Looks like I chose the right time to brush up my French: yesterday, French publisher Les Moutons Electrique (which is the French for Philip K. Dick’s Electric Sheep) announced the launch, in March 2020, of a new line of novels, collectively known as La Ligue des écrivaines extraordinaires – The League of Extraordinary Lady Writers, that is: five novels written by five popular French writers, featuring a bunch of popular writers against a bunch of popular creatures of the night, the lot currently open as a crowdfunding.

The titles in the series are

• Ann Radcliffe versus Dracula, by Bénédicte Coudière
• Jane Austen versus the Wolf Man, by Marianne Ciaudo
• Mary Shelley versus Frankenstein, by Cat Merry Lishi
• Ann Radcliffe, Jane Austen & Mary Shelley versus Carmilla, by Elisabeth Ebory
• The Bronte Sisters versus the Mummy, by Nelly Chadour

Stories about writing women facing the most classic of horror menaces, written by women for everybody to read. You can say it’s a gimmick, a smart-ass move, but you also have to admit it it’s a damn good gimmick.
Throw in the beautiful look of the volumes, and I’m sold.

Each book weighing around the 150 pages mark (which is good – you don’t want to overstay your welcome when you are doing something like this) and the novels promise action, adventure, horror and a nice amount of globetrotting – from London to Venice to Egypt.

The project is being launched on a crowdfunding platform – and the extras include more goodness: apart from the usual perks, an origin story (Madame Leprince de Beaumont versus the Beast) and three more novels

• Renée Dunan versus the Mutants
• Virginia Woolf versus Rhan-Tegoth
• Selma Lagerlof versus the Trolls

The project is currently 50% financed, and I’m eagerly waiting for a few overdue payments to be able to contribute – there’s still 29 days. Because I chose the right time to brush up my French – now I only need to back this baby up, and then wait for March 2020.