Title: Shifting Cargo (Shifting Paradigm Series)
Author Name: Tina Blenke
Publication Date & Length: April 1, 2015 – 20,000
Ramey’s world is shattered when his brother dies suddenly. He tries to go through the motions, day by agonizing day, doing the best that he can at his job, but it’s not enough. Months of depression escalates into alcohol use and drug abuse to numb the pain. For the past year, he’s been dreading meeting with his lawyer and accepting his brother’s death. The pain becomes too much to bear and Ramey is caught with cocaine at work and fired immediately. When he hits rock bottom, he realizes that he’s disrespecting his brother’s memory and checks himself into rehab with the help of an unlikely friend.
Londyn’s life is perfect living as a wolf Shifter in the Pack Lands. He’s been working in the family business and happy living in his cabin in the woods. Londyn has high expectations for the perfect mate to make his life complete.
Can Ramey accept his destiny as a Shifter’s mate? And is his love for the wolf Shifter worth leaving behind the demons and the only world he’s ever known?
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Can you describe in detail what your writing environment is like? My writing
environment changes all the time. My life is busy and my space needs to be as versatile
as my lifestyle. This typically means that I’m on wireless devices like a laptop or iPad
and can write in different places like coffee shops, gymnastics practice with my daughter,
at the park with my pups, on the deck sitting in the sunshine, or even on the sofa (like
right this minute) while the kid watches Cupcake Wars. I don’t want life to interfere with
writing or vice versa and not having a designated space isn’t an excuse to keep from
writing. Once during a gymnastics class, I forgot to bring something to write on so I dug
a pen out of my purse and wrote on the back of some duplicate check receipts.
Is there one of your characters that you relate to (from any of your works)? Why?
Evander from Athan’s Kiss is a character that I can relate to the most because he’s a lot
like my oldest daughter in many ways. She’s a voracious reader on what seems like
millions of obscure topics and can almost repeat the information verbatim. It’s incredible.
Evander is just such a character in that he knows so much about everything and is a
fantastic source of knowledge for Athan and his newly acquired senses. What I love the
most about Evander is that he shares this information freely and in a non-condescending
way because he loves to read and would never think about hurting anyone’s feelings just
because they didn’t know something.
If you couldn’t be an author, what would you do instead? This is a difficult question for
me because I also write for my day job as well. It’s not nearly as fun and creative but
language and writing is a beautiful way to express things that can’t always be stated out
loud. That being said, it would probably be a lot of fun to have been an anthropologist. I
find cultures other than mine to be absolutely fascinating. Maybe that’s why I write
paranormal and create new worlds of my own! Hey, a mini epiphany!
Is there anything that you learned during the writing process that you wish you had
known before hand? I learn something new with every project. My first story is where I
learned the most at one time. I found out that I didn’t have to write a story from start to
finish if it wasn’t working out for me. Also, writing scenes that coincided with my mood
was a great lesson. During Shifting Weight, I used chapter titles that were significant with
gym lingo and used an outline for the first time. In Shifting Gears, I created the character
of Connor with the help of a good friend. His persona was completely developed: career,
personality, car, and desires. All of this before I ever put pen to paper, so to speak. I also
contacted a lot more subject matter experts. The same friend knew about cars, another
friend knew about managing night clubs, and another knew about drug addictions. And as
for Shifting Cargo, I learned to put it aside completely for a couple of weeks before doing
a last round of edits prior to submission.
Is there anything that you wish you could change about your book now that it is out? As
with all of them, I wish they were longer but then they’d never be published. This series
was meant to be a series of short stories and I love that they’re fun feel-good reads with
sweet men.
How do you come up with new ideas for your story? There’s always inspiration in the
world, sometimes it finds you and sometimes you have to go looking for it. For
inspiration, I listen to music or watch music videos. For Athan’s Kiss, I used a lot of
infrared art online that inspired scenes and characters. A lot of time, I use my own
experiences and draw from what I know. And beta readers are always helpful to let me
know if it works in the story or not. They’re fabulous!
What’s next for you as a writer? I’ve started on the fourth story in the series so I expect to
finish that after I’ve settled into my new home. There’s also a new contemporary novel
that I’m thinking will be completed by the beginning of summer and submitted soon
after. This one will be a full length novel full of angst, drama, and a touch of violence
because what’s a novel by me without a little confrontation?
Where do you live? Do you think this influences how or what you write? I recently
moved from the Midwest to the East Coast. I’ve also lived in Europe, Asia, and the West
Coast. As an Air Force brat, I’ve been around and it’s more likely than not that this
influences my writing. When I first visited Boston, I just knew that there had to be
vampires there and so I placed Athan’s Kiss there. For the Shifting Paradigm, it takes
place in a fictitious Northwest city and the Pack Lands are loosely based on my
experiences living on a Native American reservation.
What is your favorite genre outside of the one you write in? Why? Hmm, if we’re still in
the genre of M/M romance, then I’d have to say that contemporary would be my favorite.
Those authors would be KA Mitchell, Kade Boehme, and Amy Lane. Outside of M/M
romance, I really like paranormal thrillers like Rob Thurman, Stephen, King, and Anne
Rice.
Do you have any vices? Shoes, coffee, shopping…etc? Good food, shoes, traveling,
books, movies, music, and technology. Yikes! Is that too much? I have more but I’m
beginning to think that I might have a problem!
“It pleases me that you want to see my wolf so bad. Have a seat on that fallen log by the fire and watch the master at work.” Ramey took a seat as instructed and watched Londyn prepare for his shift. Londyn removed his clothing piece by maddening piece. It was a slow strip tease set to the music of the forest and Ramey swore all the blood left his body and pooled into his cock. Londyn’s body was absolutely lickable. He had definition in his lean muscles, his chest was smooth and hairless with pale pink nipples that Ramey couldn’t help but drool over. His back and legs had corded muscles and fine blond hair covered his legs and groin. Except for a few old scars, the man didn’t have a mark on him. No blemishes, birthmarks or tattoos and given his age it was odd that he didn’t have at least one. Ramey had never been with a man who didn’t have any ink. And the ass on his boyfriend. He had won the lottery ten times over. He had to sit on his hands to keep from reaching out and when he turned around, he caught Ramey ogling his mate.
“Hey, eyes are up here, sir.”
“I’m sorry, it’s just that—”
“Nah, just messing with you. I like your eyes on me.” Londyn’s own blues were dark with heat proving that Londyn was just as turned on as Ramey was by the show. It wasn’t just Londyn’s eyes giving away his arousal either.
Tina is a retired Air Force brat and has lived in several states as well as a handful of countries. She has always had a soft spot for literature and is a voracious reader. When she isn’t writing, she can be found cuddled up with a good book. Though Tina adores a thrilling novel with sappy lovesick heroes, she is terrified of things that go bump in the night. This makes for quite a complicated relationship with zombies, something that she just can’t get enough of.
