Groundwater first began writing fiction in the fifth grade, and in high school took an independent study in English.

[2] She went to the College of William & Mary and earned a degree in Psychology and Computer Science in 1978.

Her short story "New Zealand" won first place in the 2003 PPW Paul Gillette Memorial Writing Contest, and was the winner of the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Short Story Anthology Contest.

[7] "Flamingo Fatality" won the Great Manhattan Mystery Conclave Short Story Anthology Contest in 2005, and her 2005 short story "Lucky Bear" placed first in the Storyteller Magazine Flash Fiction Contest.

[1][5] To Hell in a Handbasket was a finalist in the Colorado Romance Writers' 2010 award category, Mainstream with Romantic Elements.