One year ago today Hounacier hit the digital shelves.  In honor of its birthday, and keeping with the tradition that I started with Dämoren’s first birthday, I wanted to share a few fun facts about it.

**Spoilers Below**

1:  Originally, Hounacier wasn’t intended to be the second novel. I’d planned to write Ibenus, followed by Hounacier as the third. However, after a trip to New Orleans, the ideas for for the story were too good not to act on, and Hounacier muscled its way ahead in line. (I have a longer blog about Hounacier’s inspirations from that trip over at Singular Points)

2:  The killers in the Missouri house with the Mistcat were partially inspired by the real serial killers, Leonard Lake, and and Charles Ng (do not read those links unless you are ready for some seriously dark and horrible shit).

3:  The line Malcolm is given about, “I bet I can guess where you got your shoes,” is a real New Orleans street hustle.  I lost $20 to it.  I have since been told by a friend that his uncle lost $50.  I suppose he should have just read Hounacier and saved a few bucks.

4:  The picture that Malcolm sets up in his room with Nick and Colin in Paris was a pre-reference to Hungry Eyes.

5:  Malcolm was a character that caused a lot of conflict for Matt in Dämoren. The move of taking a conflict character and making them the hero in the sequel was inspired by Anne Rice (I called it, “Pulling a Lestat”).  It’s just a coincidence that Anne Rice’s stories also take place in New Orleans.

6:  Malcolm is described as resembling a young Martin Sheen.

7:  The werewolf, Gulmet, refers to itself as the rougarou. The rougarou is a Cajun folklore monster believed to be a werewolf stalking the bayous around New Orleans.

8:  Flashback scenes with Gulmet take place in Greece between April and October of 1792, when a pair of lunar eclipses occurred within 6 months.

9:  The demon that Ulises kills in Haiti is an asanbosam, which is a vampire-like monster from Ashanti folklore.

10:  Gulmet mentions that there is a lamia named Niriffo that rules the Mid-City district of New Orleans with a pack of ghouls. As of the end of the novel, she’s still there.

11:  Malcolm kills 8 people while under Gulmet’s control.

12:  The original inspiration for the novel was the idea of Malcolm waking up naked and covered in blood in a French Quarter courtyard.  The trick was figuring out the story as to how he got there.

13:  Being a demonic spirit, Gulmet is sexless, though it does prefer male bodies. Gulmet is referred to as either he or she, depending on the sex of the body it inhabits. 

14:  Malcolm’s tattoos described in the book are:

• Warding Eye on left palm (Earned with his first demon-kill. Killing Gulmet allowed him to replace it.)
• Empathy Eye on Right Palm (You’ll have to read Hungry Eyes.)
• Blue Scarab on wrist allows him to sense demonic entities (Earned with a triple kill. He no longer has this tattoo by the end of the novel.)
• Smell three times better than any human.
• Three tapered golden lines on forearm gives him night vision (Earned by killing a mistcat)
• Stamina to stay awake for days at a time (Earned by killing a jorogumo)
• Serpent on bicep detects poisons.

He has more, but those don’t  have as obvious of benefits.

So there you go.

If you want to give Haounacier a gift for her birthday, she’d love reviews on Amazon or Goodreads (and a huge thank you to everyone who already has).  Also, there is a list of Memorable Quotes on Goodreads.  Please click which ones you like, and feel free to add any ones that I forgot.

-Seth