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Burke was born and raised in the coastal town of Dungarvan, Ireland, sneak-reading his horror loving mother\u2019s Stephen King books, books that left a lasting impression on him.<\/p>\n When I ask why he writes horror, Burke states, \u201cWhy horror? Why not? People don\u2019t seem motivated to ask this question of writers in other fields. Why westerns? Why romance? Why comedy or science fiction? I write horror because it feels like the most honest means of confronting the things that scare me. I could write a story about a happy man selling happy flowers to a town full of happy people and it might be good, but I doubt I would enjoy writing it or find it spiritually or emotionally rewarding. Horror feels like shadowboxing, preparing for what\u2019s coming. It\u2019s a way to explore my own psyche, my own traumas, my own fears, and I don\u2019t have to mute the colors to suit the expectations of rosier genres.\u201d<\/p>\n And the palette that Burke uses in his own work is indeed, dark. His stories tend to start bleak, and then go pedal-to-the-metal into the void from there. Don\u2019t expect happy endings or enlightenment. If you\u2019re a Kealan Patrick Burke character, you\u2019re lucky to survive, and if you do it\u2019s with a whole lot of scars and a ghost clawing at your back.<\/p>\n \u201cTerrible things have happened to me. Terrible things happen to people every day.\u201d He says. \u201cI write about terrible things as a way to make sense of them, and because it\u2019s what I know. Love happens too, but I\u2019m not nearly as equipped to write about that.\u201d<\/p>\n After coming to America in 2001, Burke took the next two years to focus on writing, with a promise to reenter the workforce if his efforts hadn\u2019t borne fruit. But within that two years he worked his way up from amateur to professional magazines, sold a collection, and saw his novella The Turtle Boy<\/em> win the coveted Bram Stoker Award.<\/p>\n Most of the work Burke released over the next few years was published in limited editions by small presses such Thunderstorm, Subterranean Press, and Cemetery Dance. In 2010 he decided to self-release The Turtle Boy<\/em> as an e-book.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d been working as a fraud investigator for two years by the time the e-book thing came to prominence.\u201d He says. \u201cWith a substantial backlist of titles to my name, I decided there was nothing to lose by giving it a whirl and thus, went about teaching myself the process of self-publishing, from formatting to cover design. At best, I expected to be able to pay a utility bill here and there and would have been quite content with that. Instead, I ended up quitting my job and returning to writing full-time two years later. I\u2019ve been very fortunate.\u201d<\/p>\n Teaching himself how to navigate PhotoShop and create his own book covers led to Burke discovering he has an eye for design. Take a look at his covers and you\u2019ll see some of the most haunting imagery to grace books since the heyday of 1980s paperbacks. He eventually started his own design company called Elder Lemon (a term of endearment his mother used for him, based on an old television commercial about dancing lemons) and has designed covers for writers such as Bentley Little, Ronald Malfi, and Tim Lebbon.<\/p>\n Horror means different things to different people, but when you step into a Kealan Patrick Burke story, you\u2019re stepping into a world in which light is hard to find. Men are caught in senseless circumstances, creatures stalk you in the woods, infants die suddenly, and sometimes all your teeth fall out. These stories and images leave a mark on the reader\u2019s psyche, one that\u2019s hard to shake.<\/p>\n Shane Douglas Keene, of the ezine Ink Heist<\/a><\/em>, had a similar experience. \u201cThe book that truly hooked and made of me a KPB acolyte was the amazing exploitation\/survival horror novel Kin<\/em>. Really more of an anti-exploitation novel—you\u2019ll have to read to understand. It\u2019s the most beautifully written novel of its type that I\u2019ve ever read other than the great Jack Ketchum\u2019s Off Season<\/em>. That\u2019s not mean to lessen the value or the quality of that story, but to say, yeah, the dude is that good.\u201d<\/p>\n When I ask Burke what he feels is his scariest book, he responds, \u201cI\u2019m not sure I\u2019m the best judge of that. After all, what frightens me doesn\u2019t always correspond to fear in the reader. There are certainly scenes that give me the jeebies every time they float back into mind, like the mass of gloves nailed to the bedroom ceiling or the father\u2019s phone call in ‘Andromeda,’ the head rolling off during sex in ‘Empathy,’ the dream sequences from Jack & Jill<\/em>, the backpack discovery scene in The Tent<\/em>, the sequence with the Doctor and the fog in Master of the Moors<\/em>, the old lady at the top of the stairs from ‘Peekers,’ and the scenes with The Scholar in Vessels<\/em>. As far as the books go, I think Blanky<\/em> is the most frightening overall because of what it\u2019s about, and because it happens all the time. When it comes to horror, real-world fear always trumps the monsters.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHorror fans are the best fans in the world,\u201d Burke says, \u201cand on those days in which the words aren\u2019t coming and I question my worth as a writer, seeing that kind of enthusiasm is just the tonic. I\u2019ve been dragged out of more slumps than I can tell you by the enthusiasm of readers, and it\u2019s been that way since the first. Quite sincerely, I wouldn\u2019t still be here writing if not for the appreciation of horror fans. They get it.\u201d<\/p>\n 2018 saw the release of two seasonal short story collections—Dead Leaves<\/em>\u00a0and Dead of Winter<\/em>—within months of each other, and the short story collection We Live Inside Your Eyes<\/em> was released in 2019. But 2020 is shaping up to be an even busier year for Burke.<\/p>\n Back in 2018 Burke first teased Ward<\/em>, a prequel to fan favorite Sour Candy<\/em>, by posting a chilling cover that depicts a shadowy figure with antlers coming out of its head. An image that echoes the stark beauty of the original book\u2019s cover.<\/p>\n Whether you read horror for the chills and thrills, or because you\u2019re trying to subconsciously face some deep-rooted fear about the senselessness of the world, know that the dim light you see floating in the fog, that\u2019s not a specter, that\u2019s just Kealan Patrick Burke carrying a lantern into the dark, telling his readers that it\u2019s okay, you just have to face it, whatever it is.<\/p>\n LIGHTNING ROUND:<\/p>\n CEMETERY DANCE: What was the last book you read that really genuinely creeped you out?<\/strong><\/p>\n KEALAN PATRICK BURKE: I\u2019m Thinking of Ending Things<\/em> by Iain Reid. Chilling, oppressive, surreal. Reading it is like being stuck in somebody else\u2019s nightmare.<\/p>\n What are you most afraid of?<\/strong><\/p>\n Losing loved ones.<\/p>\n If you got to choose one author to collaborate with on a novel, who would it be?<\/strong><\/p>\n Choosing just one is too hard. So, either Clive Barker, because his corrupt imagination excites me and I think he\u2019d be fun to work with, or Caroline Kepnes, because I dig the ragged soul and dark wit of her work.<\/p>\n Handwrite or type?<\/strong><\/p>\n Both.<\/p>\n Pen or pencil?<\/strong><\/p>\n Pen.<\/p>\n You have to pick one book to reread, which is it?<\/strong><\/p>\n Lonesome Dove<\/em> by Larry McMurtry.<\/p>\n What\u2019s one question you\u2019re never asked in an interview, but you wish someone had the nerve to ask?<\/strong><\/p>\n Nobody ever asks my thoughts on religion or politics, and as the old saying goes, that\u2019s probably for the best if we\u2019re all to remain friends.<\/p>\n What do you feel is the most underrated \/ unread horror book that deserves more attention?<\/strong><\/p>\n There are so many of them out there that come along and just seem to be immediately relegated to the dusty backrooms of bookstores. The work of Charles L. Grant, for example, seldom pops up on popular lists and a moodier more evocative horror writer you\u2019d be hard-pressed to find. Karl Edward Wagner, same. Melanie Tem too. But the book my mind turns to every time I\u2019m asked this question is The Cipher<\/em> by Kathe Koja. The book launched the Dell-Abyss paperback line and was received well enough at the time, and yet when I talk to readers, it\u2019s either a book they\u2019ve never heard of or one they\u2019re planning to read eventually. It\u2019s an exceptional book, a modern classic, and anyone who hasn\u2019t read it needs to.<\/p>\n You\u2019re in a horror film\u2026how do you die? Okay, now, how do you survive?<\/strong><\/p>\n Ah, you see, I was in a horror film*, and I did die (via meat cleaver to the head), so we don\u2019t need to speculate here.<\/p>\n Okay, now, how do you survive?<\/strong><\/p>\n We all know the best way to ensure that….<\/p>\n Run.<\/p>\n *The film he\u2019s talking about is <\/em>Slime City Massacre<\/a>, 2010.<\/em><\/p>\n![\"Author](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/burke.jpg?resize=225%2C300\")
Horror writer Kealan Patrick Burke<\/a> wants you to face your fears. His poetic and visceral prose have helped earn him a devoted readership since The Turtle Boy<\/em> 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\u2019s written five of them, and is finishing up a sixth—but his novellas Sour Candy<\/em>, Jack & Jill<\/em>, and Blanky<\/em>, among others.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/taverns-244x350.jpg?resize=244%2C350\")
\u201cI also sold an anthology full of my heroes, Taverns of the Dead<\/em>, to Richard Chizmar at Cemetery Dance.\u201d Burke says. \u201cThis was my first contact with Rich, with whom I found I had much in common, and while we were working on Taverns<\/em>, I was also trying to place a story in his magazine. This proved to be no easy feat. Eventually, after he shot down several of my stories, I won him over with ‘The Number 121 to Pennsylvania.’ Cracking Cemetery Dance<\/em> magazine felt like a major milestone to me. Later, when I wrote The Hides<\/em>, the sequel to The Turtle Boy<\/em>, Rich bought it for his novella line, and that, as they say, was that. We\u2019ve since done a lot of books together and, I hope, will do many more.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/blanky-233x350.jpg?resize=233%2C350\"){kind=spacer}
I asked Sadie Hartmann (known online as “Mother Horror,” and co-owner of Night Worms<\/a>, a monthly, curated horror book club) about her first experience with a Burke story. She told me, \u201cI love to read extra spooky books for the Halloween season. I saved Blanky<\/em> for Halloween night. My husband and son had gone out to do a little trick-or-treating (in the rain—no thank you) and I stayed home and read this novella in one sitting. I’ve been a huge fan ever since. Kealan’s writing style is instantly engaging. Within the first couple of sentences. you’re hooked.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/kin-234x350.jpg?resize=234%2C350\")
And it\u2019s tapping into those real-world fears that have gained Burke such a devoted following. Take a look on Twitter and you\u2019ll see his name frequently pop up when people discuss their most loved horror books, or favorite stories of the year. Look on Instagram and you\u2019ll find dozens of pictures of his work, beautiful photographed by \u201cbookstagrammers..
\nThe online horror community is a vibrant and active organism, constantly championing new writers, posting positive reviews all over the web, and generally getting other readers excited to take a trip on the dark side.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/sour-227x350.jpg?resize=227%2C350\")
\u201cWard<\/em> is still scheduled for a 2020 release,\u201d Burke says. \u201cIt’s been delayed so far because of development on a Sour Candy<\/em> film, which may incorporate some, if not all, of the prequel. I’m waiting to see the finished script before I decide how best to handle the book’s release. In the meantime, I’m hard at work on another project I’m hoping to get out there this year, The Widows of Winding Gale<\/em>, about a remote island, the occult, sea demons, and the community of women forced to battle them. I’m also bouncing ideas around for a Kin<\/em> sequel, though that won’t likely appear for a long time. And of course, there’s The Great Almost-Finished Novel, Mr. Stitch<\/em>, which I’ve been laboring over for what feels like an eternity and which I’m determined to conquer this year. Until then, there are a lot of novellas and short stories due in various anthologies and other venues keeping me burning the candle at both ends for 2020.<\/p>\n