Tag: An Inner Circle Novel

Rites of Passage by M.D. Presley: You Won’t Need A Dowsing Rod To Find The Appeal This UF

Back on April 1st when this book was released, M.D. Presley stopped by to answer some questions about it, be sure to give that a read if you haven’t.


Cover image of Rites of Passage by MD PresleyRites of Passage

by M.D. Presley

DETAILS:
Series: The Inner Circle, #1
Publication Date: April 1, 2024
Format: eARC
Length: 352 pg.
Read Date: May 29-June 3, 2024

What’s Rites of Passage About?

Teenager Corbin James escapes from the cult he was (largely) raised in just as the FBI’s raid begins. Weeks, miles, and multiple states later, Corbin’s still running when he encounters someone who seems to know a lot about him. Too much for a random stranger to know.

This stranger (we later learn he’s called Mister) recruits/tricks/entices/entraps Corbin into joining him for a task. Mister and Corbin join up with some other members of the Inner Circle (a group of magicians found in most of the major cities in the U.S.) to hunt for a missing magician. Corbin has the magic ability to dowse—and for much more than water (although maybe he can find water, too, it never comes up)—he can find whoever and whatever he needs to.

Obviously, there’s something about the search for this particular missing person that is going to take a little more than one session with Corbin and his dowsing rod (or it’d be a short story, not a novel)—and Corbin’s introduction to the Inner Circle, to the reality that there are all sorts of people who can do magic, and all sorts of magic, and a world beyond his cult isn’t going to be easy for him. Or all that safe, either.

Worldbuilding, Magic System, and So On

Okay, you’d expect that someone who’s written books on worldbuilding would know what he’s doing when it comes to it (or at least, you’d hope he would). In this case, you’d be right—which doesn’t make it less impressive.

This very clearly takes place in a version of our world (joking references to “muggles” make that clear), and magic users are underground. But, as UF readers often see, that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a strong culture of rules, mores, customs, and whatnot. There are essentially two ways that magicians organize themselves—in local associations or in a major association that covers the nation (it’s hard to explain briefly—think of a regional fast food chain and McDonald’s). Due to the circumstances around this novel’s events, we get a pretty good idea—but not exhaustive—about how they both function, are organized, and recruit members.

The variety of magic abilities is pretty great. The closest comparable series I can think of on this front is Jacka’s Alex Verus books. And I know this book only scratched the surface of that. It’s one that I can’t wait to explore in future books.

When it comes to The Dresden Files, The Hollows, or The Iron Druid (for example), by the end of the first book, you have a pretty solid understanding of how magic functions in their universes (even if that understanding will grow and expand over the course of the series). With Rites of Passage, we don’t get that. But you never have the impression that Presley’s making it up as he goes along. I have a vague understanding of how my smartphone works, but I know there’s a lot that I don’t understand—but I can use it and understand that it does work. The same thing goes for the magic here—I can see these people use it, and I understand that it does work. I don’t need to know all the ins and outs.

Some authors beat you over the head with the details (I’m not suggesting that Butcher, Harrison, or Hearne did that)—showing their work like it’s a math test. Presley doesn’t do that—he just shows it working and gives you a sense that there’s a methodology afoot. The reader will slowly (over a few books) piece it together—or not, because they really don’t care about the details—as we see more. Just knowing that there’s a structure is enough.

Is It Me?

Is it just me, or are there a lot of books being written lately about people escaping from cults? I’m not talking strict religious families/cultures—but out-and-out cults. Maybe I’m not seeing as many as I think I am and it just feels that way.

I’d say I’m starting to get tired of it—and I am—but Presley does such a good job of showing how Corbin’s life and thinking have been shaped by the cult, and how even after getting away from them (and how he did it)—he still reflexively thinks like a member. Sure, he’s skeptical about some of it, and can see through some of what the leader had done. But it’s not something you can just switch off, and Presley demonstrates that with skill. So, I’ll wait until the next time I come across this phenomenon to complain about it.

The Playlist

Presley has assured readers that once he gets enough online reviews for this book, he’ll release the playlist for this book. This playlist is going to be a doozy. At some point along the way, Corbin gets his hands on an enchanted iPod that helps him navigate the events of this novel. Given his sheltered upbringing he doesn’t recognize most of the songs it plays for him—he’ll give a description of some of the songs, so the reader can guess some/many/all of what he’s listening to (depending on the reader).

Getting this playlist will actually help round out your understanding of the book (it won’t be essential, but it’ll be a nice bonus)—and I’m pretty sure it’ll be fun to listen to, too.

So, what did I think about Rites of Passage?

I’ve talked about worldbuilding already, so what about the characters, arguably the most critical component in getting me (and other readers) to want to keep reading? Presley gives his readers a lot to here. It’d be easy to create a series with almost every magician we encounter in this book as the central character—and that’s not something I can say too often. Corbin is likely the best choice—the way he has to be introduced to this world and other forms of magic is a major plus, so any info-dumping for the reader has a natural outlet in teaching Corbin. But I can see myself really getting into at least a duology with every other magic user (including the villain of the piece).

While writing this post, I went back and read one of Presley’s answers to remind myself what character he mentioned here:

In screenwriting it’s understood that supporting characters are more fun to write because they can be over the top, since they’re not carrying the show. They can be outlandish and weird because not nearly as much is riding on them, which is why they have the freedom to become fan favorites. And I have a feeling that in Rites of Passage Kirin will be this character for me.

I’d forgotten to look for Kirin as I was reading to see if I could pick that up—it’s just as well that I did, so I can say that Kirin is this fan’s favorite. I’m also a bit relieved—we didn’t definitively say goodbye to Kirin here, but the way things ended, there was no guarantee we’d see her (or many other of the surviving characters) again. But knowing she’s got an arc that will be developed over several books helps build my own anticipation for further books (nothing against Corbin, but I knew we’d get more about him).

I’m not as enthusiastic about the plot as I am the other aspects of this novel. It’s not bad by any means—I was engaged and curious throughout. It wasn’t too hard to follow or anything else negative, either. I just think there was so much going on in establishing characters, the world, the magic, the associations, and so on that there wasn’t enough space left over for the story. Your results may vary, of course—but for me everything else overshadowed the story. I do fully expect that in future installments I won’t have this complaint as Presley has established enough here that he can focus more on the plot.

Regardless, I heartily encourage Urban Fantasy readers to try this. You’re not going to find your typical UF mainstays here, but you’re going to find a world that you’re going to want to spend more time in with characters you’re going to want to get to know better. This series has the potential to become a favorite.

Disclaimer: I received this ARC from the author in exchange for this post and my honest opinion. A gamble on their part.


3.5 Stars
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A Few Quick Questions With…M.D. Presley

Today is Publication Day for Rites of Passage the first book in the Inner Circle Urban Fantasy series. Here’s a quick description:

Rites of Passage CoverCorbin James has never been so lost. Able to dowse since a kid, he’s adept at finding missing things. But after weeks on the run from the FBI, the teen’s luck has finally run dry.

Enter the enigmatic Mister with a tempting offer: find an enchanter who has disappeared inside the mysterious Harmon House. Recruited into a reluctant crew of motley magicians, Corbin only has days to navigate their shifting loyalties to earn his freedom by entering the Inner Circle.

Lucky for him he’s got his trusty dowsing rod, a defaced 50-cent piece, and enchanted iPod.

I’m really looking forward to reading this. In honor of Publication Day, I have a quick Q&A with the author, M.D. Presley. I had to come up with these questions before starting the book, which I’ve only done once before. I think it came out not-terribly-awkward. Either way, I enjoyed reading the answers and hope you will, too.


Why don’t you take a moment to introduce yourself to the readers, and tell us about your books in general, before hitting us with an elevator pitch for Rites of Passage?
Greetings, mortals. I am Matt, and I write as M. D. Presley. I’m a screenwriter by training, with a few shows and movies released in China, although I don’t speak a lick of Mandarin. Publishing is my outlet for the stories that I actually want to tell, which are not constrained by such paltry things as budgets or directors. Or censors.

Rites of Passage is an urban fantasy mystical murder mystery that’s miraculously not in the Dresden or Anita Blake molds. It’s a whodunnit involving a young dowser who’s pressed into finding an enchanter that’s gone missing in his own home. It harkens back to the non-noir mysteries from yesteryear, in that you could almost call it cozy if you only went by body count. But it’s got a little too much cosmic and body horror for that.

It’s my love letter to 90s Vertigo comics, where the urban fantasy is always just around the corner or hiding in the shadows, but is wonderous if you have the right set of eyes to see it. But it’s also strange and a little bit frightening.

Looking over your website, worldbuilding is something you’ve spent a lot of time thinking about it—not only implementing it in two pretty distinct fictional worlds—but you’ve got some books about it geared for writers. Hopefully, I’m not asking you to say anything that makes buying one of those books moot here. But what are the big things that an author should think about before trying to create a fictional world—what are a couple of the big mistakes people tend to make as they learn the hard way how to do this?
I’ve spent a few hundred pages and many YouTube hours trying to sum up the idea of purposeful worldbuilding, so I’ll give one half-useful conceptual answer and one practical one.

Conceptually, practice the old Bruce Lee adage of use what works and discard the rest. I stand by a “tools not rules” approach, which means you should be open to learning everyone’s theories and techniques, and then distill the ones that work for you without ignoring what you’ve learned from the discarded bits. I’m personally a big top-down designer and cannot write by a bottom-up, discovery approach. However, I’ve studied those approaches and use them when they’re appropriate in my own writing.

Basically, worldbuilding is always a process in progress.

Practically, my biggest word of advice is to keep a bible of your world, characters, and plot. It doesn’t have to be terribly in-depth, but it’s good to have it all in one place. And if you do keep one with characters JOT DOWN THEIR PHYSICAL DESCRIPTIONS. Nothing is worse than combing through hundreds of pages of your own writing just to determine if your own creation is brown-haired or left-handed. Doing so is probably the fastest way to turn something you love into homework.

For you, at the end of the day—creating believable characters, worldbuilding, or the story—what’s harder? What’s more rewarding? What do your readers tend to react to the most?
It’s trite, but I’ve learned how characters, plot, and worldbuilding all need to balance and feed into one another. I was a big plot-proponent in my early days, and took a long time to understand I needed to spend equal time on the characters so the audience would actually want to know what happens to them in the plot. Worldbuilding is the same way in that it can be enchanting in terms of its details and scale, but it’s just window dressing without vibrant characters populating it. Mark JP Wolf points out that worlds can exist without stories, but stories cannot exist without worlds, which just underscores the symbiotic nature of the three of them.

At this stage in my career, I feel I have a pretty good balance on the three of them. Which means I should probably start focusing my attention on my wooden prose.

No matter how many books you have under your belt, as I understand, each novel/series tends to be a different experience than the one(s) before. What was the part what was the biggest surprise about the process of writing Rites of Passage? Either, “I can’t believe X is so easy!” or “If I had known Y was going to be so hard, I’d have skipped this and watched more TV”?
This sounds dumb after just saying I’m a top-down designer who focuses on plot, but Rites of Passages reiterated how much I need to know what happens in the story before I sit down to write it. Especially when it’s a mystery. Traditional plotting methods may tell you what needs to happen in the story for that beat to function, but I learned the hard way that I really need to design the villain’s plans and motivation ahead of time. If the villain’s plans don’t make sense from their perspective, then the story’s logic will eventually break down, no matter how well the plot holds together from the hero’s perspective.

I’ve taken this hard-won lesson to heart as I plot out the villains first in the sequel, and the process has sped up considerably.

Is there a particular supporting character that ended up becoming a favorite of yours? Do you ever start to wonder if a supporting character should’ve been the protagonist? Talk about them a little bit and how the reaction is different. What’s the key, for you, in writing a great supporting character, and how did that (if you can manage this without an essay) work with this particular character?
In screenwriting it’s understood that supporting characters are more fun to write because they can be over the top, since they’re not carrying the show. They can be outlandish and weird because not nearly as much is riding on them, which is why they have the freedom to become fan favorites. And I have a feeling that in Rites of Passage Kirin will be this character for me.

She’s a bit of a manic pixie dream girl in the first book, but that portrayal is also because we’re encountering her through the eyes of a young man. But she’s going to show up in many more of the books, and her character will get to show more facets throughout, both because she gets more screen time, and because the protagonist’s understanding of the world matures. In fact, I think she probably has a bigger arc than even the protagonist.

What’s next for M.D. Presley, author? Does that depend on the reaction to Rites of Passage or are you already neck deep in your next project or five?
I have material for about eight more books in this series, The Inner Circle, and am already at work on the second one. I’m juggling some screenwriting gigs with it, which is annoying since you never know when or if they’ll pop up to derail my writing momentum. On the worldbuilding front, I’m hoping to put together a free book detailing my method for understanding fantasy magic systems, which is currently scattered around on my website.

Thanks for your time and participation! I’m looking forward to seeing what Rites of Passage has to offer!


Hopefully by now, reader, you’re thinking you’d like to look into Presley’s work. Go check out his website, and show him the Release Day love and order Rites of Passage!
A Few Quick Questions

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