Reading another adventure story in Samaipata, foothills of the Bolivian Andes.

"I don't know that I'm a great writer. In fact, I'm pretty sure I'm not. I think I'm a pretty good storyteller, like Louis L'Amour, my favorite author - the kind you might find yourself listening to while sitting at a lonely camp fire in the Old West. If I am indeed something like that, I am exactly what I want to be."

 - Gregory Leigh Lyons

I was five weeks old when my parents brought me to Venezuela. I ended up spending my first decade of life there, right in the tropical heart of that country. We lived in an oil camp in the middle of El Monte, a jungly savannah near the Orinoco River. I am what people call a Third Culture Kid, which basically means someone who spends their formative years in a foreign country. My unusual upbringing has greatly influenced my writing. My first book, Avery McShane, (released March 2012) is an embellishment of my adventures growing up there. 

I have also lived in Ecuador, Bolivia, Iran, Argentina and the United States. After receiving a degree in Earth Science from the University of California at Santa Cruz, I spent twenty years as a petroleum geologist and oil executive. In 2004 I completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School and began a short lived career as a consultant. When the economy collapsed in 2008, I started writing. I'm not sure why, but I'm glad I did. I had never written anything more than reports and memos up to that point. I think that I was able to pull it off because I had a lot of experiences to draw from - my life had been one cool adventure after another.

And, boy, have I had some adventures: exploring for oil in the jungles of the Amazon Basin, drilling for natural gas in Patagonia, voyages on merchant ships breaking through ice in the Baltic Sea, port captaining in North Africa, playing professional soccer in Bolivia against an Argentine team featuring a very young Maradona, and raising money in boardrooms of the financial centers of Europe. I have been to the northern and southernmost cities of the world, eluded guerillas in Colombia, faced secret police in Iran, had a Mafia gun held to my head in Southern Russia, even barricaded myself in my hotel room over looking the Kremlin when two well-armed Russian security guards tried to break in my room in the middle of the night. My high school graduation ceremony took place in the same US embassy compound that Ayatollah Khomeini's followers overran in 1979, beginning their infamous hostage standoff. But all these things and more took place when I was already an adult. The events that really left the greatest impressions on me were those that took place during my formative years, growing up in South America. Those are the ones that inspire me the most. They are the ones I weave into stories.

I guess I've got a knack for it. My writing landed me my first book contract with Bloomsbury Children's Books in London. My editor was Emma Matthewson, the same one who worked with JK Rowling on all of the Harry Potter books. I don't know that I'm a great writer. In fact, I'm pretty sure I'm not. I think I'm a pretty good storyteller, like Louis L'Amour, my favorite author - the kind you might find yourself listening to while sitting at a lonely camp fire in the Old West. If I am indeed something like that, I am exactly what I want to be.