Welcome to the Exchange!
Well, look at you, who can follow not so subtle hints hidden in the text. Or maybe you're just someone who likes clicking around on websites. Either way, welcome to the Exchange.
I initially set it up as a forum, just like in the books, and was going to have all sorts of little messages and such. Then Wix discontinued forums and no one really bothered to find it, so I'm just going to use this space to dump little extras from the Inner Circle series. Most of my short stories are going to be stored here going forward, so yay?
Short Stories
The Ghost Stations EP (short story)
See what shenanigans Corbin and Kirin get up to on Valentine's Day. Takes place after Ghost Stations, so spoilers within.
Download the epub file for ereaders, or...
Download the PDF, if that's more your bag.
Basic Stuff
These are all the magician marks Corbin et al are always reading. At least the ones I've come up with for now. They're based off of Hobo Symbols.
I have a rough map of the US regions I use for the Territories, which I might share some day, but not now since I don't own or even know where that image came from (I think some rando off of Reddit). But I will list the rough areas and their sigils (which are subject to change as later stories require).
1. New England – Feather and Whip
2. Northern Highlands – Pike and Road
3. North Appalachia – Harp and Quiver
4. NYC Metro – Crossroads
5. Mid Atlantic – Pine Tree and Open Hand
6. Chesapeake - Hammer and Spiral
7. Atlantic South – Tangled Flowers (run by Barons as Elders)
8. Deep South – Compass Rose
9. Upper South – Fist clutching a Star
10. Gulf Coast – Candle on a River
11. Southern Appalachia – Lion’s Head
12. Texas – Star and Lute
13. Central Florida – Quarter Moon and a Cup
14. South Florida – Harp and Dove
15. Ozarks – Javelin and Stag
16. Cajun – Road and Coin
17. Great Lakes – Rat and Crown
18. North Woods – Sun and Fiddle
19. Heartland – Compass in Hand
20. Upper Midwest – Flute and Sword crossed
21. Lower Midwest – Torch and Arrowhead
22. Rocky Mountains – Towers and Silhouette
23. Norther Great Plains – Crescent Moon and Candle
24. Southern Great Plains – Chains over a Spiral
25. Southwest – Ship and Flower
26. Great Basin – Torch and Coin
27. Columbia Plateau – Fiddle and Torch
28. Rio Grande – Goblet and Swan
29. Pacific Northwest – Road and Serpent
30. Norcal – Triangle and Axe
31. Socal – Doorway and Staff
32. Alaska – falcon and Chalice
33. Hawaii – Knott
Rites of Passage Stuff
I had a map I made of Harmon House, which I basically generated using Betrayal at House on the Hill game. First level is on the left, and the second story on the right. I don't think I have a pic of the hidden third story anywhere.
I even had a map of the Nowhen, which was generated with dice (although the how of it escapes me). I did this to make the design extra insane. I think the Xs and checks meant something at some point, and it looks like I have rooms marked where they found the graduation ring and the like. Honestly, it's been a long time since I've looked at this, but I think you can actually trace Corbin's route with the black arrows.
Ghost Stations Stuff
I once had a map of the Underground Stars' ghost station, but apparently I didn't take a pic of it. But I have a few of the outlining of the book, along with addresses of some of the places, like TJ's apartment, and the Ogburn house.
Here's a link to some of the real ghost stations in NYC. And some additional ones.
Here's Horowitz going over all the occult symbolism at Grand Central.
I used this blog for The Campbell Apartment.
Electric City Switches Stuff
I chose Anderson SC for my location because I was there once for my buddy's wedding, and I was able pump him for information about the town (which is apparently also Chadwick Boseman's hometown, so there's a huge mural of him there now, which I discovered through googlemaps).
The street fight Corbin gets into also happened in real life, except it was most of the groomsmen that were accosted, with me singled out, I guess because I was wearing a boot cast. Dunno.
But I will say we handled ourselves far better than Corbin did.
Of course there was a map, and also a timeline. The finale actually takes place on Easter of that year, in which there was a real-life tornado that day (a warning, at least). I was going to use that as cover for the big magic battle in the finale and synced it up accordingly, only to abandon it when I remembered I used the tornado defense in Rites of Passage. But the vestige timeline still remains.
I really should include a translation of that scene between Isaac and Sheena (which is still my favorite thing I've written). It makes sense to me, but I'm probably the only one who cares. Pic on the left is the ghosts' code, along with a note to myself that Isaac drinks Evan Williams, and not Jack Daniels, which was apparently really important to me for some reason.
The wards on the right are from an old Palladium RPG game, which was part of the inspiration for this iteration of Isaac (he's been an archetype in my writing for decades now). In fact, Isaac alludes to this game in a still unreleased short story for an anthology that has been in the works for what I swear has been a decade now.