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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nJulien Ayotte \u201963, M.B.A. \u201969, has heard lots of advice about how to write. He doesn\u2019t listen. 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. 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\u2019s had a lot of hits, and he\u2019s feeling good about it. And, of course, ideas for his next book are percolating. But where that book will take readers, he can\u2019t say. That\u2019s just his process.
\u201cThere are people who say, \u2018You should write a page a day; that way you\u2019ll have a 365-page book done within a year,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s a lot of crap. There are some days where I can\u2019t pick up a word; I don\u2019t know what to say. So, I say nothing. But there are other days when I write 15 or 20 pages.\u201d
This approach has served Ayotte well. Since 2013, he\u2019s 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\u2014his wife, Pauline, and their three children. Depending on how you look at it, writing his first book took 10 years\u2014or nearly 30.
The Woonsocket, R.I., native started the book that would become Flower of Heaven<\/em> in 1986, during a relatively slow period in his career in legal administration and business education.
\u201cI have no idea why I picked up a pad back then,\u201d he says. \u201cI just started writing a chapter here and a chapter there.\u201d
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ayotte remembers, \u201cI 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, \u2018You have to finish this!\u2019\u201d
It took more than a decade of research, revision, and more feedback from his wife and children for Ayotte to publish Flower of Heaven<\/em>, 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<\/em>, followed by others in quick succession.
Code Name Lily<\/em>, Ayotte\u2019s 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.
\u201cYou can\u2019t make up a story like that,\u201d he says. \u201cThis is real. I was just in awe of her.\u201d
When Ayotte published Flower of Heaven<\/em> in 2012, The Providence Journal\u2019s<\/em> Bill Reynolds wrote that the book was \u201ca fast-paced global thriller that would make a great movie.\u201d Could that be next for Ayotte?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI can\u2019t tell you what I’m going to write tomorrow,\u201d says Ayotte. \u201cI can\u2019t tell you until tomorrow night, when it\u2019s done.\u201d
\u2014Lauren Rebecca Thacker<\/em>
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