Perry Meester spends more time writing than he should, and the rest of the time watching movies that make him feel bad. He loves good coffee, bad music, tragic stories, and every other strange little freak on this earth. You can find him most places online @meatpunkperry. His debut novella, The Flesh Inherent, comes out TOMORROW from Ghoulish Books.
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. Find her online at @garbagesauce.
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
