Tampa bank exec turns a new page as published author

It’s not uncommon for people to tool around at their job, daydreaming about another life they’d rather be leading or another job they’d rather have. For Chris Kneer, his dream became reality without having to give up his career as senior vice president at Valley Bank in Tampa, a firm with $64 billion in assets. 

His determination to bring his characters to life a word or chapter at a time resulted in his recently published first novel, “Bluebird," the first Cigar City Thriller in an upcoming series that sold 250 copies in the first week.

“Thrillers are definitely my thing,” Kneer says, citing Brad Thor, Daniel Silva, John Grisham and Harlan Coben as favorites. “I really, really like series, and I really like recurring characters, and that's kind of a foundation of what I'd like to do long term.”

Thus, the concept of “Bluebird” was born. “Bluebird” follows Jason Miles, a financial security expert at a fictional Tampa bank, who uncovers a tax fraud scheme and is faced with the decision to report the crime or protect his life and loved ones. When he is blamed for the fraud, Jason is forced to go on the run and try to prove his innocence.

Although Kneer leads a much tamer life than his main character, one trait he shares with Miles is the fact that a good piece of writing developed both their plots.

Kneer was raised in Nebraska and got his foot in the door in the industry by selling financial software to small banks. During this time, he read “Tales From Margaritaville” by Jimmy Buffett. He was inspired by cowboy Tully Mars and his horse, Mr. Twain. 

“It was basically the story of a cowboy that lived in Wyoming that dreamed of moving to the Caribbean, and I'm reading it, and I'm thinking, ‘yeah, that's what I want to do. I want to leave Nebraska, and I want to go to the sunshine,’” Kneer explains. 

He landed with friends in Gainesville, and after making a road trip to Tampa that fortuitously occurred during Gasparilla weekend, he made his way here and got a job at First Union in 1994. He worked a few stints at other banks before landing at USAmeriBank, which merged with Valley Bank in 2018. Kneer oversees SBA lending at the bank. 

After becoming established in his career, his first attempt at a novel several years ago didn’t go so well. “I don't think I was prepared for how much rejection is involved in the industry,” Kneer says, “So I kind of put it down, but I always wanted to go back to it.” 

During Covid, he decided to pick up the pace with a fresh idea and this time he took a different approach: self publishing. 

“I was talking to people that I knew in the industry, and they said, ‘there is a way to do it now on your own, if you're willing to bring on the right professionals,’” Kneer says. 

The right professionals come at a cost, which can vary wildly depending on the quality. However, the route to self publishing is not taken in a vacuum, and many seasoned professionals along the way at conferences and writing associations helped guide Kneer’s pursuit with recommendations.

Ultimately the biggest challenge was time. After working all day and spending time with his wife and son, that left evenings and weekends for Kneer to build out his cast of characters and the familiar yet fictional Tampa Bay they would inhabit. 

“If you're passionate about it, you gotta find the time. And I would say that you have to look at the long game. It's not going to happen super fast,” Kneer advises. 

He noted that he made daily time to write, and sometimes only a word would come and other nights he would find his flow and the chapters would pour right out. Either way, progress was progress. 

Making time was one challenge, managing time was another. The learning curve of the writing process took up a lot of bandwidth for this first novel, but after gaining insight into the structure and length of chapters that make a novel compelling, he is ready for smoother sailing with the remainder of the series. 

Moving forward, Kneer’s goal is to write ‘a book a year’, and with the ever-evolving financial crime landscape, there is plenty of fodder for material. 

“Traditional financial scams and crimes [have] been around forever. With AI, it's never ending,” Kneer says, “Deep fakes and synthetic personalities and all these different things that are kind of terrifying to be honest, but they're great for a book.”

Making a business plan and following through on it are part of what got Kneer over the hurdle from fantasy to final draft. He encourages others in a similar position to just get started. 

“You're putting a book out into the world. Some will like it, hopefully most will like it, but some won't. And so you just have to kind of accept that. It all goes back to passion and making sure this is something that you really want to do.”