Georgia sits down for a question-and-answer session with dru’s book musings so that we can learn more about what makes her tick. Let’s see what she has to say.

What is your full name?
My full name is Georgia Totto O’Keeffe

How old are you?
Somewhere around fifty.

What is your profession?
painter

Do you have a significant other?
I actually have two significant others. One I’m married to. One is my lover.

What are their name and profession?
My husband is Alfred Stieglitz the renowned photographer. He lives in New York.

My lover is Ryan McCaffrey. He is the sheriff in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Stieglitz does not know about Ryan. Ryan does know about Stieglitz. I do not feel guilty because Stieglitz has been serially unfaithful to me since we were married.

Do you have any children?
No, I do not. Stieglitz forced me to have an abortion for which I have never forgiven him.

Do you have any siblings?
Yes, I have four sisters and two brothers.

Are your parents nearby?
My parents passed away many years ago.

Who is your best friend?
I would have to say my best friend is Anita Pollitzer whom I met in 1914 when I attended Columbia Teachers College in New York. When we first met we called each other Miss Pollitzer and Miss O’Keeffe, for such was the custom in those days. But within a very short time we were on a first name basis. It was Anita who first sent some drawings of mine to Stieglitz at his gallery; and thus, it began! My truly professional life, my romance, and my subsequent marriage to Stieglitz.

However, since I have moved to New Mexico for most of the year, I have acquired another best friend, Emily Bryce, the local coroner and yes also my lover Ryan.

Do you have cats, dogs, or other pets?
At the moment, I have no pets. I had a cat back East. I would like a dog, or maybe two, if they were small. I am inclined toward Chows.

What town do you live in?
I live nearest to Abiquiu, a very small town with a population of around 75. It is 53 miles north of Santa Fe. It is rumored that Hollywood has discovered this region and they might start making cowboy movies here. That I guess would be a boon for the town.

I actually live in a charming adobe house or casita that I rent at The Ghost Ranch. The Ghost is a kind of a western style resort. Some famous people have visited—like Charles Lindbergh and his wife. I couldn’t stand Lindbergh. He’s very antisemitic and in my opinion a complete fool. I feel sorry for his wife Anne Morrow. I guess I feel a bit sorry for him since the ghastly murder of their child. But I still think he’s a ‘jerk’, as my teenage nephew would say.

What type of dwelling do you own or rent?
The casita as I mentioned above is made of adobe—even the floors. It has a lovely patio which on occasion rattlesnakes like to sun. I keep my snake stick handy to smack them with if they get feisty. I’ve killed a few when I am out hiking. I find their rattles beautiful. They come in a narrow range of colors from pale to golden yellows and soft brown to nearly black. The color spectrum is limited in that sense, but I often wonder if I limited my palette could I go deeper. I keep the rattles in ceramic bowls and sometimes play Chinese Checkers with them. They are perfect!

What is your favorite spot in your home?
My roof is my very favorite spot. Ryan and I go up there for cocktails around sunset, sometimes at dawn –no cocktails then. And it is my favorite view of a mesa called The Pedernal which means Changing Woman. When I first came to the Ghost Ranch after they sprung me from the loony bin a few years back, I must have painted or sketched it dozens of times.

I thought if I painted the Pedernal enough, it would belong to me. It seemed during my first months at the ranch that this single mountain anchored me after the tumult of the previous year with Stieglitz.

What is your favorite meal and dessert.
I love Posole which is basically hominy with pork ribs and pig knuckles. It is traditionally served on Christmas Eve out here. The other thing that I am crazy about is Ryan’s peach pie that he makes from the peach tree in his garden in Santa Fe.

Do you have any hobbies?
Hobbies? I’ve never really grasped the meaning of that word. It always suggests something you do with a ball, something that bounces around. I don’t bounce.

What music do you listen to?
Oh, I love music. I often listen to classical music when I paint. You see I am blessed with this peculiar capacity. It’s a known as synesthesia and occurs when one perceptual pathway opens and overlaps with a second one. There would be a fusion of the music and the visual. A delightful collision of sorts in which one would inspire the other. I can translate an aural experience into a vision of color and contour. It’s positively delightful. My favorite musician is Pablo Casals.

What is your favorite color?
I have no favorite color. Every color, every shade in the spectrum excites me.

What is your favorite vacation spot?
Here, in the southwest desert

Are you a morning or night person?
I’m essentially a morning person. My least favorite part of the day is noon. Everything flattens out. The land, the colors, the contours of the land and it’s just too damn hot out here.

What is your idea of a really fun time?
Sitting on my roof having a drink with my love, Ryan.

If you were to write a memoir, what would you call it?
Maybe as a nod to my capacity for synesthesia I would call it Seeing with Music; Feeling with Color.

Amateur or professional sleuth and whom do you work with?
I am definitely an amateur sleuth. I guess it would be Ryan McCaffrey and Emily Bryce.

What is a typical day in your life like?
I get up in the morning just before dawn and go to the roof with a mug of tea to watch the dawn break. I then go for a walk, maybe two miles or so out into the desert. I look for bones—cow bones, or maybe antlers and drag them home to paint later. Once home I do a smidgin of boring stuff like house cleaning or laundry or maybe a bit of cooking. Then I go to work at my easel. By lunch time the temperature might be ninety or 100 degrees. So, I eat inside. I like cucumber sandwiches and iced tea if I have any ice. Then I take a nap. By 4 o’clock the heat is diminishing, and I take an easel outside to start painting. I paint until sunset then go to the roof again with a beer, or a glass of wine. Once Ryan made me this new drink called a Bloody Mary. I was attracted by the name. It was delicious but I nearly fell off the ladder going down from the roof. No more Bloody Mary’s for me.

Mortal Radiance, A Georgia O’Keeffe Mystery Book #2
Genre: Historical Mystery
Release: July 2024
Format: Print, Digital
Purchase Link

Painter and amateur sleuth Georgia O’Keeffe investigates a tragic death when she returns to Taos in the second instalment of this twisty historical mystery set in the 1930s by multi award-winning author Kathryn Lasky.

New Mexico, 1935. Painter Georgia O’Keeffe is at her friend Mabel Dodge Luhan’s home, Los Gallos, a house inhabited by a colorful range of artists, authors and society figures, to attend the memorial service of the renowned writer D.H. Lawrence.

Georgia has been commissioned to design the stained-glass windows for the small memorial chapel in Lawrence’s honor. But when she checks to see how the light comes through the glass, another much more horrible sight awaits her: beloved Navajo potter Flora Namingha is dead, her face smashed in with a stone . . .

With Flora’s fiancé locked up as the obvious suspect and the local police negligent in its investigation, it seems like no one other than Georgia is capable of solving the murder and making sure justice is done.

When Georgia’s lover Sheriff Ryan McCaffrey comes to town unannounced, things get more complicated, and Georgia suddenly finds herself in a complex tangle of revenge, international espionage, Nazis and thugs that will require all her artistic sensibilities and amateur sleuthing skills to unravel!

About the author
Kathryn Lasky is the author of over one hundred books for children and young adults, including the Guardians of Ga’Hoole series, which has more than eight million copies in print, and was turned into a major motion picture, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole. Her books have received numerous awards including a Newbery Honor, a Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, and a Washington Post-Children’s Book Guild Nonfiction Award. She has twice won the National Jewish Book award. Her work has been translated into nineteen languages worldwide. She lives with her husband in Cambridge, MA.