Kickstarter Appeal: Weinberg Wants 'Panophobia'

Scott E. Weinberg is many things: Film fanatic, manic Tweeter, cat lover, Best of Austin winner. Now he's trying to make the jump into fiction writing, and he's opened up a Kickstarter campaign to help him find the time and the cash to concentrate on a horror anthology.

A freelance writer for a host of movie sites, including FEARnet and GeekNation, Weinberg is working on a collection of 15 short stories, entitled Panophobia: A Fear of Everything Vol. 1, and has launched a Kickstarter appeal to help pay for the project.

Weinberg is honest about why he needs the money: He has a bad case of Peniaphobia (the fear of poverty.) "The hard part about being a freelancer is that you always could be working," he writes (and trust us, we know how that goes. "Every time I try to get rolling on this book idea I get stressed out because I could be spending that time writing something that pays me money." The $5,000 he's looking for buys him time away from his regular freelancing gigs and will allow him to work on his book. The backers will become old-style patrons of the arts, "who will allow me to focus solely on writing," Weinberg explained. "Plus there's also the psychological hook of motivation; if people support me writing this thing, then I'll feel beholden to actually do it."

The appeal comes with all the regular Kickstarter-style perks, from thanks to copies of the finished project. However, regular followers of Weinberg on Twitter will know of the antics of his cat Jones. For $500, you can get a photo of Jonesy doing whatever you want (SFW only), plus a character will be named after you.

He's getting pretty close (at time of writing he's at $4,721 and holding) but anything over the $5K at least gets him a better quality of ramen. If you're interested in donating, head over to his Kickstarter page now.