Matt Walburger

Matt Walburger writes at the intersection of faith and grit — stories where saltwater, sweat, and silence become teachers. His debut novel, You Go Where You Look, grew out of a conviction that the direction of a person's focus quietly becomes the direction of their life.

Matt and his wife, Kristin, married in 1995 and have three adult children. They live near a beach in Southern California where most of the story takes place. Tower 22 is a real lifeguard tower on that beach — a favorite place of Matt's. It is by Tower 22 that John's mentors teach him much of what he learns in training, and where Skye loved to surf and share bonfire discussions. Most of the novel unfolds between Tower 22 and the local pier.

The book is woven from many of Matt's own stories and the stories of others, all blended into the characters. No character is entirely Matt or entirely anyone else — each one carries bits and pieces of several people's lives. There are fictional elements, but more real stories than not. Many readers would be surprised at a few moments they assume are fiction that are actually true. Matt welcomes direct questions from readers about what they think is real or fiction — and would love to share the real root of those stories with anyone who asks.

Matt had the same experience John had in college. In 1994 he was a student struggling with Chemistry when he bumped into an old friend organizing an amateur boxing match who needed one more boxer. On the spur of the moment, Matt impulsively volunteered — just like John. He trained in the garage-turned-boxing gym of an old, wise boxing coach who taught him about picking the fly off the bag and many other lessons that found their way into the book. He lost that fight by a 2–1 decision — and just like John, the ref raised his hand first before correcting the announcement. (The newspaper clipping got the result wrong.) The pre-match conflict between John and Romulus is fiction; Matt never met his opponent, Rob, before the match — Rob was a “good dude,” as Pedro would say.

Kristin and Matt have lived in many places across the country, and each place offered another story or two that seemed to beg to be written down. Matt served as a volunteer Bishop in his church for five years from 2014 to 2019 and learned from hundreds of people — much like Sotero does in the novel.

He picked away at the book for about ten years. He doesn't feel so much that he was the author as much as he was writing down what he observed. It often seemed that Light was the author. Most of the time, he simply closed his eyes and watched — then wrote the story as it unfolded. Some lines, like "Don't forget the wrap," he didn't understand when he wrote them down. Only later in the story did their meaning and importance become clear. He didn't know about boxing under the pier until he saw Pedro setting up the ring between the pilings. He didn't know in advance many of the classic rock songs Tony would bring into daily training until he heard Tony introduce them. That kind of surprise happened many times while writing — a cool, humbling experience.

Matt doesn't box much anymore, but he surfs several times a week when the waves are good and still tries to get in a few deep sand runs every week. And by the way: Sprite is actually their cat, and Pepper is their daughter's cat — which makes her their grand-cat.