Jeff Montanye created his first website in 1999, taught his first photography class in 2004, and published his first book in 2006.

Jeffrey David Montanye is a New York certified adult education instructor. He has been teaching self enrichment classes in photography, self-publishing, creating websites with HTML and WordPress, basic computer skills including Windows 8, 10 and iOS, Microsoft Office including Word, Excel, and Power Point, IC3, and more since 2004. He has self-published several books, was a finalist in the 2019 Fall Owl Canyon Press short story contest, and made the autumn 2019 Reflex Fiction long list.

Jeff has also won numerous awards with his photography and has been honored with a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition as well as New York State Assembly Environmental Certificate of Merit for his work with the Stewart Park and Reserve Coalition.

Jeffrey David Montanye was born in Middletown, NY and grew up in Orange County. For thirty years he worked in the Information Technology field for different businesses and schools throughout the Hudson Valley.

Jeff has utilized his skills and talents in many ways to help support the community in which he lives. Some of his accomplishments include hiking eleven hundred miles of the Appalachian Trail to raise money for the American Cancer Society.

He created a book and maps of Stewart State Forest and gave many hours of volunteer time to help make the place a valuable resource for the community. For five years, Jeff ran the Royal Ranger program in the local church bringing outdoor fun and education to young boys and girls, opening their eyes to their environment and showing them how much fun the great outdoors can be. He has worked with watershed alliances to clean the local rivers by helping to pull hundreds of old tires from the water.

Jeff provided photography services and is now working to help design computerized water quality systems which will help maintain clean drinking water for future generations. He teaches self-enrichment classes in technology including photography, self-publishing and website design throughout the Catskill-Ramapo Library System.

Jeff was inspired to write his first book after spending a year building an HO scale railroad in his home. He had invested countless hours building the elaborate model, only to find that it left him with an empty feeling. Being hidden on the upper floor of his small Middletown home, very few people were able to enjoy his creation. He felt his efforts were in vain. Jeff wanted to create something that everybody could enjoy. His idea to write the book, MazeZing-Junk Drawer Jewels came to him while reading to his younger cousins. Combining his skills in photography and model building with his whimsical ideas, he put together his first creation that the entire world could enjoy.

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