Jeff Trossen was born and raised in Garden Grove and Riverside California.
Through his parents he learned to love classical and jazz music. Through the influence of his older brother he learned to love rocket ships, airplanes, sailing ships and science fiction, especially science fiction. His older brother introduced him to classic and popular science fiction writers such as Robert Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, Anne McCaffrey, James H. Schmitz, Larry Niven, Arthur C. Clarke, Andre Norton and especially Jules Verne.
Having gotten used to real science fiction, he found himself in a love-hate relationship with the majority of broadcast television science fiction programming. Because of the poor storylines, and silly pseudo-science they presented on their weekly TV programs, he became convinced he could do better. After thinking about it for a decade or two while he struggled with life, earning a living doing mechanical drafting and design he made the effort to write his own stories. The Flight of the Starling Book series is the fruit of his labor. It is his effort to write not just science fiction, but science fiction where the story of the characters themselves carry more weight than the gadgets in their world. He writes so that the gadgets are sensible and not unduly magical or miraculous and makes sure that the characters aren't perfect. (They never should be) He sees to it that the problems they face are tangible and workable. He goes for the believable rather than the spectacular and sees to it that the whole country, planet, galaxy, or universe isn't in danger of destruction if the main character doesn't beat up the inexplicably evil bad guys to save the day. The problem(s) instead are more local and personal, the danger isn't universal and the main characters are never invulnerable, unassailable or impenetrable.
Jeff Trossen currently resides with his wife in Maryland and works as a Science Research Technician at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Maryland.