Jeff Alt is a celebrated author and avid outdoor enthusiast. His other books include: Four Boots-One Journey, Get Your Kids Hiking, and A Walk for Sunshine. Each of his books are award-winning and have received high praise from readers and educators all over the world. Jeff is a member of the Outdoor Writers Association of America (OWAA) and the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI).

Jeff’s expertise and books have been featured in Scholastic Parent & Child, Backpacker, Discoverchannel.com, ESPN, Hallmark Channel, and more. He has walked the Appalachian Trail, the John Muir Trail with his wife; he carried his 21-month old daughter across Ireland, and his son was on the Appalachian Trail at six weeks of age.  Jeff has spent over 20 years perfecting his ability to engage kids to learn as an educator. He has now combined his educational experience with his outdoor talents in writing The Adventures of Bubba Jones series.

You are an author, but is it your day job? I work part time as an author & keynote speaker and part time as an elementary school-based speech language pathologist.

Did you always want to be an author? I had a dream of being an adventurer. My storytelling and speaking events about my adventures led me to write my first book. Seven award-winning books later, here I am.

What is your most recent book and what inspired you to write it? My latest book is Time Traveling Through Yellowstone National Park: The Adventures of Bubba Jones (#5). This book is the 5^th in my national park middle grade book series. Yellowstone National Park is an amazing place and it was the very first national park in the U.S.

How do you hope your book uplifts those who read it? Each book in the series combines education with entertainment in a thrill packed journey through time sprinkled with notable facts about history, ecology, and science about the park and its inhabitants. Time travel engages kid’s imaginations. It helps them visualize from a different perspective and discover the natural wonders of the world and appreciate, respect, and preserve all that they experience. Each book in this series is specially designed to engage kids with mysteries, wild animal encounters, interesting history, science, and the environment and will have your entire family excited to take their own National Park adventure.

What are you most excited about with this book? I explore each park in this series. Hands on research is my favorite. I was even more excited to have my wife and children join me on my Yellowstone adventure.  All the activities the book characters engage in are highly recommended for families and we tested most of them out ourselves to make sure!

How did writing a book help your career take off? My books have led to many keynote speaking events.

What advice would you give to someone wanting to succeed in your professional industry? Define what you want or hope to achieve as a writer. Keep that goal in mind as you navigate the industry.

How do you handle setbacks and criticism? Setbacks are a temporary hurdle to my goals. I try to find a work around or a solution to the situation. I want criticism during the editing process of my book. Other sets of eyes will pick up silly edits that I may have missed and I’m glad someone caught it before the book goes to press.

How do you hold yourself accountable and achieve the goals that you set forth? When I’m writing, I set daily word count goals. I write in bursts and take frequent outdoor breaks to keep the creative juices flowing.

What do you find most fulfilling in the career that you’ve chosen? My books and speaking events allow me to share my life as an adventurer and make some money doing it. I also enjoy interacting with readers and interviewing various experts on topics I’m researching.

Connect with Jeff via his website. 

Images Courtesy of Jeff Alt