Tyler Granger
Instagram account @protectyourconscience
hashtag #iowa trouble
Tell your readers a little about yourself, where you grew up, where you live now, where you went to school etc. Let them get to know the personal you.
I started writing in 2020 for my daughter in case something were to happen to me she would have a book to remember her father by and her family history and some substance behind her Dad. I grew up in Iowa my whole life but the book is a journey across the Midwest as well as my time in Italy. I have a wide-ranging variety of outrageous stories ranging from punk rock to college football to the Iowa Caucus.
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What inspired you to author this book?
I wrote this book for an audience of one, my daughter. I did feel that many of the stories were powerful enough that they needed to be shared. I took COVID-19 very seriously and I used social distancing to focus on something positive. I was also worried about losing many of these stories to time. I experienced several concussions while playing college football, and years of binge drinking made me worry about the future of my memory. I also wanted to shine a light on the corruption I experienced and was a part of during my time at the Iowa Democratic Party.
Where did you get the inspiration for your book’s cover?
I loved R.L Stine
growing up and I wanted to have a cover with a cartoonish horror feel to it.
The back cover is a photograph an old classmate took of a statue of the world's
largest bullhead fish that sits in the center of my hometown. The cover was
done by another FIVERR harbingerdesign.
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Who has
been the most significant influence on you personally and as a writer?
Hunter S. Thompson. I
really enjoy the personal narrative with historical interpretations that are
imaginative and humorous. In Chapter 7, I discuss buying a Hunter S. Thompson
book while serving on a short-term mission trip to New Orleans after Hurricane
Katrina. I also discuss the time I met George McGovern and discussed his
friendship with Hunter S Thompson
What were
the struggles or obstacles you had to overcome to get this book written?
I self-published which
gave me the freedom to take ownership of the book but did create some
limitations in the editing process. My first two editors dropped out of the
project after the first chapters because they both said it was too graphic for
them. I feel the first two chapters are the mildest chapters in the book and
so I used Grammarly and some beta readers as my editor. It's a little rough,
but that's punk rock.
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Tell your
readers about your book.
I don't believe in the
effectiveness of trigger warnings but this book is very graphic. Maybe a fair
disclosure that this book does include stories of rape & sexual misconduct, and a lot of violence from mosh pits to drunken riots to football to being
kidnapped in Milwaukee to some really dumb gangster nonsense. I go into detail
about my neighbor's meth empire, the steroid operation in the college dorms, and my
struggles with sobriety. In my youth, I was associated with some redneck gangs but
college football at a Christian college put me on a path of faith and professionalism.
Who is
your target audience, and why?
This book is not for
everyone, but there is something in there for almost everyone. It's a coming-of-age/gangster novel/political thriller/horror memoir. There are several concert
stories from wild road trips to see Blink 182 to seeing Katy perform before she
blew up. Some of the worst concert stories include mosh pits that turned into
riots, being victims of armed robbery before Ozzfest, and my friend and I
got beat up by Fall Out Boy. Punks and political junkies would be the
target audience. There is also some sex in the book for the mom's summer
reading crow. The main focus is Iowa and its politics but it does not take a
sharp left turn and actually shines a light on a time when the GOP & Democrats
worked together.
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What do
you consider your greatest success in life?
My daughter. She is three and is really just so amazing and
is so strong and smart and angelic. People just light up when they see her. The
runner-ups would be being on the Obama campaign and my time working on an
ethanol campaign with the governor's son.
What one
unique thing sets you apart from other writers in your genre?
Google "Jodi
Huisentruit" -- I go into detail about the people who are alleged in her
disappearance.
