A quick script to convert you markdown files to LaTeX files, without using (too many) extra latex packages. The main advantage over Pandoc and other conversion tools is how lightweight this script is (Pandoc makes package-heavy xetex files).
python mdtotex.py -p package1,package2 -a "Firstname Lastname" -l language --nomargin path/to/markdownfile.md
The packages and author parameters are optional, and will add usepackage and author commands in the file. Parameters in package inclusion aren't supported yet, though if that's what you need then you're probably better off writing .tex files directly.
You can also specify parameters later in the file for some packages (e.g. \geometry{...}).
The --nomargin option uses the geometry package to thin the (huge) default latex margins, which is more in tune with what markdown is used for.
The -l option specifies a language to be used with babel (which must therefore be installed for LaTeX).
It also enables the T1 font encoding so that any accents are properly managed.
If the first line is a # Title, it will be used to make a document title (\maketitle) along with the author parameter if it was passed. Therefore, the author parameter is only used if you include a title.
It will output a file of the same name in the same directory but with the .tex extension. You will have to build the pdf yourself with pdflatex for instance.
The nomargin and -l options require geometry and babel packages.