The story behind The Pot Thief Who Studied Georgia O’Keeffe

J. Michael Orenduff says he grew up in a house “so close to the Rio Grande that he could Frisbee a tortilla into Mexico.” He’s a former professor who later became president of New Mexico State University. He took early retirement to write and delve into the world of archaeology and philosophy. In retirement, Orenduff became the award-winning author of The Pot Thief Who Studied Georgia O’Keeffe and other Pot Thief mysteries. The El Paso Times called the series “the perfect fusion of murder, mayhem and margaritas.”

Orenduff said the idea for The Pot Thief Who Studied Georgia O’Keeffe came to him while he was looking at a picture of Cerro Pedernal. “It’s the mesa near her home which she often drew and painted. I thought of her standing in the open New Mexico landscape and wondered what would happen if one of her canvases blew away in the desert wind.”

Eventually, that initial kernel of an idea led to a plot in which one of Hubie Schuze’s old associates offers a large amount of money for a Tompiro Indian pot. Hubie resolves to find a way into the heavily guarded White Sands Missile, where there’s a ruin once occupied by the Tompiro. When his associate is murdered and Tompiro pots start replicating like Russian nesting dolls, Hubie realizes he’s caught up in the most complex and dangerous mystery he’s ever faced.

Artifacts should be available to any member of the public who respects and cares for them and not limited to museums and professional archaeologists…

One of the things Orenduff thinks readers should know about The Pot Thief Who Studied Georgia O’Keeffe is that it is not a traditional mystery. He said one of his early reviewers summarized the book best of all. “This is not an interstate kind of a story; it’s a back road drive with a raconteur at the wheel. There’s a wonderful pot in a remote place, and it takes a bit of a hike and some excavation to find it. Brush off another layer, and there it is, an intact marvel of original workmanship.

“The old pots which the narrator, Hubie Schuze, admires were made by hand, not on a wheel, and their shape shows it. Not perfect—and not meant to be. That’s part of their character. This book is not shaped like a standard mystery novel, either. Don’t expect it to be. Just ride the back road. Hubie knows where he’s going (though you may wonder about that at times).”

Double Trouble Contest Code: #Georgia

Orenduff added, “There are two issues embedded within this mystery. The first is that artifacts should be available to any member of the public who respects and cares for them and not limited to museums and professional archaeologists. The second is that genetics does not determine culture.”

In fact, in The Pot Thief Who Studied Georgia O’Keeffe, Orenduff blends many cultures. “My protagonist’s associates include a Basque woman, a Native American man, an Hispanic couple, an Eastern European priest, and an African-American girlfriend, each of whom defies stereotypes.”

Writing stereotypes is not something Orenduff wants to do. The strategy has paid off with reviewers. For instance, The Baltimore Sun described his books as “funny at a very high intellectual level” and “deliciously delightful.”

Learn more about Mike Orenduff on the Open Road Media website at www.openroadmedia.com/contributor/j-m-orenduff/.