Mike Orenduff: My MYSTERY WE WRITE blog tour guest of the Day

Mike will be giving away a copy of The Pot Thief Who Studied Ptolomey to a lucky commenter to this blog when our Mystery We Write Blog Tour is completed on December 9.

Mike Orenduff grew up in a house so close to the Rio Grande that he could Frisbee a tortilla into Mexico. He came by his love of pueblo pottery during weekends, buying small pots from the pueblos his family visited and – in one case – acquiring one when his sister traded chocolate chip cookies for it. His love of pottery expanded to a general interest in archaeology which he studied as an undergraduate.


While in graduate school at the University of New Mexico, Mike worked during the summer as a volunteer teacher at one of the nearby pueblos. He went on to serve as President of New Mexico State University and as a visiting faculty member at West Point and President of Bermuda College. After retiring from higher education, he rekindled his love of the Southwest by writing his award-winning Pot Thief murder mysteries which combine archaeology and philosophy with humor and mystery. Among his many awards are the New Mexico Book of the Year, the “Lefty” national award for best humorous mystery and two “Eppies” for the best eBook mysteries.

His first book, The Pot Thief Who Studied Pythagoras, was described by The Baltimore Sun as, “funny at a very high intellectual level and deliciously delightful,” and his latest, The Pot Thief Who Studied Escoffier, was called "the perfect fusion of murder, mayhem and margaritas” by The El Paso Times.

Welcome, Mike. Tell us about your writing career.

During my four college presidencies (University of Maine at Farmington, The American University in Bulgaria, New Mexico State University and Bermuda College), I did a great deal of writing. I penned budget requests for legislatures, reports to alumni about how their alma mater was doing, and letters to high school students urging them to enroll at my university. In short, I was a fiction writer.

So when I retired, I decided to put my writing to work for nobler causes than seeking unneeded tax dollars, cajoling gifts from alumni and trying to increase enrollments. I decided I’d try to make people laugh.
What keeps me writing is knowing someone will spend a pleasant afternoon reading one of my books. I love to imagine a reader getting a laugh from a line I wrote. I know they do because they tell me so. And my books must be funny because the third one, The Pot Thief Who Studied Einstein, won the “Lefty” as the Best Humorous Mystery Novel of the Year. The award is based on votes, so it is at least as legitimate as Congress.
When I receive an email from a new fan telling me she loved my latest book and kept reading lines to her husband, it sends me running to the computer to write the next book. I admit it; I’m a reclusive ham. I’m not on stage now like I was as a president, but I still have an audience. And they aren’t complaining about high tuition and uncaring faculty. They are laughing. If I had known being a writer of humorous murder mysteries was so much fun, I would have retired early to get started. Just think of all the legislators, alumni and high school students who would have been spared from reading mail from me.

Website: http://www.orenduff.org/

Blog: http://www.thepotthief.blogspot.com/
Buy link: http://tiny.cc/hkps0

ABOUT MIKE'S POT THIEF BOOKS:
“Hubert Shuze, pot thief extraordinaire, operates an ancient pottery resale shop, not entirely legally, in the middle of Albuquerque's town square. His activities, both in the selling and creating of ancient pots and their knock-offs, tend to get him mixed up in an assortment of marginally ethical activities, murder generally being the most profound. Shuze operates by a complex set of ethics that allows him to sell questionably legal pots, burglarize, and launder money -- but never to lie, cheat or steal. Along the way, Shuze, a perpetual student of life, educates us on his philosopher du jour. His previous novels featured the philosophies of Pythagoras, Ptolemy and Einstein. "The Pot Thief Who Studied Escoffier" is a quirky repast of piñon-infused chimeneas, New Mexican sunsets, and a delightful band of foodie misfits. It is best enjoyed in the fading glow of a Southwestern sunset, a fire crackling beside you, a faithful dog at your feet.” The El Paso Times

Information about the books:

The Pot Thief Who Studied Pythagoras, The Pot Thief Who Studied Ptolemy, The Pot Thief Who Studied Einstein, and The Pot Thief Who Studied Escoffier are published by Oak Tress Press and are available as paperbacks in many Barnes & Nobles, Hastings, and Independent bookstores and as ebooks on Kindle and Nook readers.