Mystery achievement

   Beth Groundwater traded in a life of software engineering and corporate boardrooms for a life of dead bodies and red herrings - and it's looking like a great deal.

   The Colorado Springs mystery author was recently nominated for an Agatha Award for best first novel for "A Real Basket Case." It's a prestigious award within the mystery genre, and puts her in the company of past nominees that include Janet Evanovich, Nevada Barr, Carol Higgins Clark and Diane Mott Davidson.

   Groundwater is one of a dozen Pikes Peak-region authors who will be part of panel discussions at Saturday's Mountain of Authors, put on by the Pikes Peak Library District. The event showcases regional authors and offers discussions on nonfiction, fiction and juvenile writing, so aspiring authors can learn about writing and publishing.

   It's a world Groundwater, 51, began to explore seriously in 1999, when she retired early from a software-engineering job at a defense contractor.

   An Air Force kid who lived all over the country, she has been a bookworm her entire life, devouring romance, science fiction and mysteries. And she's always loved writing. At age 10, she detailed the adventures of a boy named Freddie who burrowed into an underground mole city in a giant screwmobile. When it came time to choose a second career, she knew exactly what she wanted to do.

   Still, some people can't reconcile her career shift, and she's heard the question countless times: "How does a software engineer become a mystery writer?" Groundwater said, smiling.

   "I've met a lot of mystery writers who were engineers in a former life - because it's all about solving puzzles."

   She loves the structure and complexity of putting together a mystery, the literary equivalent of a Rubik's Cube. She starts with a dead body and works backward from there, putting together a list of suspects, a collection of clues, a few red herrings, and finally deciding the big question: Whodunit?

   She carefully builds the scaffolding of her story, then starts painting details.

   "When I am so anxious to start putting down the words, when characters are talking in my head and when I wake up and scenes are playing themselves out, it's time to start writing," she said.

   In "A Real Basket Case," Enrique - a sexy aerobics instructor and professional Casanova - is the dead body. The woman he was trying to seduce when he died is Claire Hanover, who is thrust into the position of amateur sleuth when she is forced to find the real killer before the leading suspect - her husband - goes to trial.

   Claire is a Colorado Springs woman who runs a gift-basket company (hence the title). As she chases clues and delivers her baskets, she comes upon local landmarks such as Garden of the Gods and The Cliff House, a nice bonus for local readers. And there's a sense of urgency not only for Claire to solve the crime, but for her to repair the marriage she put in jeopardy.

   The book is a traditional or "cozy" mystery along the lines of authors such as Evanovich and Sue Grafton, without the graphic violence and language of hard-boiled mysteries. Groundwater said she can't read books with disturbing violence, so she certainly couldn't write one.

   Before she could get down to the whodunit, Groundwater had to figure out the howtodoit. As a former engineer, she approached her second career with methodical precision. She joined writing groups, courted a critique circle, studied police procedure, and published short stories to hone her skills and help make connections.

   Then she got down to writing. She started with a "futuristic romantic suspense" novel, which didn't sell, and a science fiction novella that required a boatload of research.

   Then she put aside romance and sci-fi and turned to the genre she reads the most: mystery. As soon as she started the book, she knew she had found her genre.

   "It just felt good and the words flowed," she said. "How do you know that the person you end up marrying is the one? They fit."

   Others agreed, because she soon had an agent and a book contract. She signed on with Five Star, a smallish publisher based in Maine that specializes in selling to libraries, and "Basket Case" was published in 2007.

   "Beth Groundwater brings a refreshing take on the cozy/amateur sleuth novel, from her unlikely detective Claire's occupation, to her penchant for getting into situations way over her head and somehow managing to find her way out - and catch the culprit - in a believable way," said John Helfers, acquiring editor for Tekno Books, a book packaging company that acquires and edits manuscripts for the Five Star mystery line.

   Sales have exceeded expectations, and she is approaching 2,500 copies sold as her book goes to its second hardback printing as well as a large-print edition.

   She's hoping the Agatha Award spurs more attention for the book, and so do her publishers, who are putting out the Claire Hanover sequel - "To Hell in a Handbasket" - in May 2009. In the meantime, Groundwater has written a Whitewater River Rangers mystery novel set in Salida that she hopes spawns a second series.

   Groundwater is a tenacious self-promoter. She put 6,000 miles on her car last year going to events, and has built a large network in the writing community - and she loves to meet her readers.

   "What I like most is visiting book clubs and sitting in someone's living room and talking to people who love to read," Groundwater said.

   She's hoping her first two books form the foundation of a long writing career, so fans can keep reading her mystery plots for a long time to come, and she can leave a whole mess of dead bodies in her wake.

MOUNTAIN OF AUTHORS

Where: East Library, 5550 N. Union Blvd.

When: Starts at 10 a.m. Saturday

Cost: Free, including lunch; no registration required

Schedule: 10-11 a.m. Nonfiction Author Panel (moderated by Tim Blevins), featuring Beth Barrett, Marcia Ford, Karen Scalf Linamen and John Stansfield

11:15 a.m.-12:15 p.m. Fiction Author Panel (moderated by Kirk Farber), featuring Kevin Anderson, Kacy Barnett-Gramckow, Beth Groundwater, Rebecca Moesta and Robert Spiller

12:15-1:30 p.m. Lunch

1:30-2:30 p.m. Children's/Teen Author Panel (moderated by K.D. Huxman), featuring Mary Peace Finley, Donita K. Paul and Katherine Pebley O'Neal

2:30-3:30 p.m. Author Showcase: meet authors from the Pikes Peak region; books for sale

4-6 p.m. The Pikes Peak Poet Laureate Project will honor Aaron Anstett, the community's first poet laureate.