Good morning, Delilah, and thanks for having me over on this hot August day. It’s really cool and lovely to spend some time with you and your readers. When I was growing up, I didn’t like August very much. Hot and sultry as it always is here in New York, it meant that summer was winding down and it would soon be time to pack away the swimsuit, shelve those books I loved reading beneath a tree, and get back to the business of school and homework. Even when school was long behind me, the August gloomies lingered.
Then I decided it was time to grow up and shed those gloomies for good. My mother had always said that there was no such thing as a bad day, week, or month. All of them were presents, and it was up to us to make something good of them. So I decided to find out something good about August. How does an author do that? Research, of course!
So, welcome to Admit You’re Happy Month! Isn’t it great to have a month that urges us to sit back, take stock, and think about all the things we have in our lives to make us happy? August is also Family Fun Month, and, certainly, my family is highest on the list of blessings that brighten my days. Thank you, August, for reminding me of that.
August also won’t let us forget to keep admitting we’re happy. Every week is upbeat. Last week was National Simplify Your Life Week. That’s pretty difficult for me to do, with a family to take care of and a new book just out. I may have to save it for next year. This week, though, is National Smile Week. It’s good to remember when life gets a little overwhelming that we still have much to smile about, and so many people in our lives, and even strangers, who deserve our smiles. Next week is Friendship Week—a good time to remember how much our friends mean to us and how they have always been at our side through both good and difficult times. The last week of the month is Be Kind to Humankind Week. If we all celebrated that one, our world would certainly be a better, more peaceful place.
August is packed with important days in history. Some of them sad, but others are events that made our world a better place: On August 1, 1774, Joseph Priestly discovered oxygen. On August 3, 1492, Columbus set sail from Spain. The sixth of August marks the birth of Alexander Flemming, who discovered penicillin. August 14, 1945, is the day World War II ended. On August 22 in 565, the Loch Ness monster was spotted for the first time. Old Nessy is said to still keep making appearances, though not only in August.
One of my favorite dates is August 18, 1920, when the Nineteenth Amendment of our Constitution, giving women the right to vote, was ratified. Lucy Stone, who fought so hard to win that right for us was born on August 13, 1818.
August also saw the birth of many famous people. Here are just a few: Herman Melville, P.D. James, Louis Armstrong, Lucille Ball, Neil Armstrong, John Dryden, Cecil B. DeMille, Davy Crockett, Mae West, Alfred Hitchcock, Coco Chanel, Orville Wright, Mother Teresa, Claude Debussy, Dorothy Parker, Michael Jackson, Charlie Parker, and Mary Shelley.
So, happy August, everyone—and happy August 8, which is International Cat Day, as well as Happiness Happens Day. I’m now such an admirer of the month that it opens my new mystery, SECRET AGENDA: Who’s Castrating the Wolves of Wall Street? The villain’s first strike is on a moonless night in August….
Secret Agenda: Who’s Castrating
the Wolves of Wall Street?
They are the most powerful men in America: billionaires born to privilege and linked by their membership in the nation’s most elite fraternity. They have always snatched what they want. From the halls of their ivy-league college to the counting houses of Wall Street, nothing has ever stopped them from reaching their nefarious goals. But as they gear up for their biggest takeover of all—the presidency of the United States—they discover to their horror that someone else has a secret agenda too. One by one, they are being castrated by an unknown attacker….
SECRET AGENDA—a riveting mystery of political ambition set in the glittering heights of New York society and darkest depths of Wall Street depravity!
Buy links:
Amazon paperback | Amazon Kindle | Barnes & Noble paperback | Nook | Apple iBooks | Kobo | Smashwords
About the Author
Until she left to pursue her own writing, Barbara Brett was both a magazine editor and book editor and publisher. Besides Secret Agenda, she is the author of Sizzle, Between Two Eternities, Love After Hours, and, with her husband, Hy Brett, the critically acclaimed mystery, Promises to Keep. You can find out more about Barbara and her books on her website: www.brettbooks.com. And you can keep up with her news and her views on writing, reading, and life by following her on her Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/BarbaraBrettAuthor.
