Judy Fitzwater grew up an Air Force brat and has lived in New York, Oklahoma, Texas, Hawaii, Maine, Kentucky, Georgia, New Jersey, and North Carolina. She began her writing career freelancing as a columnist, feature writer, and reporter of superior court proceedings for a newspaper in rural North Carolina. Her interests soon turned to fiction, and she has been writing mystery novels ever since.

Her first novel featuring unpublished mystery writer Jennifer Marsh, Dying to Get Published, was nominated for an Agatha Award for Best First Mystery of 1998. The second, Dying to Get Even, was released in February of 1999, and the third, Dying for a Clue, came out in October. The fourth in the series, Dying to Remember, was released in August 2000. The fifth, Dying to Be Murdered, is scheduled to be out April of 2001.

She belongs to a weekly critique group that steadfastly denies any resemblance to the writers’ group that appears in her books. Fitzwater lives in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., with her husband, two daughters and their Norwich terrier.