Welcome to the 2024 ARIA Author Showcase and Giveaway Event! 

  

  

How to enter – Comment on the daily showcases to enter the daily giveaway. Comments close four days after the initial Showcase post. GRAND PRIZE drawn on Dec 5th (1 -$250, 1 -$100, or a 1 -$50 Amazon gift card. One grand prize pp) – For every showcase you post on, you automatically gain one entry to the grand prize. 30 Authors = 30 entries.    

Julien Ayotte will be at the Rhode Island Author Expo.

On to the Showcase! 

 

What name do you like to write under? Julien Ayotte

Where do you call home? Lincoln, RI

What genre(s) do you write? Women’s fiction, literary fiction

What genre(s) were you drawn to when you were younger? Was there a reason that genre(s) appealed to you the most? 

I've always loved a good mystery and writing one seemed to be a natural.

What were some of your favorite books growing up? Why?  

To Kill A Mockingbird, The Great Escape, Gone With The Wind,

What are some of your favorite books today?

Most David Baldacci books or John Grisham books such as The Firm, The Pelican Brief, A Time to Kill

What inspired you to become a writer? 

This came out of nowhere.  I just started to write several chapters of what eventually became my first novel, Flower of Heaven, never expecting it to be such a success.  The readers' enthusiasm caused subsequent books when they insisted on more or the same.

 

Missing in Molokai: A Harry Esten Mystery

In 1995, an Air Force test pilot's Osprey tiltrotor helicopter is sabotaged and crashes in the pacific Ocean.  The co-pilot's body is found in the partly subnerged plane, but the pilot is nowhere to be found.  An extensive air search finds no one, and the pilot is presumed to be lost at sea.  A local fisherman off the coast of Molokai, Hawaii, rescues an unconscious survivor on a raft weeks later, barely holding onto his life.  When he is revived in a Molokai hospital nearly a month later, he suffers from total amnesia, and has no identification on him.  For the next twenty-nine years, he lives alone on molokai, still suffering from memory loss and surviving on seasonal farm work and occasional runs as a tour guide on the island.  he is known simply as Whitey.  A random photo of him in the background of a tourist's shot at a lookout point on Molokai, where the cliffs descend to an old leper colony below, taises the curiosity of an older brother, a retired physician from Rochester, New York.  The resemblance is uncanny and leads Harry Esten, a classmate of the brother of the missing pilot, and a retired FBI agent, on a search to find the elusive Whitey.  An estranged wife, a loving older brother, a greedy military contractor, an immoral aircraft mechanic, and a talented psychotherapist all become a part of Whitey's world in 2024.  Follow Harry Esten and his wife, Laura, on this intriguing journey of murder, sabotage, heartaches, and evasive memories, as they go overboard to help an old classmate on his quest, and bring those responsible to justice.  Another Harry Esten mystery thriller you won't want to miss!.

 

Tell us a little about how “Missing in Molokai: A Harry Esten Mystery” came to be. Did it start with an image, a voice, a concept, a dilemma or something else? 

Missing in Molokai, the book title, began with an image of the Osprey and all its malfunctions over the years.

Which scene, character or plotline changed the most from first draft to published book? 

The introduction to the world of therapeutic hypnosis on Whitey was a game changer in attempts to get his memory back after nearly 30 years.

Which character was the most challenging to create. Why? 

Whitey was a man with no memory before 1995 when the crash occurred.  Imagine living with no recollection whatsoever of your life before the crash, or even the crash itself.

What do you like best about being a writer? 

Having readers tell me how much they enjoyed my book(s) or asking me when the next book will be out. I am told my many that I have been blessed with a gift for writing. Not a bad compliment to a guy who has a PHD in Finance.

If you could collaborate with any author past or present, who would it be? What would the title of the book be? (If possible) - Give us a one sentence blurb.  

James Patterson.  Every author who has co-authored a book with him has gone on to fame and fortune.

 

You can follow Julien Ayotte here - 

Website - https://www.julienayotte.com 

Facebook -www.facebook.com/julien.ayotte.3 

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/marthareynoldswrites/ REMOVE

Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/julien-ayotte-98573b8 

 

Julien Ayotte is giving away a copy of Missing in Molokai: A Harry Esten Mystery.

 

To enter, comment below →  If granted a month to escape the ordinary to rest, recharge and read, which earthly destination would you set your sights on?

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