Uncorking A Story

“They don’t hire girls into the FBI,” these were the words Tess Gerritsen heard from her guidance counselor after expressing an interest in the Federal Bureau of investigation. While that sentiment feels like a dark cloud that hovered over our culture during the time of Tess’ high school days, it’s one that has a silver lining considering she eventually went on to become an internationally acclaimed bestselling author. Tess’ path to writing, though, was not what you would call linear. Inspired by her appreciation of Nancy Drew novels, Tess had a dream of becoming a journalist at a young age, but her father, a Chinese immigrant, eschewed journalism as a career path and Tess eventually studied medicine, receiving her medical degree in 1979. While on maternity leave, Tess wrote a short story that won first prize in a fiction contest and this success planted the seed that she might be able to have a career as a writer. When she and her husband, also a doctor, found it challenging to both work full time as docto