David Sachs's Blog, page 5
May 12, 2016
The Flood: Finalist for Indie Thriller of the Year
I am late with this announcement, but very proud to make it: My debut novel The Flood has been named a finalist in the thriller category for Foreword Review’s annual IndieFab book awards.
https://indiefab.forewordreviews.com/finalists/2015/
From their press release (I’ll place another contests review below):
Each year,Foreword Reviewsshines a light on a select group of indie publishers, university presses, and self-published authors whose work stands out from the crowd. In the next three mon...
May 4, 2016
A Few Books I’ve Loved (2003-2011)
I’m a great lover.
Of books.
I just discovered an historic document! A list of all the books I’d read from 2003 to the beginning of 2011. I began keeping the list because I thought it would pressure me to read more. It wound up just being fun, especially looking back and remembering. I’d rated them, too. I don’t really know why, its just one of those OCD-type things I would insist on being strict about.
Finding it now reminded me of why I found it fun. Reading the titlesI ratedhighest was a t...
January 29, 2016
New article: My National Post op-ed on the stabbing intifada and the myth of ‘proportionate response’
My new op-ed in the National Post on the much ignoredStabbing Intifada and how it demonstrates the absurdity of using death toll ratios tocondemn Israel.
Nut sentence:
When a society worships death, honours suicide attackers and forces civilians to serve as human shields, they are going to have a high death count.
A couple of things I left out of the article for space considerations included referencing two excellent sources for information on the ‘dialogue’ that actually goes on in the Pal...
January 27, 2016
Support a medical mission in Tanzania
My man Joseph and me, at Kilema Hospital, Tanzania (2007?)
I’ll be volunteering in support of a medical mission to rural Tanzania in February. The mission is organized byCanada-Africa Community Health Alliance (CACHA-ASCCA), a very grassroots Ottawa NGO that has been doing great work abroad for more than a decade. (For those worrying I’ll do more harm than good, I won’t actually be doing medical work personally.)
If anyone is interested in donating to support the mission, as well as the long...
November 10, 2015
Infinite Jest and The Birth of Tragedy: Art as mover of man
C Am
I’ve heard there was a secret chord
C Am
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
F G C G
But you don’t really care for music, do you?
-Leonard Cohen, Hallelujah
By a happy coincidence, I was re-reading Infinite Jest and The Birth of Tragedy at the same time.
Each are brilliant books. Nobody writes like Nietzsche, and nobody writes like David Foster Wallace. Each writer grab...
October 29, 2015
FREE Ebook Promotion For The Flood
My 4-star, #1 bestselling thriller novel The Flood is on sale FREE Oct 29-31. Tell your friends. Tell your enemies! Tell your frenemies and baristas! Click on the image to get FREE on Amazon.
The post FREE Ebook Promotion For The Flood appeared first on David Sachs.
September 4, 2015
New Op-Ed: The Victims of Communism and Us
Pol Pot, leader of the communist Khmer Rouge: Approximately one quarter of Cambodia’s population were killed, worked to death or starved during his four-year rule.
My new op-ed in our excellentlocal small town paper, The Low Down to Hull and Back News.
This was not meant as a defence specifically of the planned memorial to the victims of communism in Ottawa, but to explain why, more fundamentally, we should respect and understand this theme of 20th century history.
In-situ here:
August 18, 2015
Random Acts of Music (The Newly Recorded Art of Stranger-Jams) [Part I]
I have a new passion, as of yesterday. I’ve been gorging on a very niche form of music: jamming between strangers. I didn’t just discover this yesterday. I’ve been participating in it for over twenty years, but I just discovered the YOUTUBE videos. That’s the thing about random jamming with strangers: they’re unplanned. There’s little recording of this, unless you happen to be, say James Brown, Prince, BB King and Michael Jackson. (OK, they weren’t strangers, but just enjoy the damn video).
S...
July 31, 2015
Whitewater Canoeing and the Soul, and the Dumoine River
On the river, you hear the danger before you see it . That loud white noise, the sound of a thousand toilets flushing; a buzzing in your brain so similar to the one before the trip, when you wondered if just maybe this was a bad idea.
You come around a bend and see the white froth on the horizon line of the river. Maybe this was a bad idea. You stand in the back of the canoe for a better view, discuss with your partner a route through the long, rocky, droppy, turbulent mess – hidden boulders...
Whitewater Canoeing and the Soul
On the river, you hear the danger before you see it . That loud white noise, the sound of a thousand toilets flushing, a buzzing in your brain so similar to the one before the trip, when you wondered if just maybe this was a bad idea.
You come around a bend and see the white froth on the horizon line of the river. Maybe this was a bad idea. You stand in the back of the canoe for a better view, discuss with your partner a route through the long, rocky, droppy, turbulent mess – hidden boulders...
