Which Came First… Mateo or Miraflor?

When readers discover Mateo and the Secrets of the Eternal Word, they often assume the story began with a young boy named Mateo. In reality, it began with a search for the perfect place to tell his story.

After finishing Ride the Fire, I knew my next novel would also be set in Nicaragua. But this time, I wanted a very different setting. Instead of a busy colonial city like León, I was looking for a quiet mountain community where faith, family, and everyday life could naturally blend with an extraordinary adventure.

As I searched, friends began telling me about the Miraflor Nature Reserve. The more I researched it, the more convinced I became that this was the place I had been looking for. Long before I ever visited, Miraflor had already become the home of Mateo, his family, and Father Tomás in my imagination.

Then something unexpected happened.

By the time I finally traveled to Miraflor, most of the novel had already been written.

Walking its mountain roads, seeing the farms, and meeting the people confirmed much of what I had imagined. But it also taught me a few things I hadn't fully understood from my research. Those discoveries led me to make small but important changes, not only to the story itself, but also to several of the illustrations.

The church in the novel remains fictional, but the mountains, gardens, and rural landscape surrounding it now better reflect the beauty of the real Miraflor. The same is true of Mateo's home, whose gardens and surrounding landscape were also refined after my visit. Visiting the reserve helped transform those settings from imagined places into locations inspired by firsthand experience.

The fictional church of Father Tomás and Mateo's home were both reimagined after my visit to Miraflor, reflecting the landscapes that inspired the novel.

Looking back, I realize the answer to the question is simple.

Mateo became the heart of the story, but Miraflor gave that story a home.

Sometimes a story begins not with a character, but with a place that quietly waits to be discovered.