John Carpenter’s Night Terrors: Sour Candy by Kealan Patrick Burke and Jason Felix
Storm King Productions (March 2022)
104 pages; $17.99 paperback
Reviewed by Blu Gilliand
Back in 2015, I had the pleasure of reviewing Kealan Patrick Burke’s then-new novella, Sour Candy. You can see the full review here, but I’ll include the plot summary from that review below:Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories Horror HabitsLeave a comment on Horror Habits: Kealan Patrick Burke 
I’ve always been curious about how creators create. As a creator myself, I know it’s not some magical process where you just sit there and the muse descends from the clouds and bestows upon you a complete story, film, painting, etc. It’s hard work, and the process differs for everyone.
Horror Habits is an interview series that lifts the veil on the writing process for writers of dark fiction. No, your favorite horror writer isn’t sitting in some gloomy castle, penning their masterworks under candlelight (hit me up if that is how you work, though!). They’re sitting at their laptops, plugging away on a word processor, and possibly eating trail mix along the way. From outlining to music choices, this series will give you some insight as to how some of today’s best horror writers get their words to the page. First up: Kealan Patrick Burke. Continue Reading
Horror writer Kealan Patrick Burke wants you to face your fears. His poetic and visceral prose have helped earn him a devoted readership since The Turtle Boy won the Bram Stoker Award in 2004. Frequently mentioned in the same breath as Josh Malerman, Stephen Graham Jones, and Paul Tremblay, Burke has managed to carve out a unique place for himself writing dark and terrifying work that gets under your skin in the best of ways. He has also laid claim to an often neglected form—the novella. In fact, some of his most popular works are not his novels—although he’s written five of them, and is finishing up a sixth—but his novellas Sour Candy, Jack & Jill, and Blanky, among others.Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories Reviews3 Comments on Review: We Live Inside Your Eyes by Kealan Patrick Burke 
Elderlemon Press (April 2019)
227 pages; $9.99 paperback; $4.99 e-book
Reviewed by Blu Gilliand
I’ve long considered Kealan Patrick Burke to be something of a throwback. I imagine him as one of those long-ago pulp writers who used to churn out stories by the fistful, back when there were magazine racks brimming over with periodicals hungry for tales. Like them, Burke never seems to run out of ideas, always finding fresh approaches to the tropes of his chosen genre. To see what I mean, look no further than his new collection We Live Inside Your Eyes, a batch of scary stories that run the gamut from quietly unsettling to downright terrifying.Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: Blanky by Kealan Patrick Burke 
Blanky by Kealan Patrick Burke
CreateSpace (September 2017)
80 pages; $6.99 paperback; $2.99 e-book
Reviewed by Frank Michaels Errington
I love the tagline on the cover of Kealan Patrick Burke’s new novella, Blanky: “The gift that keeps on living.”
And then there’s the opening, one that immediately draws the reader into the story:
You say you can’t imagine what it must be like to lose a child.
Let me make it easy for you.
It’s the beginning of the end of your world.
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories My First Fright2 Comments on My First Fright featuring Kealan Patrick Burke 
As horror fans, we all have that book, movie, comic book, etc. that served as our entry point to the genre. For me, it’d have to be Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, the Young Adult book series written by Alvin Schwartz and boasting nightmarish illustrations by Stephen Gammell. There was something about those books that left a huge imprint (scar?) on me as a child and helped spark a lifelong interest in the macabre.
I often wonder how other horror writers first became interested in the genre. Was it after watching the IT miniseries or reading dad’s old Tales From The Crypt comics? “My First Fright” is a new interview series where we look at one work that provided horror authors with that initial spark. Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: 'Sour Candy' by Kealan Patrick Burke 
Sour Candy by Kealan Patrick Burke
Published by Author (November 2015)
67 pages; $2.99 e-book
Reviewed by Blu Gilliand
We’ve all been there: standing in the aisle of a store, trying to hurry up and get the stuff on your list so you can get done and get out. There’s a hundred other places you’d rather be, and you’re already annoyed because it was hard to find a parking place and you can barely get down the aisle because there’s so many people there, many of whom apparently came for the sole purpose of standing in your way and chit-chatting with the neighbor or friend they happened to run into.
And then, the screaming starts.Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories Free FictionLeave a comment on "Terminal" by Kealan Patrick Burke “So, would you like my number?” she asked.
Perched on the side of the bed with his back to her, the rumpled sheets still reeking of sex, Adam closed his eyes and sighed silently. “Sure,” he said, tugging on his socks. He would give her his number because that’s how these things were supposed to go, but as soon as he was on the road, he would block hers. Getting whiny texts from some air stewardess (or whatever the hell they called themselves nowadays) would be just what he needed when he got home to his wife. Glenda was already suspicious, and with good cause. He had learned to be careful not to bring any evidence of his exploits home with him after the one time she found a pair of pink frilly panties in his suitcase, put there by one of his conquests while he’d been in the shower.Continue Reading
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