Matthew Elam

Matt K. Elam is a Generation Xer who knew he wanted to play in the NFL since the tender age of eight. Why? Pure intuition. It’s also possible he suspected from a young age he didn’t want a traditional job. Matt went about his path, getting top honors as a high school football player in the state of Texas. He went on to receive a full-ride football scholarship to the University of Hawai’i. The Elam name is legendary there – look it up…unfortunately it’s his distant cousin that’s the legend, not him. But he got over it. Drafted into the Canadian Football League (CFL) in 2000, he’d bounce around various three-letter sporting organizations until his body and family had enough of living out of their suitcases. Matt never quite made it to the NFL, but considering only ~1800 players can make the roster out of a world population of over eight billion people, he cherishes his experiences.

He has always loved reading and writing more than anything else in this sometimes beautiful/sometimes wretched world. He’d love to tell you he was a natural Hemingway as a lad, but that would be a lie. At seven, his class was tasked to write a fictional short story, which the teacher would read out loud to the class when they were finished. Matt’s story had a lot of action – blood, guts, knife to the head scenes, etc. The teacher at one point, politely said, “Wow, Matthew. You certainly have a vivid imagination.” Matt now believes it was code for, this kid is sick and needs an intervention. Two years later, he wrote a screenplay for his English class. He doesn’t remember the details but as one of the actors read off Matt’s brilliant dialogue having to do with wearing polkadot underwear (keep in mind it was the 4th grade), the teacher yelled at him and his group, made them sit and put their heads down for the rest of the class, and gave them all zeros for their efforts. Sorry, team. He still feels bad about it.

Matt put fiction writing on the sideline after that. He was a strength and conditioning coach for a major university for a time and even owned his own human performance company. He earned a master’s degree in physiology in the states, a doctorate in physical therapy in Australia, and acquired six black belts in various martial arts to date. But the writing has always called to him and it most likely always will.

Matt writes books that he enjoys reading. Fast-paced. Action-packed. Interesting characters. And as many plot twists as each story will allow.

He currently lives on the island of O’ahu, one of the Hawaiian Islands, where he spends his days staying fit, working on the perfect golden tan, and trying his best not to hold down a traditional job. Please enable that dream by supporting his work.