Sam Jones‘ family found out last month that the Michigan preschooler was suffering from a type of brain cancer called pontine glioma that’s inoperable and, based on current treatment paradigms, is only treatable by chemotherapy to a limited extent. He qualified to take part in an experimental study at the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, but relocating the family for the two-month program has taken its toll. Sam’s mom is a close friend of the wife of Subterranean Press head William Schafer, and he came up with a fundraising idea: an online sale of all current Subterranean titles* where the 25% discount you receive will be matched by a donation to Sam’s family. The sale began yesterday and continues today, and if you’d like to help, but you’re thinking to yourself, “Well, but I don’t like science-fiction,” I could recommend Poppy Z. Brite‘s The Value of X, the prequel to her popular series of novels about the New Orleans restaurant world, but maybe you could dip into the fantastic with the flat-earth tale Missile Gap by Charles Stross, or the Tim Powers novella A Soul in a Bottle? For those who already love the genre, well, you’ve got treats in store.
*UPDATE: Subterranean took down the link with Sam’s story promptly at midnight; otherwise, as Schafer explained, they’d be dealing with people looking for an extension on that discount for the next few weeks. But they did raise more than $4,000 through the two-day venture, and decided to add their own contribution for an even $5K.