Crowdfunding campaign - "She Walks in Shadows" edited by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Just a week ago I was talking about crowdfunding projects and the very few such campaigns that held my interest when another very attractive one sprang forth. “She Walks in Shadows” is an anthology project edited by Silvia Moreno-Garcia that has a new and extremely interesting approach to a theme that lately is very often seen among such collections of short stories, Lovecraftian fiction, this time around the Lovecraftian motif of the anthology is tackled by an all-woman line-up. Now, I love H.P. Lovecraft’s fiction and I enjoy this series of anthologies dedicated to new Lovecraftian fiction, but this sole reason would not have been enough for this crowdfunding project to capture my attention, not even with the guarantee offered by my previous experience with Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s editorial work, Innsmouth Magazine, “Historical Lovecraft” and “Fungi”. But the promise of an all-woman Lovecraftian anthology, topped with a few of my favorite nowadays writers being already on board for this project, was the decisive aspect for my wish to see this campaign successfully funded. Started by one question, “Do girls just not like to play with squids?”, and followed by a series of discussions on social networks about Lovecraftian fiction and women the idea of “She Walks in Shadows” is not only to offer a positive answer to that particular question, but also to highlight and give a new life to the women characters of Lovecraft’s stories. There are more than 15 writers stepping up to the challenge, among them, as I’ve already said, some of my favorites, Angela Slatter, Gemma Files, Molly Tanzer, E. Catherine Tobler or Benjanun Sriduangkaew (who enchanted me recently with stories such as “Silent Bridge, Pale Cascade”, “Fade to Gold” or “Zeraquesh in Absentia”), and the gathering list is starting to look very attractive:

Laura Blackwell writing Mrs. Herrero ("Cool Air")

Nadia Bulkin writing Nabby Gardner (“The Colour Out of Space”)

S.J. Chambers to tackle Eunice Babson (“The Thing On The Doorstep”)

Carrie Cuinn writing Anna Tilton (“The Shadow Over Innsmouth”)

Arinn Dembo writing the Ape Princess (“Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family”)

Gemma Files writing Marceline (“Medusa’s Coil”)

Nelly Geraldine Garcia-Rosas writing T’la-yub (“The Mound”)

Lyndsey Holder writing Keziah Mason (“Dreams in the Witch House”)

Sharon Mock writing Shub-Niggurath (of many, many stories)

Ann. K Schwader contributing poetry (Ammutseba, original Mythos entity)

Angela Slatter writing Lavinia Whateley (“The Dunwich Horror”)

Benjanun Sriduangkaew writing Pth'thya-l'yi or Shub-Niggurath

Molly Tanzer writing Asenath (“The Thing on the Doorstep”)

E. Catherine Tobler writing Lady Margaret Trevor (“The Rats in Walls”)

Wendy Wagner writing Nitocris (“The Outsider” and “Imprisoned with the Pharaohs”)

Cynthia Ward writing Mother Hydra (“Dagon” and “The Shadow Over Innsmouth”)

With 21 days left in this crowdfunding campaign “She Walks in Shadows” already runs strongly, the project is by now at the half point of its funding goal, sign that the affirmative answer to “Do girls just not like to play with squids?” is not supported only by these wonderful writers and editors, but also by the readers. From my point of view, I didn’t have any doubts that the answer will be nothing but affirmative.