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Surrounded by wolves!

Surrounded by wolves!

Marty’s photo of the day #4306: Now that I have my brand new Ford Maverick truck, Deb, Nellie, and I are planning to head into far north Canada this fall. I took this photo the last time Deb and I made the trip. This is the 362-mile-long Campbell Highway, a gravel road that crosses the […]

Torrejón el Rubio, Spain

Torrejón el Rubio, Spain

Marty’s photo of the day #4296: This is the Spanish town of Torrejón el Rubio. Some photos speak for themselves; others need a storyteller. So I’m going to be the storyteller for this one. The following comes from my sixth book, Hits, Heathens, and Hippos: Stories from an Agent, Activist, and Adventurer: By the time […]

Meeting Jeff Strand

Meeting Jeff Strand

Greetings from Chattanooga, Tennessee! I’ve just returned to my hotel room after a delightful dinner with Jeff Strand and his wife, Lynne Hansen. For those who don’t know who Jeff Strand is, he is the master of a fairly obscure genre, called horror/comedy. I write in an equally obscure genre that I call science-fiction/political-comedy, so […]

Chattanooga love!

Chattanooga love!

Marty’s photos of the day #4269-4272: By some quirk, Chattanooga, Tennessee has become a very special city for me. I have performed “Around the World in 90 Minutes” there four times, and a week from today, I will add a fifth performance with a show at Southern Adventist University. It’s also the only city where […]

Baby moose on the way!

Baby moose on the way!

Marty’s photos of the day #4259-4262: We could have a baby moose at the Essen Wildlife Refuge this spring! Every morning my dog, Nellie, enters my writing room and stares at me until I take her outside to play. Yesterday morning we followed our usual routine. In addition to playing ball, Nellie thoroughly sniffs and […]

She made it!

She made it!

Marty’s photo of the day #4256: This is Annie. And yes, her jump was successful! She was an adoptee from an animal shelter. I still remember the day Deb and I brought her home. Annie was approximately two years old, nervous, and unsure of herself. The hallway to our bedroom overlooks the great room. It’s […]

The Aussie fangs-o-death

The Aussie fangs-o-death

Marty’s photo of the day #4255: This short excerpt from my first book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents, explains the shot: I flicked on my flashlight. “Deb! It’s a Belizean fangs-o-death!” “Let me see. Wow, it’s amazingly similar to the orb weaver spiders in Belize. But its body isn’t as colorful or […]

Even sweet Nellie can be naughty

Even sweet Nellie can be naughty

Marty’s photo of the day #4243: Sometimes even sweet Nellie can be a bad girl. Because we live on 25 acres of protected mountain forest (affectionately called the Essen Wildlife Refuge), we have mountain lions, wolves, coyotes, porcupines, skunks, and other animals around that Nellie shouldn’t mess with. And the only safe way for her […]

From the co-pilot’s seat

From the co-pilot’s seat

Marty’s photo of the day #4238: I shot this photo from the co-pilot’s seat of a tiny airplane (called a Helio), heading north over the Brooks Range, on the way to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. This short excerpt, from my second book, Endangered Edens: Exploring the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Costa Rica, the Everglades, […]

Not a bunch of nothing

Not a bunch of nothing

Marty’s photo of the day #4233: When I perform my college show, Around the World in 90 Minutes, I talk about how important it is to keep the arctic natural. Then, while showing a wide photo of the tundra, I mention that the oil companies and the politicians that work for them frequently call the […]

The other hippo story

The other hippo story

Marty’s photo of the day #4230: Via both my first book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents, and my college show, Around the World in 90 Minutes, the hippo attack Deb and I survived on the Zambezi River in Zimbabwe (the hippo bit through the center of our canoe and lifted us six […]

Best campsite in Canada

Best campsite in Canada

Marty’s photo of the day #4216: I shot this photo from the best campsite of Deb’s and my adventure to the top of Canada and back. This short excerpt from my first book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents, tells the story: The rest of our afternoon was uneventful—if you can call driving […]

Faro in the fog

Faro in the fog

Marty’s photo of the day #4215: Somehow, through the years, the file containing all the Sony Mavica photos from Deb’s and my 2002 adventure to the top of Canada disappeared from my computers. That old digital camera recorded onto mini-CDs. Even by today’s standards that camera took great still and macro photos (but lousy photos […]

Pure doggie joy

Pure doggie joy

It has been a beautiful 10 degrees below zero day here at the Essen Wildlife Refuge. The clouds moved out, and the sun was at the perfect angle to catch the snow glistening on all the trees with a tall mountain peak in the background. I’ve fallen in love with my Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS100 large-chip […]