B. John Burns, author

Selected Works

Historical Fiction

Dessyre (des-i-ray): inspired by actual events

Alvey is an obscure singer/songwriter eking out a living as a soloist in eastern Kansas. After a late gig on an exceptionally warm Thursday evening in June, he offers a stranded woman a ride to the edge of town. Then everything goes awry.

The passenger is an alien.

From Canada.

Marissa grew up in Kansas City. She went to high school in Kansas City, was the editor of the school newspaper, and dated the quarterback.

Then she served in the Marines.

When she is 35 and homeless, she is caught buying some marijuana from an undercover deputy.

For that, she is banished from the United States.

To Canada.

Then who exactly is Dessyre?

Biography and Autobiography

Baby Pictures: My Year on the Road with Baby Lester and the Buggybumpers

B. John Burns was a middle-class Catholic school graduate destined, in the eyes of everyone who knew him, for law school. But after an unexpectedly rousing reception for one of his original songs at his senior class talent show, the only destiny in his mind was to become a rock star. "Baby Pictures" is a compelling autobiographical novel that tells his story of a life touring on the road – filled with nightclubs, hotels, and all that came with it. This is the story of a lifestyle that no longer exists today, but one that should never be forgotten.

One Dollar (American) Tutor

I grew up hearing my father's stories about his freshman year at Boston University, the alma mater of Dr. Martin Luther King and the laboratory of Alexander Graham Bell. The veritable Depression baby, in 1947 my dad found himself thrust into academic competition with the grizzled returning veterans of a world war.

The bulk of those stories involved his two roommates — Ferdie from Medellin, Colombia and, more prominently, Pong from Bangkok, Siam. Three young men all emerging from tough times on three separate continents, representing three diverse cultures. They were tales I'd heard so many times over the years that I could tell them myself with a great deal of accuracy.

Then, on a Sunday afternoon in 2019, there was one brief recollection I hadn't heard before. Something about taking the train to Harvard with Pong to meet a prince.

That's when I realized . . .

This is a book about growing up Irish American in Worcester, Massachusetts during the Depression, and then coming of age in the looming shadow of the war. Boston University is a fresh start for Buddy Burns. It's a fresh start for the waves of veterans coming home from Europe and the Pacific. It's a fresh start for two young men -- one from Asia and one from South America. Sent to Boston by families of influence being swept up in tumultuous events back home, Ferdie and Pong are here to equip themselves for lives of service.

Everybody gets a fresh start in 1947.