·      

Using September and October to do a detailed outline of Ghost Star 3 for the National Novel Writing
Month (NaNoWriMo), the writing challenge where you join thousands of other authors in setting aside the month of November to write a novel of 50,000 words (or more). Every one of my published and soon to be published novels started out as a NaNo project, and I’m very much looking forward to returning to the fold, after a couple of years absence, to challenge myself once again.

·       Pushing for more animation writing gigs! I’ve been close to a number of good gigs recently, and I’m really close to an awesome high-profile gig that I hope happens. Showbiz can be brutal, so I’ll take any positive vibes you’d care to send my way. UPDATE: The high-profile gig is happening!!! Can’t say much about it right now (NDA), but I’ll share the details when I can.

That’s it for now. I’m grateful my family is healthy, and I’m happy to have a lot of fun and interesting things on my plate.

If any of the above books pique your interest, please swing by my Amazon Author Page and check them out. 

Thanks!

 

Sample Saturday: Ghost Star April Giveaway

Follow the link below to check out a new, exciting sample from Ghost Star on BestSelling Reads. 

Then, as long as you're there, sign up for the BSR newsletter for a chance to win a copy of my book and 9 others plus a new Paperwhite e-reader in the BestSelling Reads Spring Fling Science-Fiction and Fantasy Giveaway (which runs until the end of April, 2022).

A brief description:

 He’d battle an empire to save his family!
When his father and crewmates are attacked and killed by a ruthless alien commander, young Galen Bray becomes the new captain of the GHOST STAR, a notorious smuggling vessel. Barely escaping capture, Galen sets out to rescue the only other survivor of the vicious attack, his sister Trem. Along the way, he discovers a mysterious people thought wiped out long ago, his family’s surprising origins, and a destiny he never imagined . . .

#scifi #scifibooks #fantasy #fantasybooks #ghoststar #spaceopera #bestsellingreads #giveaway

Click here: BestSelling Reads Spring Fling Science-Fiction and Fantasy Giveaway.

BestSelling Reads: SciFi/Fantasy Book and Kindle Paperwhite Giveaway

 

I recently joined an author group called BestSelling Reads, and we're doing an awesome SciFi/Fantasy giveaway for the month of April. 

Following the link below will take you to the BSR site where you can enter for a chance to win 10 great science-fiction and fantasy books AND a new Kindle Paperwhite e-reader! 

Enter our Spring Fling giveaway before the month is over! 

ENTER HERE

 #bestsellingreads #giveaway #scifi #scifibooks #fantasy #fantasybooks

DRAGONFRIEND: The Reminder

Think it's all noble deeds and stuffy politeness over at Camelot? Wrong! Things are really bad right now. #Arthur's in jail, #Merlin's missing, and there's a demon in charge. Seriously! https://amzn.to/2MKNouI #YA #fantasy #dragons #wizard #monsters #swordandsorcery 🐲🧙‍♂️⚔️🛡️

Also available as an audiobook!