The Lion and Gun

About Locke

Matthew Locke is a freelance writer and political junkie with a degree in history and an especial interest in campaign strategy and international relations, although he thinks both can be quite silly at times. He grew up in a blue-collar union household in a small hardscrabble town and he feels this makes him The Lion and Gun's man of the people. That usually makes those around him roll their eyes.

Besides politics, Matt has long been a movie buff and spent his freshman year in undergrad majoring in film. He doesn't like that many of his friends still tease him about that. In fact, he's convinced that he'd have been Hollywood's new Speilberg were he not what they call in the biz a 'talentless hack'. (Sometimes he wonders if this really would have been such an impediment.)

Matt has spent much of the past few years living in Britain but now resides in Canada where he is The Lion and Gun's Toronto bureau chief. In writing for TLaG he has chosen for his name that of his favorite character, roguish treasure hunter Locke Cole, in the video game classic Final Fantasy VI. He is aware that the name is shared by a number of other notable figures, including a former American Idol contestant, the creepy old guy in Lost, and the network pseudonym of evil child genius Peter Wiggin in Orson Scott Card's brilliant Ender's Game.