YEE-HAW, COWGHOULS!
Oh, what a glorious day it is to be a cowghoul! Perry Meester’s gnarly, cosmic body horror, science fiction western, gay-as-fuck novella The Flesh Inherent is finally available! Check out doomed sarcoma’s cover on the physical paperback, currently on proud display in our little retail shop on the outskirts of San Antonio:
On a hot summer night, something enormous screams down from the sky and pierces into the desert not far from the small town of Farchapel. The stories that trickle back from the crater are strange indeed—those who find it and return claim to be forever changed, transformed into the better, ideal versions of themselves they’ve always wished to achieve.
Jamie, recent mysterious visitor in town, is a man on the run, all too eager to escape his current form no matter the cost. Sidney, local drunk, would rather face a hole in the ground than the things he’s done. As the two men venture into the desert canyons in search of their better selves, they soon discover that what hides there is much more terrible—and eager to lure them in.
Here is what Perry Meester had to say about the book:
This book is a snapshot of a very specific time in my life. My world was getting brighter and clearer and more terrifying all at once, and writing The Flesh Inherent was a place to funnel that nervous energy. I was starting to figure out what kind of a man I wanted to be — so I was looking at the men in my life and the men I grew up watching and reading, wrapping my head around what I loved about them and what scared me, what I wanted to do differently. I’ve never written a Western before, but falling into that genre came naturally out of all those thoughts. I grew up watching old Western films with my dad, and the particular models of masculinity you’d find there were fascinating to me even before I had words for why. Of course, I had to put a nasty horror spin on it to make it mine.
It’s not exclusively a “trans story” — though it certainly is in parts. First and foremost I wanted to write the kind of messed-up horror I want to see in the world, something tight and gross and horny in a genre mash-up I hadn’t explored before. It’s a little bit of a love letter to the body horror stories that inspire me, and to the queer men and trans folks I’ve been lucky to have around me so far.
Read an excerpt HERE.
And read below for an interview with the author about gay cowboy sex, alien abductions, Johnny Knoxville being a babe, and much more…
Over a year ago, Mindy Rose stormed Ghoulish headquarters with a loaded pistol and a single demand: let me interview your authors or I’m going to blow your miserable goddamn brains out. The gesture was so passionate that we were left with little choice but to hire her on the spot as our publicity ghoul. And, every once in a while, she does interview our authors in a series we call GHOULGAB. So far, to the best of our knowledge, she has not blown anybody’s brains out, either.
Here is Mindy’s GHOULGAB with Perry Meester.
mindy: hello perry meester welcome to this incredibly unprofessional interview!
perry: hello!! I’m ready to be unprofessional
mindy: fuck yeah
mindy: most important question first how much gay cowboy porn is there in the book
perry: truly not enough! But certainly some, and some I’m decently proud of. It’s definitely a book about being horny in the desert so I’d like to think the gay cowboy porn vibes are lurking in the background even when they’re not on the page
mindy: like subliminal gay cowboy porn messaging?
perry: exactly! like there could be cowboy porn happening at any moment if things were slightly different. it’s always a distinct possibility
perry: even when it’s definitely inadvisable for there to be fucking at that moment or in that situation. especially then
mindy: i feel like if you’re already a horny cowboy in the desert, the fact that it might be inadvisable to be fucking at the present moment might just add to the horniness
mindy: ~oh no it would be dangerous to bone right now~ is a turn on right
perry: i feel like you’ve perfectly captured the vibe of the cowboy sex scene that is in the book lmao
mindy: oh word?? lmao i’m so extra stoked to read it now
perry: i really can’t stress enough how much people should not make the types of decisions these cowboys make. especially when you’re horny
perry: but yknow. sometimes you’re in the desert and probably gonna die anyway
mindy: yeah i mean. gay cowboys gonna gay cowboy, man
mindy: (also speaking of gay cowboy adjacent sex, if you haven’t read the woods all black by lee mandelo i highly recommend)
perry: omg it’s actually next on my list
mindy: !!!!!
perry: i’ve read summer sons by that author and it’s peak horny inspiration for me, honestly
perry: there are scenes in that book i think about regularly. for normal reasons
perry: but I get a lot of inspiration from the way it deals with specific kinds of desire. often gay but not always – wanting/desiring things you don’t think you’re allowed to have
perry: that’s good shit, to me
mindy: oh for sure
mindy: ok – was there any particular inspiration that led you to the gay cowboys + aliens combo?
perry: honestly part of it is that i’m incapable of writing things that don’t have some kind of sci-fi/horror/weird bend to them
perry: so I had very vivid visuals in my head for a type of western story, but it couldn’t just be that
mindy: are you a fan of westerns in general or was it like “what if there was a western, but good” ?
perry: I grew up watching westerns with my dad! they were a big early model of masculinity for me in a way
perry: when I think about “being a man” those things stick in my brain. It’s fun to dig into that and see what I can get out of it for myself
perry: particularly when it comes to thinking about what isn’t allowed in that idea of masculinity, and how limiting it can be, and what happens if you want to keep parts of it but also remake it for yourself
mindy: hell yeah
mindy: other than those westerns you watched with your dad was there anything you watched or read when you were growing up that shaped the way you tell stories now?
perry: I guess coming back to UFOs when I was younger I used to scare the shit out of myself by sneaking on the computer and reading “real life UFO abduction stories” and things like that. I hated them and I absolutely read as many as I could find
mindy: lmaoooo
perry: which is a big part of how i try to write. finding the worst possible thing and pressing on it until it hurts real bad lol
mindy: lol fuck
mindy: the more of these interviews i do the more i realize that horror writers are genuinely deranged
mindy: bless
perry: i’ve been realizing it’s why I really dig stuff like jackass
perry: and nathan fielder, etc
perry: very socially uncomfortable or awkward or hard to watch things. that’s the same feelings as horror to me and it’s sooo fun to play with, because the uglier or more awkward something is the scarier it gets sometimes
mindy: also johnny knoxville is a babe?
perry: like pretty much the hottest a guy gets I think
perry: it’s the confidence
mindy: max says that both your book and the short story ghoulish is publishing involve killing animals and that i should ask you about that, so: what’s the deal with that?
perry: this is going to be VERY horror writer cliche but. i truly think it’s a childhood thing
perry: I grew up with a lot of pets and farm animals and dealt with a lot of animal death! it feels weirdly routine for me. and in general I like to write about how vulnerable and squishy bodies are whether they’re human or animal
mindy: eep
perry: i guess i should put on the record that I do love animals very much lol
perry: my cat is trying to sit on my keyboard right now
mindy: hahaha
mindy: remind me of his name? he’s very cute
perry: poe! he’s a big sweetie. he was there hanging out for most of the writing of my book I think
perry: he should be a co-author, I fucked up there
mindy: next book.
mindy: and i’m sure he knows in his heart that you consider him a co author
perry: it’ll be a thrilling tale about what happens when you don’t feed your cat on time
perry: the true horror
mindy: i’ve heard that things get very dicey when that happens!
mindy: were you writing horror stories about vulnerable squishy bodies when you were a kid too?
perry: it’s even funnier – i was writing epic fantasy when I was a kid
perry: I think all this stuff steeped in my mind for way too long and then I stumbled into horror and now we’re here
mindy: oh yeah, the mind-steeping horror, tale as old as time
mindy: this is a two part question
mindy: what was your first introduction to ghoulish and what made you want to work with them?
perry: i’m pretty sure it was We Need To Do Something (which I love)! after watching that together my friend and fellow writer pointed me toward ghoulish as a place that was taking submissions which was GREAT since I was in the middle of book submission hell
perry: I’ve told Max this so it’s not a secret but I was so so hoping Ghoulish would be the one to accept it, it was my publisher of choice pretty quick. they seemed like just the right vibe of somewhere publishing horror that was interesting and out there and not afraid to get weird with it
perry: just felt like a great tonal match
mindy: lol that’s a very sweet way to say that ghoulish fully certified for freaks by freaks
mindy: last question! how fucking stressed out are you right now, moving and releasing a book at the same time?
perry: Honestly I think the two are working perfectly to cancel each other out
perry: there’s always a different thing to be stressed about so I can bounce between the two haha
perry: but it feels weirdly fitting! having two big life things happen at the same time. like a big weird fresh start. and it doesn’t hurt that I’m moving out to cowboy country, so very on-theme
mindy: aw you right that’s very cool
mindy: and you are very cool! thank you for making time to do this silly interview!
perry: thank you mindy!! always a pleasure to hang out with a fellow ghoul
Buy The Flesh Inherent through the GHOULISH webstore, or shop via Bookshop.org, B&N, Powell’s, Amazon, or request it directly from your local bookstore. Thank you! We love you all.