-There's some maps for you.

-Thank you.

So those books that you guys grabbed, all take place in and around the mountain right in the middle of that map.

(upbeat music) [Mike] Matt has an architectural engineering background and is a manager with the Army Corps of Engineers.

That's his day job.

But since I was a kid, probably five, six years old, I've always had this inclination to write and create, in general, and I've explored all kinds of different mediums, sand sculpture, and clay, and all these other weird things.

But I always come back to writing, and that resonates with me the most.

No surprise to find Matt at the Omaha Pop Culture Expo.

An annual event celebrating lots of forms of creativity in one place.

By the way, in the spirit of the OCon event and cosplay, I morphed from "What If..." host Mike to Ron Burgundy from the movie "Anchorman" for this story.

-How's it going today?

-Good, awesome.

[Mike] Matt's written seven books for two different science fiction series.

The first is his "Surface Series" trilogy, And each book focuses on a faction that has their own symbol.

Each faction has a central tenet that is admirable in its own right, but like so many things in the real world, each one's taken to an extreme.

So environmental stewardship is a big theme in the final one.

Like all Sci-Fi, there's a lot of humanistic themes in it, but it's a lot of fun.

A lot of bang-bang, pew-pew, -and chases and stuff.

-Yeah.

The other series is written for a younger, elementary school age audience, [Matt] But it's a fantasy world.

This is the world in general is kind of captured -on this map.

-Mm-hm.

-The Greater Drey.

-The Greater Drey, okay.

So drey is the name of a squirrel's nest.

And so that's this village where these squirrel inspired characters called the Sylvan live.

We branched out, and book four is now into the forest and out and about in the world, instead of trapped in this mountain, which is where books one through three really, really take place.

You know, I'm an engineer during the day, and so those STEM themes were a purposeful -inclusion in these books.

-Right.

How much fun is it for you to be around all these creators?

I've been telling people all day, all of what you see here on this table and all these different things that I've made are because of this show.

There's a lot of great supportive folks here.

I think there's something to be said about fandom in general.

That's a huge part of a convention, a huge part of nerd culture, and you make connections in a three-day period that then you end up continuing to work, and benefit from, and enjoy in perpetuity, let alone throughout the year.

It's very collaborative.

It's very supportive.

It's very come as you are.

-Well, thank you guys so much.

-Thank you.

(upbeat music)