Stories from an Agent, Activist, and Adventurer
Memoir, humor, nature, music business
Date Published: February 28, 2021
Publisher: Encante Press, LLC
Be inspired, intrigued, and entertained!
Everyone has dreams of what they want to accomplish in life. Marty Essen’s childhood dream of becoming a herpetologist gave way to his dream of becoming a popular DJ, which led to his dream of becoming a big-time talent manager, which morphed into the dream of becoming an in-demand author and college speaker. While he achieved most of his dreams at various levels, he also realized that he didn’t necessarily have to reach the top to find success or happiness. Sometimes “almost” is close enough.
Hits, Heathens, and Hippos: Stories from an Agent, Activist, and Adventurer is a humorous and inspirational memoir that explores relationships and careers and how seemingly minor events can lead to life-changing results. Compelling stories have filled Marty’s life, and he tells those stories in a conversational style that combines his talents as an award-winning author with his talents as the creator of a one-man stage show that he has performed at hundreds of colleges across the United States.
This is a must-read for anyone faced with an unexpected career change, worried about finding and keeping the partner of their dreams, forced to take on bullies (whether individual, political, or corporate), eager for ideas to make life more satisfying, or just in search of a fun-filled adventure.
REVIEWS
“A thoroughly absorbing and inherently fascinating account of a most unusual life lived out in a series of equally unusual circumstances.”—Midwest Book Review
“With thought-provoking explorations into making peace with family members who adhere to differing religious values, tales of his time as a talent agent, and escapades with gigantic rainforest monitor lizards—there is much to enjoy in Marty Essen's memoir Hits, Heathens, and Hippos: Stories from an Agent, Activist, and Adventurer.”—a 4/5 starred IndieReader-Approved title, reviewed by C.S. Holmes
What
was your main drive to write this book?
All six of my books, including Hits, Heathens, and Hippos, feature the liberal political theme of
protecting the environment and human rights. I couldn’t write unless I felt I
was doing my part to make the world a better place—and encouraging others to do
so as well.
What
do you hope readers will learn by reading this book?
So many things! Among them include appreciating nature,
learning what goes on “behind the scenes” in the music industry, running
multiple businesses and dealing with obstacles beyond your control,
understanding how evangelical preachers fleece their followers, and even
keeping a marriage exciting and fresh.
Did
you do much research when planning this book?
All of my books require research, but this one required a
little less than the others because it was about my life. Roughly a third of
the book covers my career as a talent agent in the 1980s and 1990s. Fortunately,
I had the foresight to keep scrapbooks with press clippings from those years. Otherwise
it would have been very difficult to recount many of the events from that
period of my life.
Did
you have any main people who helped you in the process of this book or
influenced you to write it?
For me, writing is generally a solo process. However, in Hits, Heathens, and Hippos, I give
tribute to Laurie Rosin, an outstanding editor who also became the writing
coach for my first book. I owe a lot to her for getting my writing career off
on the correct track. Additionally, my wife, Deb (who is also a published
author), provides honest feedback and suggestions on every book I write.
How
long did this book take you to write from initial thought to hitting publish?
My first book, Cool
Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents, took me twelve
thousand hours (over a period of five years) to write. Since that time, I’ve
gotten much faster at writing. For Hits,
Heathens, and Hippos: Stories from an Agent, Activist, and Adventurer, I
took advantage of the seclusion from the COVID-19 pandemic and wrote it in
roughly three thousand hours (over six months).
Do you
have plans to write more about this topic or new topics?
I have written
a total of six books, with the last four coming during the past four years. Since
I don’t write cookie-cutter genre novels, a book a year is a lot to write. So
now I’m taking a break to promote all of my books and also to run my college
speaking business. My next book is likely a couple of years away, and I’m still
not sure what it’s going to be about.
About the Author
Marty Essen began writing professionally in the 1990s as a features writer for Gig Magazine. His first book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents, won six national awards, and the Minneapolis Star-Tribune named it a "Top Ten Green Book." His second book, Endangered Edens: Exploring the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Costa Rica, the Everglades, and Puerto Rico, won four national awards. His novels, Time Is Irreverent, Time Is Irreverent 2: Jesus Christ, Not Again! and Time Is Irreverent 3: Gone for 16 Seconds are all Amazon #1 Best-Sellers in Political Humor. Hits, Heathens, and Hippos is Marty's sixth book, and like all of his books, it reflects his values of protecting human rights and the environment--and does so with a wry sense of humor. Marty is also a popular college speaker, who has performed the stage-show version of Cool Creatures, Hot Planet on hundreds of campuses in forty-five states.
Contact Links
Twitter @MartyEssen
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