Jason Tanamor

Jason Tanamor

Born	(1975-04-25) April 25, 1975
Occupation	Writer, novelist, United States Department of Defense
Ethnicity	Filipino-American
Alma mater	Western Illinois University
Period	2001–present
Genre	Dark fiction, horror, psychological thriller, suspense, satirical, comedy, young adult
Notable works	Anonymous, Drama Dolls, Hello Fabulous!, The Extraordinary Life of Shady Gray
Spouse	Married since 2006
Children	1
Website
tanamor.com

Jason Tanamor (born April 25, 1975) is an American author, writer, and entertainment interviewer. He also works as a contract specialist for the United States Department of Defense.^[1] His novels range from dark in nature to satirical and from young adult to children's. His last two novels, Anonymous and Drama Dolls, have received critical acclaim from major publications such as Publishers Weekly – who called him a "promising writer with lots of potential" and compared him to Chuck Palahniuk and Charles Bukowski^[2] – and Audio Book Reviewer.^[3]

Biography

Tanamor is from the Quad-Cities (Iowa/Illinois) and is the middle child of three boys of Filipino parents. Asked how he ended up in Illinois, he quipped that his parents ran out of gas. A few more dollars and he could have been from St. Louis. In regard to the diverse nature of his books, he didn't want to be known for being one-dimensional. The world doesn't need another John Grisham novel – they're all about law.^[4]

By day, he works at Rock Island Arsenal^[5] in Rock Island, IL. In his free time, he has contributed to numerous publications including Yahoo!, Cinema Blend,^[6] and Celebrity Cafe. He is also the founder of the entertainment website, Zoiks! Online.

Among those he's interviewed are musical heavyweights Billy Corgan from Smashing Pumpkins, Guns n' Roses, Heart, and Red Hot Chili Peppers; best-selling author Chuck Palahniuk; adult film star Jesse Jane; and comedy superstars Gabriel Iglesias, Margaret Cho, Dane Cook, and Demetri Martin. Tanamor also has covered President Obama when he spoke at Alcoa Davenport Works.

Prior to working for the United States Department of Defense, Tanamor grew up doing stand-up comedy idolizing Jerry Seinfeld and Jay Leno. He then transitioned into writing. Since then, he's been juggling full-time employment with writing novels.^[7]

Tanamor was married in 2006 ^[8] and he and his wife live in Illinois.

Journalism

Western Courier

In December 2001, Tanamor began writing for The Western Courier, the student newspaper at his alma mater, Western Illinois University, in Macomb, Illinois. After one of his first humor/entertainment columns appeared, a Macomb resident wrote in to the editor stating that Tanamor was embarrassing the community by writing babble, instead of contributing columns with insight. The concerned citizen said that Tanamor had an "amateurish level of writing skills." Tanamor continued to write for the paper until December 2002, when he graduated. ^[9]

Just Laugh

From December 2001 to September 2003, Tanamor expanded his reach by contributing to the Internet humor magazine, Just Laugh. There, he wrote comedic opinion pieces and fictitious news stories.^[10]

Rock Island Argus

From April 2003 to May 2009, Tanamor contributed regularly to The Rock Island Argus newspaper. At the publication, he covered the comedy beat for the Quad-Cities. ^[11]

Zoiks! Online

In August 2004, Tanamor started the entertainment website, Zoiks! Online. The first edition ran for almost 18 months. However, his busy schedule put the website on the back burner. According to the Moline Dispatch, "when he went back to relaunch the site, he found he'd forgotten his password, as well as the answers to the security questions he'd made up, and the site's host, Yahoo! wouldn't reveal them, despite his efforts." Tanamor stated that although losing his password sucked, he could definitely vouch for Yahoo!'s security. Ultimately, Tanamor ended up re-launching the site later in October 2008.^[12]

In May 2009, Zoiks! Online teamed up with the comedy website, The Laugh Button. While The Laugh Button was tapped to provide comedy bits via video and audio clips, Zoiks! Online would manage the website side by providing written interviews of comedians that The Laugh Button featured. Tanamor stated that both Zoiks! Online and The Laugh Button shared a passion for stand-up comedy. "When we started talking, we realized that there were a lot of synergies between Zoiks! and TLB. It was no-brainer to work together."^[13]

Novels

Tanamor stated, in regard to his readership for his dark novels, that his books are for those who relate to unusual characters and plots, such as those found in Chuck Palahniuk, Gillian Flynn, and Charles Bukowski books.^[14] Also, that he is inspired by people who are "messed up," saying that these types of individuals make his life feel normal. "I wanted to write a book with stories that people like to hear, but don't necessarily like to tell".^[15]

Drama Dolls

The dark humor/psychological thriller, Drama Dolls, was born after Tanamor watched a documentary about grown men dressing up as dolls and going out in public. Tanamor said, "During the interview, it was clear that in their minds they thought everyone was staring at them because they were beautiful, but then the juxtaposition was the majority of people who were going, 'What is that?'"

He thought about why men would act out in this manner, chocking up that a death of a spouse may trigger this behavior. This kicked his thought process into gear and the result was a story about a man who grieves his wife unnaturally by dressing as cheerleaders with his friends.^[16]

Anonymous

The literary/horror novel, Anonymous, was the result of an online course facilitated by Palahniuk, where students had to write a short story based on writing lessons and the Fight Club (novel) author would offer feedback at the end of each lesson.^[17] Tanamor stated that each short story shared a common theme and eventually became the novel. One such story involves a man who impersonated Britney Spears' manager in order to embezzle money from restaurants.^[18]

The novel received a Star Review from Publishers Weekly.

The Extraordinary Life of Shady Gray

For his young adult novel, The Extraordinary Life of Shady Gray, Tanamor referred to it as his "Oprah" story, stating that the novel will encourage readers to appreciate their own families.^[19] Referring to this book as a fictional biography, whereas many of the past events in his real life are played out through the main protagonist's life, he went on to state how personal the events were in his childhood, which made writing the novel a challenge.

"When I was trying to engage myself as young Jason Tanamor it was often difficult to get back in that frame of mind or recall specific emotions that surrounded that experience."^[20] He stated that the bulk of this novel was written during the DoD Furlough which resulted in United States budget sequestration in 2013.^[21]

Hello Fabulous!

The satirical novella, Hello Fabulous!, is loosely based off a real life story involving Tanamor and his doppelganger. The author was continually getting confused with his twin by random people – mostly women – and even his twin's own mother. The long drawn out process resulted in the novella about a straight, boring man who was continuously being mixed up for a gay, fabulous man. Tanamor stated that writing out the story was therapeutic. The two eventually met in real life.^[22]

I Heart Superhero Kid

The children's superhero themed book was illustrated by Tanamor's son. The story revolves around a battle between Superhero Kid and Evil Man, written in rhyming verse. According to a Rock Island Argus story, Tanamor said that the book surrounds a hero, his arch-enemy, talking cats, and a girl with a crush. "People are fascinated with superheroes. Me included. Since I was a child, there was this secret obsession with having super powers," Tanamor said.

In regard to the book's audience, Tanamor stated, "I love superhero stories that have real world implications... When people can relate to the storyline, it gives readers hope that they can conquer their own complex situations or battles."^[23]

Tanamor stated that the inspiration behind the children's superhero book came from his work with the United States Department of the Army.^[24]

Bibliography

Hello Lesbian!

The Extraordinary Life of Shady Gray

Anonymous

Hello Fabulous!

Drama Dolls

I Heart Superhero Kid

References

External links

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