It's #RIAuthor Month! Meet Julien Ayotte

I write because I breathe.  As long as I can hold a pen in hand, I will come up with a new idea for the next mystery thriller, and I will develop the characters and the plot to satisfy my readers.I once was asked how it was that I did not yet have a literary agent and major publisher after three very successful novels, Flower of Heaven, the sequel Dangerous Bloodlines, and A Life Before.  One of my readers said in a review that I was still a closely-guarded secret about to be revealed.  So, this past spring, armed with my fourth novel, Disappearance, a suspense thriller about troubles in the witness protection program, I was determined to try literary agents again. And guess what? After hundreds of queries, I still do not have an agent, but I was so very close on two occasions. Major publishers, I was finally told, won’t take you on unless your novel is at least 85,000 words and, preferably, 100,000 words or more. My books are more like 70,000 words. So, in essence, literary agents would have much more difficulty in shopping my books to major publishers because of their size, not the quality of the writing or the unbelievable plot to the story…the freaking size!While my first three successful thrillers all have sold thousands of copies and carry great ratings and reviews on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, all of these sales were due to my own marketing efforts. Imagine if I had been in the Ingram distribution network of over 40,000 bookstores. A traditional publisher will do this for your books, while my CreateSpace Amazon publisher will not unless, by some stroke of luck, your eBook version goes viral one day.But, you know what. I will go on. I know my readers will thoroughly enjoy Disappearance, and I keep adding more readers with every novel. And you can bet that my next book will exceed 85,000 words, whatever story I come up with the next time around.If anyone had told me in 2013 that I would write four novels in just over four years, I would have laughed out loud. But that’s exactly what happened. At the young age of 75, soon to be 76 (December 5^th), my goal remains to write 10 books in the next 10 years.  And as long as people like Jon Land compare me to Harlan Coben and David Baldacci on the thriller scale, I am blessed beyond words.I write about what people hardly think about…a young priest who finds out thirty-five years later he is the father of twin sons, the French mother, turned queen of a Mid-Eastern country, who is determined to find her sons, a young college student who is the reincarnation of a woman murdered twenty years earlier, and a very troubled U.S. marshal who jeopardizes the lives of witnesses in the government protection system.What’s next?  I don’t have a clue, but then again, I didn’t have a clue for the first four thrillers either!My name is Julien Ayotte, and I am an author.

Award-winning author Julien Ayotte co-authored his first book, Wealth Building for Professionals, in 2001, drawing from his years of experience as a corporate executive and business teacher at the high school and college graduate levels. In addition, he spent nearly fourteen years in legal administration at two law firms. The author holds a BA, MBA, and a PhD, all in business and finance. Flower of Heaven was his debut novel in 2012, followed by the sequel, Dangerous Bloodlines, in 2014. His third novel, A Life Before, was released in March 2016. Ayotte lives in Rhode Island with his wife, Pauline. They have three children. Visit the author's website here.

GIVEAWAY! The author is offering a print copy of his latest book, Disappearance, to one lucky winner. All you have to do is comment on this blog post. Winner will be chosen at random and the author will contact you directly. Contest ends one week after publication. US residents only, please.Meet over 100 local authors on Saturday, December 2! The Fifth Annual RI Authors Expo