Jason Tanamor

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. His novels range in genre, 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 – and Audio Book Reviewer. His newest novel, a NA urban fantasy about Filipino folklore (aswang) called Vampires of Portlandia, touches upon his love for campy horror stories. "It’s not really a fascination but I do love the genre, but mixed with dark humor or comedy, which includes the shows 'Supernatural' and 'Grimm', and the movies 'The Lost Boys' and 'Beetlejuice'. And with the ages of the main characters (they’re in their young twenties) in Vampires of Portlandia, there is a little bit of a 'Twilight' feel as well. The new novel is a mashup of these shows and movies."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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. Tanamor does this by maintaining a strict routine. "Once I start writing, I make time in the morning, usually around 3:30–5:00 am. Sometimes throughout the day on weekends, but generally I feel motivated early. I have a certain spot on the couch where I sit with my laptop, one of my cats, and coffee."

"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." He stated that the bulk of this novel was written during the DoD Furlough which resulted in United States budget sequestration in 2013.

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.

By day, he works at U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Portland, Oregon. His former agency, Army Contracting Command at Rock Island Arsenal in Rock Island, IL, was the focal point of the 2016 movie War Dogs. His former team, Field Support Directorate, won the 2016 Secretary of the Army Excellence in Contracting Award for Contingency Contracting. Tanamor also is a graduate of the Defense Civilian Emerging Leader Program (DCELP).

On December 31, 2016, Tanamor resigned as editor of Zoiks! Online.

The new adult/urban fantasy novel, Vampires of Portlandia, is about a family of Filipino vampires that immigrates to the weird city of Portland, Oregon, only to discover that there are other breeds of monsters living amongst them. The novel will appeal to fans of The Twilight Saga and the television show, Grimm. The book will be published by Parliament House Press, a SFF publisher. Tanamor said about the novel, "I’d always wanted to write about Filipino lore (my parents are from the Philippines), and when I moved to Portland, I discovered this entirely different world downtown. It all made sense to have the family relocate. In an interview with GoodNews Pilipinas, regarding the characters, Tanamor said, "The main characters are homogenized versions of various Filipinos I know, either friends of the family or relatives. I’d based the young twin, Geena, off my niece when she was the same age as the character. Overall, I think that each character has a little bit of me in them. But, mostly Filipinos have similar traits – they point with their lips, and are always offering you food." Regarding the folklore and staying true, Tanamor told Sci-Fi and Scary, "The thing with aswang folklore is that there aren’t a lot of “standards” outside their physical traits. There are so many different interpretations, different ways to become an aswang, or kill them, unlike what we see in Hollywood renditions. My hope is to introduce the folklore to the mainstream and encourage other stories about Filipino folklore and culture. Whether or not they stick to the lore." Asian Journal listed the book as a "Fil-Am book to read during Summer 2020."