Interview With Historical Thriller Author Jeff Tanner

 

1. What inspired you to write this book?

A trip to the Mariners Museum in Newport News, Virginia. The CEO shared that the museum’s founders were two shipbuilders who wanted to keep their workers busy during the Depression so they built the museum, then hired two guys to acquire things for the museum. None of them – not the founders or the acquisition agents – knew anything about museums and what to buy. I thought, “Wouldn’t that make for a fun series, something like an Indiana Jones buying nautical stuff around the world.” The main character, though, doesn’t actually go to work for the museum until book three.

 

2. What exactly is it about and who is it written for?

The King’s Collar begins with Charlie Bohannon, a Harvard senior getting thrown out of school and disowned by his tyrannical father. He meets a former British sailor selling smuggled trinkets and adventures ensue, the most important one centering on finding an Egyptian artifact, the King’s Collar. Readers say it’s part Maltese Falcon, part The Sting, and part Indiana Jones so I hit that mark. I’ve had some readers say it’s adventure that rivals Dungeon Crawler Carl, which is a series I love but is so different. Still, I’d love to have that level of success!

 

What’s surprised me is that readers range in age from 35 up, and both women and men. I was expecting an older mix leaning heavily female. Some come to it as historical fiction, for it’s set in 1929 Boston. Others want the mystery, and still others like the fast-paced adventure. If you like the movies of the 30s and 40s, you’ll love The King’s Collar and the Boston Bones series.

 

3. What do you hope readers will get out of reading your book?

While the Boston Bones series is meant to be entertaining, Bones is a young man who is still defining himself. Readers tend to speed through the books, anxious to see what happens to Charlie and his friends. But these are stories that are deeper, so those who reflect on the things that happen have told me they read the stories again soon after. There is a noirish overtone throughout, for there are powerful and wealthy actors behaving selfishly and they seem to be immune to any negative consequences. But I hope in these times that readers take away a sense of hope that, even as a less powerful individual, they can still effect change.

 

4. How did you decide on your book’s title and cover design?

The King’s Collar was the working title from day one. I tried others but didn’t care for them. Dolls, book two, also never had another title. The title was slang in that period for a girlfriend or a good-looking girl. Bones is tasked with finding two missing daughters, one the daughter of a mobster and the other his wealthy mentor, so there’s that. And someone is using Russian nesting dolls to smuggle goods through Bones’ store. But it’s also a story of Bones questioning his beliefs about and society’s restrictions on women. Dolls, as with The King’s Collar, is what Bones is searching for, though the meaning to him changes over the course of the novel.

 

My publisher, Koehler, has a design team and I was fortunate to be paired with Lauren Sheldon. She and I met to discuss how I saw the cover for The King’s Collar and she came up with five designs. Together, we narrowed them to two, then ran a poll. When it came time for Dolls, we had two options: stick with the same background color and change the graphics or font significantly or change the color and leave the font and overall design similar. We wanted something that would create the look and feel of The King’s Collar but clearly be a different book in the same series. In the end, we went with the green and yellow but with a similar layout. Given that there are five books completed so far and another in the works, I’m not sure what we will do next!

 

5. What advice or words of wisdom do you have for fellow writers – other than run!?

Commit. And if you can’t commit, run! I’ve written all of my life, but professionally, my first commitment had to be to writing nonfiction. When I decided to write novels, I committed to learning craft first because fiction is different and I knew my writing wasn’t up to standard. I listened to podcasts, attended workshops and conferences, joined critique groups, and so on, so I could hone my craft. I still work on my craft, because it’s not perfect.

 

When I coached baseball, I’d tell the players to make their own mistakes, not repeat someone else’s. In other words, learn from watching/reading. And I told them I’d never be mad at them for making a hustle mistake – trying to do the extraordinary and failing. But I hate making the same mistake twice, so I view every critique as an opportunity to get better, not simply about that piece of work. In other words, never hit “accept all changes.” Work to understand the reason behind them first.

 

6. What trends in the book world do you see -- and where do you think the book publishing industry is heading? 

I heard a stat that 800 new books are published daily. That number will only grow, and so will formats because of technology.

 

Selling to writers is a big industry that will only get bigger as technology makes it easier to craft stories and bring them to market, which is why those who facilitate publishing need to replace lost income. We’re already seeing more agents doing more teaching or consulting than agenting.

 

AI is, of course, the bull in our China shop. Some of it is quite good and that scares me.

 

7. Were there experiences in your personal life or career that came in handy when writing this book? 

My father, to whom The King’s Collar is dedicated, was a tech writer and editor for a NASA contractor from Mercury through Apollo. Everything had to be exact and correct. He was my first and toughest editor. I spent a lot of time in Boston, a town I really enjoy, and that knowledge helped. Certain scenes, such as when Bones’ father throws him out, were based on people or events that either I or a loved one experienced. Obviously, that was not my father.

 

8. How would you describe your writing style? Which writers or books is your writing similar to?

 My style is, I think, similar to that of Dick Francis, James Herriott, Iona Wishaw, and Jacqueline Winspear, in that I tend to be optimistic, my stories are generally clean, and my characters are human and ever-changing. I naturally write very sparse stories in the way that Raymond Chandler or Dashiel Hammett sometimes did, but I’ve had to learn to go back and add physical descriptions – to strike the right balance because I’m writing period pieces and I have to take the reader into the room, so to speak.

 

9. What challenges did you overcome in the writing of this book?

The biggest challenge for me was finding my voice, which is a writer-ly way say that I had to learn how to write fiction in a way that is authentic, yet fun to read. Getting dialog right was a huge challenge because slang is so different from one place to another and from one era to another, and from one class to another. Words that were neutral then might be pejorative now. And some make no sense at all today, like a blind pig, which is a type of gin joint where you pay to see a blind pig and get a free drink because giving booze away wasn’t prohibited. Readers seem to think I did a good job of using slang in an accurate fashion, which I’m grateful for.

 

But when you write historical fiction, you have to get your facts right. The challenge is that you don’t know what you don’t know, so you don’t research everything. I knew, for example, that Teddy Roosevelt boxed in college at another Ivy League school. I didn’t know that boxing was an intramural sport until 1930 or ‘31, so I unwittingly crowned Bones the Ivy League welterweight champion a year or two early. I hope readers will forgive me.

And sources don’t always agree. Mob boss Joey Bonano and film star Gloria Swanson, Joseph Kennedy’s mistress, branded Kennedy as a bootlegger, but not until the 1970s. There is no evidence to support those charges, according to multiple biographers, but Swanson should know, right? So who are you going to believe?

 

10. If people can buy or read one book this week or month, why should it be yours?

Because in this world today, we need stories that entertain, inspire, and provide hope, and the Boston Bones stories do just that.

 

About Jeff Tanner: The King's Collar (Boston Bones #1) and Dolls (Boston Bones #2)

Jeff Tanner lives on the shore of the Chesapeake Bay ln Virginia's Eastern Shore. He's published 15 business books and wrote, produced, and hosted a daily business show on NPR for over two years. THE KING’S COLLAR is his debut novel, and he has also had several plays and short stories performed or published. DOLLS, the second book in the Boston Bones series, will publish December 8, 2026. He and his wife split time between Dayton, OH, to be near grandkids, and the Eastern Shore of Virginia on the Chesapeake Bay, sharing both homes with Boo, a four-pound Maltese. To add some excitement, they also own and race thoroughbreds. For more info, see: www.authorjefftanner.com

 

 

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For the past three decades, Brian Feinblum has helped thousands of authors. He formed his own book publicity firm in 2020. Prior to that, for 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and as the director of publicity at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler.

 

His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/whats-needed-to-promote-a-book-successfully) and (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/10-things-my-dog-taught-me-about-marketing-books). He was recently interviewed by the IBPA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0BhO9m8jbs

 

He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, three times at BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association, Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, five times at Morgan James Publishing Red Carpet, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. He served as a judge for the 2024 IBPA Book Awards.

 

His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.

 

Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog.

 

You can connect with him at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum/ or https://www.facebook.com/brian.feinblum