Marty Essen's Blog, page 285

Artsy anaconda

Marty’s photo of the day #2556: Today we go artsy with a “Study in Gold and Brown.”

This is an anaconda surfacing for a breath in the Amazon Rainforest of Peru.

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Sea lions

Marty’s photo of the day #2555: Sea lions and a bonus gull.

(Photographed in the Sea of Cortez)

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Octopus petting

Marty’s photo of the day #2554: Okay, this shot gets extra points for difficulty. I’m sitting on the floor of the Sea of Cortez; I have an octopus sitting atop my feet; I’m petting the octopus with one hand and holding the camera with the other. The water was shallow, and waves were splashing, so I had to time my shot between clouds of sand that were constantly trying to obscure the camera’s view.

If you look closely at the octopus, you can see an eye, a siphon, and suction cups.

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My day at MisCon

Marty’s photo of the day #2553: Yesterday, I was at MisCon (Missoula’s Science Fiction & Fantasy Convention) for several events. First I did a reading from “Time Is Irreverent.” I read the section where Nellie Dixon handles the cops expecting a sexual favor in her own “special way” and shocked the audience. But hey, I never play it safe. I also taught a workshop on book promotion for independent authors, which drew a good crowd and was well received. The biggest surprise of the day, however, was when I did a book signing and James and Skye showed up at my table and pulled out two copies of “Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents” for me to sign.

What was so cool is that James and Skye had the First Edition copies, with the original book cover. Those First Editions had sold out years ago, and I had changed the cover for the Second Edition. While they were at my table, they also picked up copies of “Endangered Edens” and “Time Is Irreverent,” so they now have all three of my books.

I head back to MisCon today to be on an Alternative Histories panel at 4:00 p.m. What fun!

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Eagle Ray

Marty’s photo of the day #2552: This is an eagle ray, photographed in Costa Rica.

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Ringed kingfisher

Marty’s photo of the day #2550: This is a ringed kingfisher. Photographed in Costa Rica.

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Canoeing with hippos

Marty’s photo of the day #2549: When Deb and I canoed the Zambezi River in Zimbabwe, we passed roughly 1,500 hippos in three days. This wasn’t the hippo that bit through our canoe.

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How to spot an octopus

Marty’s photo of the day #2548: How hard is it to spot an octopus? You are looking at one right now.

Photographed in the Sea of Cortez.

Hint: Look dead center, and you will see an octopus eye.

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Desert in bloom

Marty’s photo of the day #2547: Five years ago, I was on a speaking tour that took me to the Arizona-California border. During an off-day between gigs, I explored the Mojave National Preserve. The desert was in bloom—a stunning sight! This is a yucca plant.

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After hundreds of shows, the most memorable are . . .

Marty’s photo of the day #2546: I’m posting late today because, oh joy, I’ve been on airplanes since early this morning, flying from Philadelphia to Missoula. Yesterday’s show at Rowan College at Gloucester County was my last for this school year. Next year will be my twelfth of speaking at colleges. When you’ve performed hundreds of shows as I have, some just blend in with others and some I’ll never forget.

Off the top of my head, three of the more memorable shows include: A performance in Washington, DC, where someone started a fire making popcorn, and we had to stop the show temporarily to air-out the room; a show in Rapid City, SD, where a blizzard shut down the entire town, stranding me in a seedy hotel for three days, as pot smoke wafted through the hallways from rooms of other stranded occupants; and a show in California, where the screen would automatically rise into the ceiling every twenty minutes or so.

Today’s photo is from a college tour in Arizona. To-date that state gets the prize for the most unforgettable show, because of the difficulty I had concentrating on my performance while two beautiful women did their best to distract me by making out hot and heavy in the front row of the auditorium. Admittedly, they got me to stammer a few times—but I pulled the show off without any major errors.

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