Fun With Crowdfunding

Fearful Symmetries: Renowned, multiple-award-winning horror/sci-fi editor Ellen Datlow has teamed up with ChiZine to produce a new anthology of short horror fiction titled Fearful Symmetries. She has turned to Kickstarter to not only help fund the project, but as a method of soliciting new work from emerging writers. If you donate $100 or more, you “bypass the ChiZine slush pile” and your manuscript goes to the top of their submissions pile. $200 gets you an hour and a half of ChiZine co-publisher Brett Savory’s time, where he’ll answer questions about writing, indie publishing and the like. For $750, Joe R. Lansdale will write your name as a character in his Fearful Symmetries story. You can also get original signed manuscripts from the anthology’s authors, an original Dark Tower pencil sketch and loads of other e-books and signed goodies. Many of these clever perks are being snapped up like finger sandwiches at a zombie buffet (yeah I know, GROAN), so you might want to delve into the project’s website sooner rather than later.

PLUS—there will be an open reading period for remaining slots in the anthology, which most editors do basically never. Keep an eye on the ChiZine Facebook page for info.

The Jews of Ghana: Toronotonian filmmaker Gabrielle Zilkha is planning a unique and unusual excursion to Ghana, West Africa to research and film a documentary about that country’s Jewish community, the Sefwis, who have been practicing Judaism for over 20 years. Ghana is largely a Christian and Muslim country so this community would have been operating in opposition to many of the prevailing belief systems in the country. Zilkha is running a Kickstarter campaign to offset some of the costs of the film, and some of the perks are lovely and very meaningful to the spirit of the film — for example, $350 gets you a handmade kente yamaka made by a member of the Sefwi community, while $500 will ensure that you can contribute a handwritten prayer note that will be inserted into the Western Wall in Israel. Learn more about this intriguing project.

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