Ancestor: The Hooded Hero #1 follows a firefighter-paramedic who gets what he thinks is a routine 911 call, only to discover that it quickly escalates into a chaotic, bloody night. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

Any time Cody is on duty, if he responds to a 9-1-1 call, it is a call I’ve managed as a firefighter. Of course, they are modified for patient privacy laws. The call I used for the inciting incident was a call I responded to, and the most difficult call for me to handle psychologically in all my 21 years in the service. Cody has similar reactions to me (the echo of the father’s screams causing the taste of blood in his mouth, the callousness toward criminals, the smells of the scene, the woman’s face, etc).

I had to respond to that scene, pronounce the woman dead while her father watched, and assist the coroner’s office with the investigation. Then, when we cleared the scene, we were the only available ambulance to go to the prison and evaluate the prisoner who killed her. I could tell you how compassionate I was toward the prisoner, but you can just read the book.

This is daily life for a first responder, or a nurse, or a soldier. I wanted to highlight the things we have to see and do to keep you safe, and the impact it has on our lives and our own health. It’s important to spotlight these things, because often we take for granted that the police or firefighters just exist to serve us, but they’re people too. And they’re twisted significantly by what they see every day.

I found Cody to be an intriguing and well-developed character. What inspired you to create him and his backstory?

Cody is the quintessential fireman. He’s derived from a variety of responders, including myself, my long-time ambulance partner, and other coworkers. His own mental health and the calls he responds to reflect my own career and my own downward spiral when I had reached my darkest moment. But I’m not a special case by any means. I just wish I was built like him, haha. I wanted him to have a major presence, like gravity, whenever he entered a room. So I made him large like Jack Reacher but with the type of reputation that makes everyone notice him when he enters an area.

What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?

First and foremost, I wanted to explore the world of mental health. It’s not normalized enough, despite our 21st-century efforts. This whole series will be an exploration of mental health through the lens of a superhero and a first responder. Sadie, Cody’s love interest, is there to ground people because she’s the ‘civilian’ but still very much entwined in the mental health struggle. Sadie is also supposed to be the calm to Cody’s chaos. She is intelligent, dedicated, goes to therapy, takes her medications, and strives toward self-improvement like no other. She’s the example of what we can all be if we manage our mental health well, and obviously the example of no matter how well we’re doing, nobody’s perfect. Cody is the opposite. He’s the example of what we could become by burying our feelings under alcohol and pressure.

Mental health aside, I’d been looking for a way to tell my “war stories” from the fire department, and I had been excited to come up with a superhero idea for a long time. This gave me the chance to do both. Hopefully people enjoy the ‘peek behind the curtain’ at first responders’ lives.

What will your next novel be about, and what will the whole series encompass?

The Hooded Hero series will explore the ups and downs of managing one’s mental health. Readers will find both allies and enemies who struggle with some mental health issue, and it’s my hope that they can relate to all of them. The next few books in the series get dark. So if you thought Ancestor was dark, buckle up.

I’ve collaborated with a horror author, Carl Bluesy, to create novellae with a more fantasy/horror theme which will fit chronologically in the series timeline and will follow Cody through supernatural challenges, which unlock new superpowers and teach him new lessons about life and what it means to be a hero.

Book 2, titled Burnout, and the first of the novellae, titled Inferno Mirage, are coming Q4 2025. Follow me on social media @authormattoz or join my newsletter to keep up with the latest news.

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