A Great Review for Fatal Descent and Other Links

I'm thrilled with a recent review that compared Fatal Descent, the latest release in my RM Outdoor Adventures series, with mysteries written by Nevada Barr and Dana Stabenow, both authors I greatly admire! As the reviewer said, "Groundwater has written yet another exciting and suspense-filled mystery that speeds along with a swift pace to its extremely compelling conclusion." You can read the full review on the Kings River Life Magazine website. You can also enter a contest there until August 10th to win an autographed copy of the book!

Sisters in Crime is also featuring the cover of the book on their website in the rotation at the bottom of the page. The rotation cycles through four displays of members' recent releases.

I've recently finalized plans to speak in the Local Author Series conducted in the Timberline Campus Library at the Colorado Mountain College in Leadville, Colorado on October 8th. You can read about the event, me and my books at their Local Author Series website.

Finally, the Summer Issue of Books and Banter features Fatal Descent in its mystery section. Just click on the words "Summer Issue" to read the PDF file.

A Fun Fish Tales Quiz

As many of you know, I have a story in the short story anthology published by the Guppies chapter of Sisters in Crime that is titled Fish Tales The Guppy Anthology. All of the mystery stories selected for the anthology had to involve fish or water or both. It's been fun working with the other story authors on promotion events and ideas.

The latest promotion idea is a quiz that the group put together for Goodreads. Anyone who is a member of Goodreads can play and test their knowledge about the anthology--or just have fun guessing while learning some things about the stories. Here's the LINK to the book on Goodreads. Page down until you see "Quiz Question" and click on the "Take this quiz ..." prompt. Good luck and have fun!

Malice Domestic 2011 - Report One

I finally have a day without an event (just driving) in my east coast book tour, so I'm posting my impressions and photos from the 2011 Malice Domestic conference in Bethesda, Maryland. Friday morning, I took the Metro from Alexandria, Virginia, where I'd spent Thursday night with friends, and arrived at the Hyatt about an hour before Malice-Go-Round. I stowed my luggage, registered, and met up with my pitching partner, Five Star author friend Michael Allan Mallory. I gave a glowing blurb to his wonderful second book with co-author Marilyn Victor, Killer Instinct. He's with me in the photo below, and was a great pitching partner.


Worn out after Malice-Go-Round, I forgot to take the camera out for the rest of the day. I heard Louise Penny's delightful interview of Janet Rudolph and Dan Stashower's of Donna Andrews, and attended the Opening Ceremony and Reception. After dinner with some fellow Five Star author pals, I listened to the Best Novel panel, then collapsed in bed after chatting with my roommate, fellow Midnight Ink author Vicki Doudera.

Saturday began with the New Authors Breakfast, then I schmoozed until my morning panel, "Shot At, Robbed, Hypothermic and More: Travails Authors Endure to Get it Right." The photo below is from that panel, which included moderator Toni L.P. Kelner, Sandi Ault, Joanna Carl, Vicki Delany, and me. I decided I wanted Joanna's research gig--chocolate! The second photo shows me at work in the signing area, courtesy of Michael Allen Mallory.



Then came lunch with the Sisters in Crime Guppies chapter, and the remaining photos are from that. What a fun time that was!

Fish Tales Guppy Anthology Nears Publication

This is the cover art for the soon-to-be-released Fish Tales, The Guppy Anthology. It's a collection of short stories written by members of the Guppies chapter of Sisters in Crime, to which I belong. The stories all have a theme related to fish or water. My "Fatal Fish Flop" story was one of twenty-two that were selected to be included in the collection, and I must say I'm pretty pleased with it. The first line is:

"The guppies killed him."

I gave myself the challenge of writing a mystery story where guppies are wrongly accused of causing the death of a murder victim, and I had a lot of fun with it.

Fish Tales will be published by Wildside Press in time for copies to be available at the Malice Domestic conference in Bethesda, MD April 29 - May 1. I and many of the other story authors will be at this conference to sign our short stories in the anthology. I've read them all, and I can tell you its a stellar collection, well worth diving into!

The anthology even has it's own Facebook page. Please go to, "Like" it, read the Info page, then leave a comment on the wall about what you think of it. :-)

A New Short Story Contract

I am a long-time member of the Sisters in Crime Guppies on-line chapter. While Guppies stands for "The Great Unpublished," many of us who have become published mystery authors remain in the group because of the close friendships we've made there. As such, I participated in the Guppies anthology project, submitting a short story to be judged and considered along with 39 other Guppies.

Twenty of the forty submitted short stories were selected, along with mine, and two more stories by published Guppies were added, to make a total of 22 stories. Those 22 stories were professionally edited, then we began the long process of querying publishers to publish the anthology for us. Recently the Guppies treasurer signed a contract with Wildside Press to publish the anthology sometime in the next twelve months. Needless to say, the chapter is celebrating!

The anthology, titled Fish Tales, has a theme of stories related to fish and/or bodies of water, and of course they all are mysteries. Mine, titled "Fatal Fish Flop" begins with the line, "The guppies killed him". How could I choose any other? ;-) The other stories to be featured in the anthology are listed below. I know many of these talented writers personally, and I can say that this is going to be a stellar collection!

“Thicker Than Blood” by Leslie Budewitz
“Secret of the Red Mullet” by Nancy Adams
“Accidents Happen” by Jim Jackson
“Identity Crisis” by Diane Vallere
“Sleeping with the Fish” by KB Inglee
“Feeding Frenzy” by Patricia Winton
“SASE” by Karen Pullen
“New Age Old Story” by Sarah Glenn
“Shadow of the River” by Gigi Pandian
“Turkey Hill” by Warren Bull
“Something Fishy” by Peggy Ehrhart
“Truck Contest” by Kaye George
“Amazing Grace” by Betsy Bitner
“A Murder Runs Through It” by Annette Dashofy
“Dead-Eye Gravy” by Krista Davis
“The Professor’s Books” by Gloria Alden
“Koi Palace” by Heidi Saunders
“Something Fishy This Way Comes” by Deborah Benoit
“Palace on the Lake” by Daryl Wood Gerber
“Fatal Fish Flop” by Beth Groundwater
“The Frain Legacy” by Darlene Ryan
“Critique Group” by Patricia Gulley

Congratulations to all of the Guppies writers whose short stories are included in the anthology, and I hope my blog readers will put Fish Tales on their to-read lists. I'll keep you posted on developments and let you know when the release date will be.

Giving away Sisters in Crime money

On Wednesday, May 12th, I had the HUGE pleasure of handing over a $1,000 check from Sisters in Crime to the Kraemer Family Library of the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. Why and how did this come about? The Kraemer Family Library was the February winner in the Sisters in Crime “We Love Libraries” program. Under this program, monthly grants of $1,000 will be awarded to libraries from January through December 2010. Grants must be used to purchase books. The book purchases are not restricted to the mystery genre, but the hope is that winning libraries will use some of the funds to purchase books written by Sisters in Crime members (like me! ;) ). Libraries enter by sending in a photo of staff holding books written by Sisters in Crime authors. The library staff told me they had a fun time gathering and posing for the photo.

I was very excited when the national office contacted me and asked me to organize an event to present the grant. I invited local Sisters in Crime members, and mystery author Laura DiSilverio (aka Lila Dare) was able to join me in the ceremony followed by lunch with the staff. We talked about our own work and the writing of Sisters in Crime’s many other talented authors, and I gave them a list of Colorado Sisters in Crime authors. Teri Switzer, the Professor and Dean of the Library, said the group had so much fun with us that they asked if they could institute a monthly author lunch presentation. I told her that if they do start such a program, I'd be glad to suggest some local authors to invite. The photos below are from the event. Don't we look like we're having fun?