CRISTINA LEPORT GOES ROGUE

by | Feb 3, 2025 | Extraordinary Guest Bloggers | 4 comments

K.J. Howe: Medicine and mayhem—a fabulous combination for a thriller, and Dr. Cristina LePort delivers on both fronts. Cristina, welcome to Rogue Women Writers.

By Cristina LePort

Growing up in Italy, I never liked school writing assignments. When I came to the USA right after medical school to do my internship and residency in Internal Medicine, I barely spoke English and never would have imagined that I would someday become an author. I’d practiced Internal Medicine for 17 years when I realized I needed something new. One day while attempting to get into a Cardiology fellowship, I came across the book The Art of Fiction by Ayn Rand. I was fascinated by the idea of entering a world of my choice, where I created characters I wanted to meet and make anything happen. I decided to try writing a novel. That’s why I started writing fiction. The world of my literary choice was the same one I had inhabited and loved for 20-plus years: the medical world. I never had any questions or doubts about my genre: I would be a writer of medical thrillers. 

The medical world is an ideal backdrop for thrillers. It is bursting with life or death emergencies, mystery, and the pressure of time. Several of the qualities that define a good doctor overlap with what makes a successful author, such as the ability to “read” people, the ability to do meticulous work, especially when confronting high-stakes situations, the ability to thoroughly investigate unusual medical situations, and the ability to integrate many clues into a meaningful sum. No doubt, medicine and sleuthing have a lot in common: collecting evidence until the answer is found. 

So, about 20 years ago, I wrote my first novel. At first, I considered writing to be merely a hobby, but soon it became a passion. With the help of a writing coach and a few editors, I spent years developing and improving my writing skills. After several hard years and several unpublished novels, I managed to acquire an agent and a publisher, and my first medical thriller, Dissection, was published on October 20, 2022, by Bancroft Press, one of the nation’s top independent book publishers.    

LePort’s newest thriller launches Feb 4, 2025.

My novels don’t merely thrill—they illuminate the fascinating intersection of science and suspense. I love writing about technologies at the fringe of reality. Because I have lived many of the medical scenarios that serve as background to my novels, I can easily write about them in a way that makes readers feel that they’re right there, side by side with my fictional characters.

When my publisher accepted three more of my novels for publication, I was over the moon. After my retirement from medicine, I had found a purpose I could be passionate about, a way to keep my medical interest alive and my mind active. Something I could do—if my mind indeed remained intact—for the rest of my life.  

I loved my job as a cardiologist and I adored my patients, but I had started seriously thinking about retirement a few years ago, the day I received a cancer diagnosis. Despite my excellent prognosis, I had to accept the fact that I was mortal and that there were many more things I wanted to do with the rest of my life, especially writing novels.

On my last day as a practicing physician, as I passed my baton to my newly acquired partner and left my office for the final time, I suddenly felt something dissolving in my chest, something that I had carried for all forty-five years of my medical career. It had been so much a part of me that I was unaware of its presence: the tension that comes from being responsible for human beings’ lives. My patients trusted me with their lives and counted on me to help restore and maintain their health, often for decades. Through the years, my most important reward was their gratitude. Leaving them was one of the hardest things I ever had to do. 

Now, as a full-time author of medical thrillers, I’m experiencing the fun part of the medical world. I no longer carry with me the heavy, day-to-day responsibility of life or death, but I do have the wonderful opportunity to write about it in my novels.

Originally from Bologna, Italy, Dr. Cristina LePort moved state side after her education to complete her training. She is board certified in Internal Medicine and Cardiovascular Diseases, and has been practicing medicine for more than thirty years. In addition to her other accomplishments, Cristina is the Chief Medical Officer and co-founder of Genescient, a biotech company devoted to genetic research on aging and the amelioration of chronic diseases. Medicine and fiction are her twin passions, and she is absolutely thrilled to be able to share her medical thrillers with the world.

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4 Comments

  1. Karna Small Bodman

    Welcome, Cristina – great to have you here as our guest blogger! And it was fascinating to read about your journey to become a bestselling thriller writer. I too loved Ayn Rand’s books, and I can see how they could inspire you to become an author. Thanks for a great article!

    Reply
  2. Lisa Black

    What an amazing life story! I can’t imagine writing books in an adopted language. I”ve always believed that if I became a doctor (I have a lot of family in the medical profession)I would definitely be a cardiologist. But being responsible for someone’s life and health—couldn’t do that. I prefer my work with inanimate objects and deceased victims.

    Reply
  3. Emily Cheang

    I think sometimes some incidents in our life that would guide us to different destinations, and that’s our destiny.

    Reply
  4. Chris Goff

    I love medical thrillers! And after years of reading them I’ve come to believe, this is one genre that requires a real background in the medical field. Can’t wait to read your new book!

    Reply
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