DIANA: “You’ve travelled quite extensively, how do you think this has affected your creative process?”

JEFF:  “Travel changed everything for me as a writer. Beginning with my adventures out west in the summer of 2006, through my time in Europe and most recently the year I spent in Israel… Out west in such wide open spaces like Yellowstone and Glacier park I felt the scenery of fantasy and fairy tales come to life, also I gained a feeling for the Romantic American Western hero and his place in literature. In Ireland I was attracted to the stream of conscience style of Joyce, and the mysterious nature of the accent. (The Irish have a great love of storytelling, and a terrific imagination for dark and stormy nights) In Israel I found the essence of stories about work, a new language, and also many questions regarding the cultural clashes that take place daily in the Middle East…”

“In terms of how it plays out in the form of my characters? I like the big world scenario that, Myles, the relatively simple narrator of many of my stories has evolved to capture. He has friends everywhere around the world, is lost on an aimless adventure, and though he is numbed by fatigue at times, he is more often than not the constant witness to vibrant life….”

"Smoking Firehole River" -Yellowstone National Park, Summer 2006