A half hour inland from where the rolling waters of Lake Michigan crash upon her eastern shore, the small community of Yankee Springs lies nestled in the woods surrounding a placid lake the Indians long ago named “Gun.” There, Daniel Jay Paul resides with his muse, spinning imagination and dreams into stories and songs of love. He is a songwriter, producer, and author who prefers to keep to himself, letting his work do the speaking. His hair is dark blonde with a touch of silver just beginning to peak out at the edges, his eyes blue and clear. His face is tanned and weathered with fine lines at the corners of his eyes. He’ll be the first to confess that he’s been a long time getting out of his own way; wrestling with the demon of perfectionism, an obsession that can turn a blank piece of paper into a virtual wall of terror. He worked in bowling alleys, 7-11’s and gas stations before he decided he was going to follow his dream and become a. a writer, but he’ll be the first to confess that he’s been a long time getting out of his own way; wrestling with the demon of perfectionism, an obsession that can turn a blank piece of paper into a virtual wall of terror. He worked in bowling alleys, 7-11’s and gas stations before he decided he was going to follow his dream and become a writer. As a first grade boy, he came home from Oakdale Elementary School with a book of cowboy stories under his arm. He curled up with it on the couch and was awed by the power of the imagination. Since then, he has been trying to harness that power. After winning some high school journalism awards, he went off to Central Michigan University in the fall of 1971 to become a journalist. But it soon became apparent that you could “reveal more truth” in fiction than in the daily newspaper. So the winter of 1973 brought a transfer to the creative writing program of Thomas Jefferson College, and soon thereafter, an independent study on novel writing where the first draft of a novel was produced. But the story doesn’t end there, because he couldn’t stand to read his own novel. Years of work perfecting his craft followed. Another significant event of the Thomas Jefferson College years was a poetry workshop, where the professor said, “You don’t write poems, you write song lyrics.” There are those who say there are no coincidences, but at this same time a new friend came into his life who was a bass player in a rock-n-roll band. Robert Livingston Jr. became his musical mentor. He went out on rock n’ roll gigs with the band Challenge, sleeping on the beach because they didn’t earn enough to cover accommodations when they played clubs like Whiskey Creek up at Silver Lake. In exchange Daniel learned how to play guitar, and learned how to set his “poems” to music. A natural-born romantic, the humble and reclusive Daniel Jay Paul is a creative renaissance man who bridges the gap between literature and music. Some of his credits include writing and producing the CD “Love Keeps on Burning” for the band The Flame, and his own music CD “Once Upon a Time” which was released in 2000. "The Last Sunset" is Daniel Jay Paul’s first published novel, and e can only hope there are many more are on the horizon.