Daniel Keating

My story begins and ends the same as yours. After all, if you're reading this, you are human. And to us, that means it's ultimately all about love. Running a close second is challenge. Without our missteps in life, we learn nothing and none of our interactions would have meaning without the struggle to change ourselves so that we can better understand and care about one another.

My childhood had the classic good parent/bad parent struggle, as my father played the good part, my mother the bad. But she also contained the good/bad struggle in a big way within herself, as she suffered a lot as a little girl. My parents were intelligent, loving people, so I learned those important lessons early in life. I began reading early and starting writing at 12. Aside from poetry, I later became a sports reporter, columnist and dept. editor in New York, finally becoming one of the news desk editors at age 23. I also studied songwriting with a friend and his uncle, a member of the rock band Mountain. David Perry taught me patience in writing and confidence in my ability. And thanks to the support of two particular siblings, Tom and Jenn, I am currently trying hard to get published. In addition to songs and poetry, I will soon start a blog/essay site and write a screenplay based on my life. My ancestors include the Lowell poets and Benjamin Franklin's mother Abiah Folger, who is my direct great grandmother (seven greats?) on my mom's side of the family. I credit these genes with a lot of my writing gifts, as I am basicall untrained and studied philisophy, psychology and theology in school, not writing. It has taken me a long time in life to grow a thick skin when it comes to how people react to me. This is finally allowing me the confidence to get published and do what I love for a living.