Author reads on campus
Author Marty Essen came to the University of Indianapolis on Oct. 2 to give a performance based on his multi-award winning book, “Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents.”
Essen’s book chronicles several trips he and his wife took around the world, visiting every continent. Essen said he wanted to focus on rare and interesting wildlife in his book.
Special Events Chair for the Student Homecoming Committee Chelsey King helped set up the event. King said that Essen seemed really excited about coming to UIndy. According to King, Essen was picked because his book and performance seemed to fit well with the Homecoming theme of “Hounds Around the World.”
Essen said he decided to write “Cool Creatures, Hot Planet” after he received good reactions to articles he had written about exploring the Amazon Rainforest and parts of Australia. The articles were featured in two newspapers in Montana.
“People enjoyed them so much that they kept requesting more of that type of thing,” Essen said. “So I did a little research and found out that no one had ever written a book on travels to all seven continents.”
Essen said that after doing those two newspaper feature articles, he and his wife continued to travel to other continents and learn about them.
“Rather than continue writing newspaper articles, I thought it would be fun to do a book,” Essen said.
According to Essen, the travel for the book took about three and a half years, and writing the book took approximately 13,000 hours.
After the book was finished Essen did a book tour that he said inspired him to add pictures and other visual elements to his performance.
“I didn’t want to just sit and read from my book,” Essen said. “I didn’t think that would be as fun as actually showing photos of my travels.”
Essen said that his book tour was a scaled down version of the current show that he performs on college campuses.
“I made my show much bigger, much more elaborate, and moved it into the colleges; and it just took off,” Essen said.
Essen’s performances have been the Association for the Promotion of Campus Activities No. 1 booked college speaker for 40 of the past 48 months. Also Campus Activities Magazine named Essen as one of its “Hot Speaker” picks in 2011.
Although it is not the focus of his performance, Essen presented messages about conservation and endangered species throughout his performance. He discussed oil drilling in the Arctic Circle, and he showed pictures of landscapes and wildlife there. He showed the damage that oil drilling has caused in those areas.
“We only have one planet,” Essen said. “And we need to protect it.”
