Many calls for help focus solely on what the requester needs. These two go beyond in different ways. I found them refreshing, and I’ve supported both.

Buy an e-book to help author Eugie Foster with cancer treatment

When she faced cancer treatment, Eugie Foster didn’t request outright donations. Instead, she asked people to buy one of her e-books.

“The Storyteller’s Wife”, a stand-alone short story, cost 99 cents, and I highly recommend it. I’m also enjoying the stories in the anthology Returning my Sister’s Face and Other Far Eastern Tales of Whimsy and Malice. Ms. Foster has one other anthology and many other stand-alone short stories.

John Joseph Adams promotes a cat shelter along with Kickstories

John Joseph Adams is running a Kickstarter to fund his anthology HELP FUND MY ROBOT ARMY!!! & Other Improbable Kickstarters. The anthology consists of sci-fi and fantasy stories told in the form of Kickstarter pitches. Let’s call them “Kickstories.” (Yes, I made that up.) You can read the first Kickstory, “HELP FUND MY ROBOT ARMY!!!” for free online in Lightspeed.

The intro screen for the Kickstarter video perplexed me, with its slogan-in-a-bubble of “Watch Our Video: It’s Full of Cats!” I wondered whether the other Kickstories would be about cats. When I obeyed the slogan, I found that the felines had nothing to do with the anthology.

Mr. Adams opted for “Shameless Catsploitation” (his words). While he talks about the project, you can watch cats playing with toys, pouncing on each other, and nuzzling human hands. He explains that all the cats in the video (save one, his own, at the end) are available for adoption at his local shelter. He encourages local residents to consider adopting one of them, and he gives the URL of the shelter in the video. His own cat is clearly labeled as such with on-screen text.

I loved the idea of Kickstories and the first Kickstory itself. I would have backed the project anyway, but I did enjoy the Shameless Catsploitation.