Retirement? What Retirement?
Julien Ayotte 鈥�63, M.B.A. 鈥�69, has made a second career out of writing novels鈥攅ight in the last 10 years, in fact.
Julien Ayotte 鈥�63, M.B.A. 鈥�69, has heard lots of advice about how to write. He doesn鈥檛 listen.
鈥淭here are people who say, 鈥榊ou should write a page a day; that way you鈥檒l have a 365-page book done within a year,鈥欌�� he says. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a lot of crap. There are some days where I can鈥檛 pick up a word; I don鈥檛 know what to say. So, I say nothing. But there are other days when I write 15 or 20 pages.鈥�
This approach has served Ayotte well. Since 2013, he鈥檚 published eight books featuring mysterious circumstances that take characters from rural Rhode Island to the galleries of the Louvre or to a villa in Turks and Caicos. He writes his drafts by hand, compiling pages in three-ring binders before typing them and sending them to, as he calls them, his harshest critics鈥攈is wife, Pauline, and their three children. Depending on how you look at it, writing his first book took 10 years鈥攐r nearly 30.
The Woonsocket, R.I., native started the book that would become Flower of Heaven in 1986, during a relatively slow period in his career in legal administration and business education.
鈥淚 have no idea why I picked up a pad back then,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 just started writing a chapter here and a chapter there.鈥�
When he began a demanding job at a law firm in Providence, the pad went into a desk drawer. Ayotte focused on his career and family until his retirement in 2001.
He was cleaning out his desk, where he found a long-neglected handwritten draft; something stopped him from tossing it. He photocopied the pages and sent them to his oldest daughter.
Ayotte remembers, 鈥淚 asked her to take a look and tell me if it was worth pursuing or if I should just throw it away. She came back and told me, 鈥榊ou have to finish this!鈥欌��
It took more than a decade of research, revision, and more feedback from his wife and children for Ayotte to publish Flower of Heaven, a thriller featuring a Rhode Island priest, a Parisian gallerist, the twins born from their long-secret affair, and a worldwide cast of royalty and government agents.
Not long after, he heard from fans asking what was next. So, he began writing and publishing at a more rapid pace, starting with a sequel, Dangerous Bloodlines, followed by others in quick succession.
Code Name Lily, Ayotte鈥檚 only work of historical fiction, holds a special place for the author. The idea for the novel came to him when he read an obituary for Micheline Dumon-Ugeux, a Belgian nurse and member of the resistance during World War II. Along with other resistance members, Dumon-Ugeux, whose code name was Lily, helped hundreds of British and American airmen escape to Spain.
Ayotte, 81, became interested in Dumon-Ugeux partly because his mother was born in Belgium and was nicknamed Lily. He says the nurse and resistance member was his favorite character to write.
鈥淵ou can鈥檛 make up a story like that,鈥� he says. 鈥淭his is real. I was just in awe of her.鈥�
When Ayotte published Flower of Heaven in 2012, The Providence Journal鈥檚 Bill Reynolds wrote that the book was 鈥渁 fast-paced global thriller that would make a great movie.鈥� Could that be next for Ayotte?
Perhaps. Now, he is hard at work turning his novels into screenplays and uploading them to a site where industry professionals can review unproduced scripts. He鈥檚 had a lot of hits, and he鈥檚 feeling good about it. And, of course, ideas for his next book are percolating. But where that book will take readers, he can鈥檛 say. That鈥檚 just his process.
鈥淚 can鈥檛 tell you what I’m going to write tomorrow,鈥� says Ayotte. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 tell you until tomorrow night, when it鈥檚 done.鈥�
鈥擫auren Rebecca Thacker
For more about Ayotte and his books, visit
Photo: Nora Lewis
Thank you for sharing your experience writing novels as a second career. Very inspiring for my sister 溏心vlog免费B站 ’82 and I 溏心vlog免费B站 ’78. We are retired and recently discussed writing a novel about our Uncle Mason who was killed at the end of WW II in training as a Naval Air Cadet.