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Happy Birthday, Deb Essen!

Happy Birthday, Deb Essen!

Marty’s photo of the day #2665: Today’s photo doubles as a Paul Bunyan-sized Happy Birthday to my wife, Deb Essen. When I took this photo of her, a while back, we were just having fun. In today’s light, it’s actually political. Melania Trump is infamous for appearing in photos that are incongruous for the occasion: […]

Neptune’s revenge

Neptune’s revenge

Marty’s photo of the day #2657: I took this photo on Deception Island, which is near Antarctica. You are looking at the remains of the Hektor Whaling Station. This short excerpt from my first book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents, provides more information: We went ashore instead at the more sheltered Whaler’s […]

Snake education

Snake education

Marty’s photo of the day #2583: I was flipping through my photo files this morning, trying to decide what to post, when I came across this shot. Several years ago, I helped with an after school program at the Stevensville, Montana library. The kids are holding Eve, my seven-foot-long rainbow boa. Most were touching a […]

Writers write what they know

Writers write what they know

Marty’s photo of the day #2576: One advantage I have over other science-fiction writers is that before switching to fiction, I wrote two nonfiction eco-travel books that took me to all seven continents and numerous islands. Even fiction writers write what they know. So in Time Is Irreverent, when Marty Mann and Nellie Dixon went […]

Inside a Spanish castle

Inside a Spanish castle

Marty’s photo of the day #2558: I will let a short excerpt from my first book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents, explain this shot from Spain: If medieval real estate agents existed, they would have listed the Castillo de Monfragüe as a “starter castle.” Built in the fifteenth century, it was much […]

The day I held up the world

The day I held up the world

Marty’s photo of the day #2463: I can’t believe it’s been fifteen years since I held up the world! This excerpt from my book Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents explains the shot: I had a debt to pay for our successful Antarctica landing. Besides Shackleton and Neptune, another larger-than-life being had been […]

Matterhorn at sunrise

Matterhorn at sunrise

Marty’s photo of the day #2452: While in Switzerland, Deb and I met up with Emad, our Swiss-Egyptian friend, and we stayed at a hotel at the base of the Matterhorn. The only way to get to the hotel was via gondola. Here’s a short excerpt from my first book, Cool Creatures: Hot Planet: Exploring […]

Fun with dugouts

Fun with dugouts

Marty’s photo of the day #2450: This photo, from Peru, explained with a short excerpt from my first book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents: Other than Yaguas paddling in their dugouts (a skinny canoe carved from a log), we had the Rio Orosa to ourselves. When we passed the occasional tribal village, […]

Only one day left to win . . .

Only one day left to win . . .

With just one day left to the end of my Kindle Scout campaign—and a chance for you to win of free copy of  Time Is Irreverent—I’m featuring some of the new liberal Ten Commandments Marty Mann and Nellie Dixon present to the people of Galilee in AD 31 when they crash the Sermon on the Mount. […]

Only two days left to win . . .

Only two days left to win . . .

With just two days left to the end of my Kindle Scout campaign—and a chance for you to win of free copy of  Time Is Irreverent—I’m featuring some of the new liberal Ten Commandments Marty Mann and Nellie Dixon present to the people of Galilee in AD 31 when they crash the Sermon on the Mount. […]