About

What’s a Keeva?

In early 2018, I took a leap of professional faith and started my own copywriting business, Keeva Communications. Why Keeva? A few reasons. I love alliteration, it’s an unusual name and it rolls off the tongue when you say it. Oh, and Keeva is the name of our Anatolian Shepherd (with the perfect snout). My husband came up with the cool Irish name that means gentle, beautiful, precious.

From School Daze to the Mountain Mail

My writing “career” began when I was an eighth-grader in Jupiter, Fla., and signed up to work on School Daze, the student newspaper. My love of the printed word continued when I joined the staffs of the student-run newspapers in high school and college.

I guess it makes sense that my first legit post-college job was working as a newspaper reporter and photographer for The Mountain Mail, a small daily newspaper in Salida, Colo. We had no AP wire service, so every day the big question was: What are we running on page 1?

Beanie Babies, Teacher Union Negotiations, Criminal Trials, Guide Dog Puppies

It was in that deadline-driven (and oddly exhilarating) role I really cut my writing teeth and learned how to crank out copy – quickly. I developed my skills – researching articles, interviewing sources and coming up with solid ledes that my editor didn’t think “sucked swamp water.” (RIP Lee Spaulding)

Working for a small-town newspaper gave me an opportunity to cover a variety of beats (law enforcement, courts, fire, schools, government) and interview all sorts of people (state’s governor, bit player from Melrose Place, owner of a mobile dog-grooming business, trash collector). On one particularly slow news day, I wrote a lengthy feature on Beanie Babies that ended up running on page 1 – above the fold. Good stuff!

Colorado → Florida → North Carolina → Colorado → North Carolina

While I loved being a reporter, I grew tired of living in a small town and I really didn’t like the $18K reporter’s salary. So, I headed to Denver for graduate school while interning in the site communications department at IBM Boulder.

After graduating with a masters in communication management, I made a couple of cross country moves between Colorado, North Carolina and Florida. The nomad in me never wanted to settle anywhere for too long (not all those who wander are lost!) and during those 15 or so years, I gained some invaluable professional experience.

A Mixed Bag of Expertise

Professional theatre. Health care. Hospice. Personal injury law. K-12 education. Senior living. Wildlife conservation. Economic development. Energy. Working with these diverse industries has allowed me to hone my writing skills to create quality, engaging content. Interviewing people and telling their stories through writing continues to be the best part of my job. You can check out some of my work on my Samples page.

Let’s connect! I’d love to chat about how I can help put my expertise to work for you.