To be published on January 17, 2025:

The Bold, the Brave, and the Wrinkled: Retirement Just Got Rowdy!

Barry and Beth, high school sweethearts separated by time and circumstance, find themselves reunited at the Blue Loon Village senior living center in Minneapolis. Now both seventy, they rekindle their relationship only to discover how differently time has shaped them. Beth has blossomed into a free spirit with a goth flair, while Barry has transformed into the curmudgeon he swore in his youth he’d never become.

Despite their differences, neither senior is content to settle into a quiet life at the Blue Loon Village. As they reminisce about their unfulfilled teenage dream of changing the world, Beth convinces Barry that it’s never too late to make a difference. In fact, their age provides them with an advantage—the minimal consequences they’d face if caught doing something illegal. Inspired by their past and emboldened by their age, they set off on a daring road trip across America as Silver Squad vigilantes with nothing to lose.

Soon joined by Jenny—a woman in her forties on the run from her abusive cop-husband—the Silver Squad’s humorous, sometimes perilous escapades include robbing the prosperous to feed the homeless, rescuing drowning kittens, challenging unethical alligator hunters, and confronting a mass shooter with only a can of SPAM.

And sometimes, when a woman tires of running, she turns around and fights. As Jenny’s fear turns into courage, she vows to seize control—and give her husband the surprise of a lifetime.

The Silver Squad: Rebels With Wrinkles is a comedic novel that celebrates living life to the fullest while tackling the serious issues of spousal abuse, animal cruelty, mass shootings, and homelessness.

Published on September 18, 2022, to coincide with Banned Books Week:

An unconventional, satirical, controversial, time travel comedy!

What if you could reach back in time to deport the world’s worst environmental villains to a depository planet before their greed condemns Earth to an ecological apocalypse? What if each time you did so, an alien instantly extracted a body part and replaced it with a refurbished one? Would you still do it?

With little choice but to cooperate, Dr. Stefan Westin (aka Doctor Refurb) and vet tech Tara Kramer endure multiple body part extractions for the sake of Earth. Then, with the help of Rodney, a full-time planetary consultant from another galaxy, they must finish the job by traveling back in time to capture Ralph, a rebellious alien who has been jumping from person to person doing evil in the name of Christianity since biblical times. But Ralph could be anywhere—from leading the Spanish Inquisition, to instigating the Salem witch hangings, to abusing indigenous children at residential schools in Canada, to occupying an abusive missionary in Brazil. Only by capturing Ralph can Stefan and Tara annul the unholy marriage between conservative Christianity and the worst environmental villains. Adding to the difficulty of their task is that they must succeed before expending their time travel budget. Should they fail, Rodney’s supervisor won’t wait for the ecological apocalypse to happen—she’ll order Earth recycled immediately!

Heartrending yet hilarious, Doctor Refurb is influenced by actual historical events and confronts the serious subjects of climate change, far-right politics, and child abuse committed by Christian authorities. Read it before it becomes the most frequently banned book of 2033! (We’re time travelers; we checked.)

Also by Marty Essen:

Most online bookstores carry all of Marty Essen’s books. Just go to your favorite retailer and enter “Marty Essen” into the search bar. Many libraries and brick and mortar bookstores also carry Marty Essen’s books. If they don’t have the book you want in stock, they can order it.