Dan was born in Philadelphia in 1957 to a mostly Dan - courtyard 2blue-collar, hard-working Irish family. Dan’s family packed up and moved to Florida, which is where Dan spent most of his childhood.

During a personal retreat in 1977, Dan experienced a call to pastoral ministry. In 1985, he was ordained as a pastor and served in the same church for the next 25 years. In August 2010, after 3 of his novels were published by a major publishing house, Dan retired from ministry to write fulltime.