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Marty’s photo of the day #4549: In my book, Hits, Heathens, and Hippos: Stories from an Agent, Activist, and Adventurer, I write about a hippo biting through Deb’s and my canoe, throwing us onshore, and us laughing about it afterward. For the critic who doubted we actually laughed—here’s proof.
Marty’s photo of the day #4595: My dad, Paul W. Essen, died twelve years ago this week. As anyone who has read my book Hits, Heathens, and Hippos: Stories from an Agent, Activist, and Adventurer knows, my father was a born again Christian to the extreme. In fact, he even believed his god wanted him […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4075: I write both fiction and nonfiction. If you’ve read any of my nonfiction books, you know I’ve experienced some great adventures, from searching for venomous snakes in the Amazon Rainforest to hiking on all seven continents to surviving a hippo attack with my wife, Deb, in Zimbabwe to overcoming […]
Marty’s photo of the day #3653: For the 4th of July, I thought I’d share an excerpt from my latest book, Hits, Heathens, and Hippos: Stories from an Agent, Activist, and Adventurer. In this excerpt, I talk about creating and publishing my first book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents. And yes, it […]
Marty’s photo of the day #3551: For anyone who has read my latest book, Hits, Heathens, and Hippos: Stories from an Agent, Activist, and Adventurer, this is Nanga Sumpa, the Iban longhouse that Deb and I raced the flooding deep-canyon river to get to. In Borneo, entire tribes live in a single longhouse, and when […]
Marty’s photo of the day #3528: The following excerpt from my newly published sixth book, Hits, Heathens, and Hippos: Stories from an Agent, Activist, and Adventurer, takes place in Australia: I had decided to hike up every river within a ten-mile stretch of Queensland coast. Since all the rivers dropped down from the mountains, I […]
Marty’s photo of the day #3527: The following excerpt from my newly published sixth book, “Hits, Heathens, and Hippos: Stories from an Agent, Activist, and Adventurer,” takes place in Cangas de Onís, Spain: Once we finished our excellent meal, the man from behind the bar walked over and introduced himself as Angel, one of the […]
Marty’s photo of the day #3524: As an author, I can’t think of anything that would piss me off more than working for months and months on a book, only to die before it was published. Even if someone tries to finish the deceased author’s book (as has happened for some), it’s never as good […]
Marty’s photo of the day #3489: This is one of the two octopuses Deb and I played with while visiting the Sea of Cortez in Mexico. The story of our octopus adventure will appear in my sixth book, Hits, Heathens, and Hippos: Stories from an Agent, Activist, and Adventurer. That book is ready to go, […]
I feel almost guilty saying it, but Deb and I have adapted quite well to life in the year 2020. While we mourn the massive Trump-induced deaths, racial injustice, out-of-control cops, and the slow murder of our planet, curling up in a corner and whimpering isn’t our style. We’re doing what we can to bring […]
After I wrote Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents and turned it into a college show, I realized that I was getting a bit heavy in my face. Since I’ve been a talent agent most of my life, and I was now agenting myself, I followed the advice I would give to any […]
