After more than twenty years of being one; Rodolfo (Rodo) still insists he never intended to be a one. On the contrary, during his early teenage years, he dreamt of becoming a musician, screenwriter, or maybe a film director.
It was late in high school, while performing community service (a school requirement, not a punishment, some other community service was indeed punishment; it was a strict Catholic high school) that he was exposed to the medical field. Assigned to help a resident doctor perform his tasks at a local hospital, Rodo unexpectedly felt great satisfaction from helping others.
Making an uncharacteristically mature decision for a teenager, Rodo accepted the challenge, moving ahead after high school and spending the next twelve years between college, medical school, and residency.
Despite having a great professional life and a fantastic family, he felt an urge to do something different, to create. So, in 2015, after a particularly interesting 2014, he decided to sit down to write.
It was not until 2018 that he publish his first work, Departure Point, a niche piece. It’s a story he is quite proud of, despite the fact that he concedes that it was plagued with far too many mistakes upon first publication.
Nevertheless, writing and publishing was a rewarding learning experience involving hard lessons learned, helping him realize how little he knew and still had to learn about writing and publishing. This knowledge, or rather lack thereof, helped him approach the writing of his second book, Chasing Rabbits. Not only did it give him newfound determination, it also allowed him to better navigate the road, or at least avoid the previous pitfalls.
Chasing Rabbits was published in March 2020, and despite the challenges 2020 brought forth, it has received great reviews. Today, Rodo continues to write and get the word out on his works when time permits it. Publishing a set of short stories unimaginatively titled Six Short Stories on late 2021, and finally published Surviving Jane, on March 2024.
When away from the word processor, he spends his professional time between his private practice and a part-time medical school teaching appointment. He cherishes the time he gets to spend with his wife and daughters, as well as the dog he emphatically asked them not to get! Funny enough the dog is sleeping on his lap as he writes this. Every so often, he steals time to pursue his writing, and what his wife believes are very unhealthy obsessions with electric guitars and old Land Rover Defenders!

““This presentation of childhood—“innocent to the world and in the presence of magic”—is as insightful as it is heartbreaking.””
– Kirkus Reviews