DoT EP106: Author David Demchuk On Strangeness, Folklore, Queerness, and Monstrosity, Plus New Music from Jumpstarted Plowhards

The Department of Tangents Podcast

David Demchuk’s first novel, The Bone Mother, came highly recommended to me at NECON this year by Matt Moore, whom I interviewed in EP104. Demchuk and Moore are both on ChiZine Publications, which had a table in the dealers room. So I picked up The Bone Mother, not knowing what to expect, and innocently set about reading the first fifty pages later that evening. It’s a novel told in short stories that, when taken together, form a story about a hunted and tortured class of people in Eastern Europe, many of whom happen to have supernatural traits or powers, and don’t always do pleasant things with them. The first story presents Borys, who marries his brother. His brother then dies, and Borys is then forced to take his place working at the local thimble factory, which, it turns out, is a scary place all on its own.

There is a black and white photo accompanying Borys’s story, of two sturdy, emotionless gentlemen who look very much like brothers sitting with a bouquet of flowers between them. Most every story has a matching photo, taken from the archives of Roman photographer Costica Acsinte between 1935 and 1945, as the book’s end notes state. They are evocative, and part of the impetus that sparked Demchuk to write the play, The Thimble Factory, upon which this novel is based. The strange quality of the photographs helped Demchuk write to some of his favorite themes, queerness and monstrosity, and wrap them in the familiar feel of folklore. He knew there would be parallels to the contemporary experience of queerness being labeled as “other” or even dangerous, but The Bone Mother turned out to be even more forward-thinking than he had originally planned. And it’s also one hell of a horror story.

The book is called The Bone Mother from ChiZine Publications. You can find out more about Demchuk at his Web site, www.daviddemchuk.com, and find him on Twitter under @david_demchuk. You can find more info on ChiZine Publications at www.chizinepub.com.

Halloween is upon us! I am putting together my Daily Horror Film Fest, which means a different short horror film every day through October, and I need your help. If you have made a short horror film, or you just have a favorite you’d like more people to see, e-mail me at [e-mail] and let me know.

And now, this week’s featured track, “On the Counter” by Jumpstarted Plowhards, from their upcoming album Round One, out October 4 on Recess Records. This is a collaboration between Todd Gongelliere of Toys That Kill and F.Y.P. and Mike Watt of the Minutemen and fIREHOSE, who will talk about the project on next week’s episode. Watt recorded the bass tracks and then sent them to Congelliere to add drums, guitars, and vocals. You can here both personalities mingling to create something slightly different than either would have produced on their own. Round Two has already started, and the band plans to tour once they’ve got five albums under their belt. I'm thrilled to give you your first taste of the project.