About August Greenleaf’s Last 7,000 Days
8:30 a.m., Tuesday, January 25, 2033:
“The following pages tell a true story; I know because it’s my story. As I sit comfortably at my desk, here in my den, I share with you, my reader, the knowledge that I will die this afternoon. I am as sure of this elemental fact as the eagle is that he can fly or the fish that he can swim. Flanders Cremation Service has already been notified, and by Saturday at this time—if my wishes are carried out properly—I will be ashes. From then on, in this world, August Nathaniel Greenleaf will be just a memory. I can only hope that those whom I’ve loved will remember me with fondness, and perhaps a little forgiveness. Lord knows I have not always been easy to live with.”
So begins the chronicle of August Greenleaf—a bright, restless boy burdened by the quiet conviction that something extraordinary is destined to happen to him, long before he understands what "extraordinary" even means. Like all of us, August’s story begins with his birth—though unlike most, he remembers his in vivid, almost cinematic detail. From an early age, he also fixates on a grand white Victorian house nestled in the overgrowth near Jamaica Bay’s southern edge in Queens, New York. It stands plainly in view from his family's seventh-floor apartment window—yet no one else can see it. This eerie contradiction haunts him, feeding his anxieties and deepening his fear that his so-called gifts may actually be signs of something far stranger.
August Greenleaf’s Last 7,000 Days is a poignant and imaginative coming-of-age tale that traces the emotional journey of a boy growing into a young man in a world that doesn’t quite make space for him. With moments of wit, heartbreak, and wonder, the novel explores how August navigates love, grief, and a profound connection to the unseen—ultimately discovering that his memories, and the mysterious house across the bay, may hold the key to who he truly is.
“Some books stay with you long after you turn the last page, and August Greenleaf’s Last 7,000 Days is one of them. A poignant, deeply reflective memoir…”
Vincent Genna, MSW, psychic therapist, medium,
master spiritual teacher, and bestselling author
Meet the Authors
Stuart Greenblatt was born in Brooklyn and raised in Queens, the two New York boroughs he writes about in his first novel, August Greenleaf’s Last 7,000 Days. At the age of fifteen, he moved to Connecticut with his mother, Ella, and older brother, Larry. His father remained in Queens, and not long afterward, he and Ella divorced.
Stuart graduated from West Haven (Connecticut) High School, and after a series of dead-end jobs, he began his thirty-five-year career as a driver for UPS. The concept for this novel came to him early in his career—following a particularly memorable delivery—and he began filling notebooks with ideas for his story.
Shortly before retiring from UPS, Stuart began to suffer from recurring episodes of a debilitating depression, which led to him being hospitalized for several weeks. He credits his daughter, Sarah (a clinical social worker at the time), and the staff at Silver Hill Hospital in New Canaan, Connecticut, for helping him through that difficult period in his life.
In March 2020, Stuart finally sat down to write his novel. Later that year, he teamed up with coauthor David Connell, a dog park buddy, and the two began a collaboration, with Stuart providing the narrative arc and most of the content, and David working to bring Stuart’s vision to life. Stuart now enjoys retirement with his wife, Debbie, their eight-year-old Jack Russell terrier mix, Bowie, and their many friends in the shoreline town of Branford, Connecticut.
David Connell was born in Massachusetts three years before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and celebrated V-J Day three weeks before entering the second grade. He attended public schools, graduating from Natick High School in 1956. He enrolled at Colgate University, where he majored in philosophy and football, and graduated in 1960 with a BA but without distinction. As a hedge against a career in sales, he joined the US Marine Corps’ officer training program, and upon graduation, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant.
In 1963, following his release from active duty, he entered the Pratt Institute School of Architecture in Brooklyn, where he earned his BArch in 1968. Married by then with two children, he moved to Connecticut to work with Warren Platner, a well-known interior architect and furniture designer. After over fifty years in the practice, he retired from architecture in 2020 to pursue other interests. These have included teaching himself the elements of poetry, writing doggerel that purports to be poetry (unpublished), and analyzing the work of other poets, mostly modernists (also unpublished).
Mr. Connell has three grown children and four grandchildren; he enjoys choral music and sings tenor with a local soprano, alto, tenor, and bass (SATB) group. A widower, he lives alone with his current dog, Alfred, on the Connecticut shoreline, east of New Haven, from where he can see Long Island.
August Greenleaf’s Last 7,000 Days, coauthored with Stuart Greenblatt, is his first novel.
Praise for August Greenleaf’s Last 7,000 Days
"Greenblatt and Connell offer a fictional memoir chronicling a man’s extraordinary life grappling with his uncanny abilities... August is a lovable, fully realized character, and his family and friends are just as vividly drawn, making for an eventful life story."
Kirkus Reviews
“August Greenleaf’s Last 7,000 Days is lively, funny, nostalgic, and loaded with snappy dialogue.”
Randall Beach, columnist and reporter for the New Haven Register, coauthor of The Legendary Toad’s Place: Stories from New Haven’s Famed Music Venue, and author of Connecticut Characters: Profiles of Rascals and Renegades
“This story will leave you with a sense of hope—hope that is richer, deeper, and more enduring than you ever thought possible.”
Charles F. Glassman, MD, FACP, CoachMD™, author of the critically acclaimed Brain Drain
“Some books stay with you long after you turn the last page, and August Greenleaf’s Last 7,000 Days is one of them. A poignant, deeply reflective memoir…”
Vincent Genna, MSW, psychic therapist, medium, master spiritual teacher, and bestselling author