I didn’t have much of an advanced outline for the Matt Miller in the Colonies series, which may be evident to some of you. The only thing I knew from the beginning was that Matt Miller would be a hero, and he would act like one. He would always show up, keep it together, and do the right thing. After writing Journeyman, Matt Miller’s temperament was one of the first disagreements with my editor.

Meghan said, “He should be more freaked out. He’s lost his entire life, and he should be visually upset!”

Meghan has had so much influence on how these books turned out, but I’m glad I won this one argument. I haven’t won many because she has been an excellent editor, but I insisted that Matt Miller would be the type of hero I admired, and he would be this way from the very beginning. He’d be stupid, make mistakes, and the world would be a confusing place, but he’d hold it together. Matt would be a young Jason Bourne, James Bond, or Rocky Balboa. He would be flawed, naïve, and learning something new every day because that is what the world is about, even for the strongest heroes. But, whenever Matt was filled with doubt and faced enormous challenges, he’d step forward and get it done. “Freaking out” would never be on Matt’s list of options.