Maggie Leffler

I grew up in Columbia, Maryland, a middle child in a large family. My parents were doctors, my grandmother was a novelist, and as far back as I can remember, I planned on doing both. I was always writing: in elementary school, a collection (illustrated by my older sister) called "The Big Five Stories," about mystery-solving siblings reminiscent of THE HAPPY HOLLISTERS; in middle school, a summer camp novella filling four composition books a la Harriet the Spy; in the summer before ninth grade, my first feature length screenplay. After helping my high school cross country team win a three-year dynasty of state championship titles (Go Raiders!), I left for University of Delaware, where I became a Wilmington Trust Scholar Athlete, a North Atlantic Conference team champion, a cross country and track team captain, an English major, a biology minor, and a cum laude graduate. Waiting for an acceptance to medical school, which didn’t come for another year and a half, I worked at various odd--and sometimes terrible--jobs after graduation. At the same time, I finished my first, bad novel. Then, in the winter of 1996, I traveled to the island of Grenada to start at St. George’s University School of Medicine, where life both stood still for a while and got infinitely more interesting. For two years, I studied medicine, revised my old manuscript and then conceived of a new novel, including all of its quirky characters, which eventually became THE DIAGNOSIS OF LOVE. In my third year of medical school, when it came time to start my clinical rotations, I chose to go to England: first to a hospital in the town of Aylesbury and then later to a hospital in Winchester. Returning to the States for my fourth year, my mother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and the arc of my novel, as well as my life, changed dramatically. The journey of the Roxanne character was largely inspired by time that I spent with my mom when she was sick. I graduated from St. George’s in 2000, moved to Pittsburgh, met my husband on the first day of internship, got married a year later, finished residency and became a board certified family practitioner in 2003, became a mom in 2005--the same year Bantam Books bought DIAGNOSIS--became a real doctor and rewrote this novel, from start to finish, seven times in seven years. In 2008, my second son was born while I was finishing my second novel, THE GOODBYE COUSINS. -- Maggie Leffler