The Trees are Calling: Getting Hyped for Wyrd & Wonder 2022

Do you ever get the urge to just walk into the woods and disappear? Well, this May you can (metaphorically) do so with Wyrd & Wonder, our month long celebration of fantasy originally created by Imyril at onemore.org, Lisa at Dear Geek Place, and Jorie at Jorie Loves A Story. And this year, as you may have seen in last month’s announcement, I get to be part of the team along with fellow new co-host Annemieke at A Dance With Books! I love being part of this group and it’s been so nice to get to know these women and plan all things fantasy, especially since we’re working extra hard to make sure this FIFTH year of Wyrd & Wonder is super special! We’re fully embracing the Power of Five, which includes centring our theme around the fact that 5th anniversaries are traditionally ‘Wood’ so we are taking the twisting forest roads through the fantastical more so than usual.

This Year’s Prompts

You may notice this particularly in our challenge prompts this year, which you can find at the Master Schedule, now live for anyone eager enough to schedule posts and start planning things. There are some very useful hints next to all our prompts in the Master Schedule, in case you get stuck on ideas, but here they are if you want a quick glance:

Date	Prompt
May 1st	Best Laid Plans
May 2nd	Can’t Wait to Read
May 3rd	#TropeTuesday: Enchanted Wood
May 4th	Woodland Creatures
May 5th	5 Star Fantasy Reads
May 6th	Mythic
May 7th	Say What?
May 8th	Undergods
May 9th	#MapMonday
May 10th	#TropeTuesday: Don’t Leave the Path
May 11th	Weapon of Choice
May 12th	Step Into Another’s Shoes
May 13th	Epic
May 14th	A Book Within a Book
May 15th	#ShelfieSunday
May 16th	Current Read
May 17th	#TropeTuesday: Spirit of Nature
May 18th	Fantasy Landscapes
May 19th	More Than Meets the Eye
May 20th	Dark
May 21st	#StackSaturday
May 22nd	Bite-Size Delight
May 23rd	Book Rainbow
May 24th	#TropeTuesday: Forest Guardian
May 25th	Love It or Loathe It
May 26th	#ThrowBackThursday
May 27th	Portal Fantasy
May 28th	Imaginary Verse
May 29th	Spine Poetry
May 30th	Wyrd and Wonderful
May 31st	Favourite Wyrd & Wonder Read

The Weekly Top Fives

You may notice in the Schedule that beneath the usual prompts is a ‘Weekly Top Five’ section – I told you we’re embracing the Power of Five! This is an additional weekly prompt we’ll be running and it looks a little like this:

Date	Weekly Top 5
May 1st	Top Five books read since the last Wyrd & Wonder or books read during a previous Wyrd & Wonder
May 8th	Tope Five forest fantasy recommendations
May 15th	Top Five books featuring our Wyrd & Wonder mascots (dragon, phoenix, pegasus, wolf, and raven)
May 22nd	Top Five single serve fantasy: short stories, novelettes, and novellas
May 29th	Top Five from a favourite fantasy subgenre

Wyrd & Wonder on Instagram

This is the perfect set of prompts to plan blog posts around, and I know I will certainly endeavour to do so! So many options! And when it comes to all of these prompts, the perfect place to seek inspiration during May itself will be our instagram account – that’s right, we have an instagram account and we’ve already started putting some exciting stuff on there, including some ‘shelfies’ introducing the hosts and what they love reading! Keep an eye out for more on how Wyrd & Wonder started and some amazing graphics by our very own Annemieke! In May we’ll use it to post photos for each day’s prompts and would love to see everyone else’s too so we can share those in our roundups and instagram stories.

Readalongs

What, there’s more? You bet! If you’re familiar with Wyrd & Wonder you’ll know there’s usually a readalong that spans the month and has weekly check-ins and discussions. It’s definitely my favourite thing because of the way so many people are reading and talking about one book at the same time, throwing around opinions and theories I might never have had myself. And this time around, we are doing TWO readalongs! So you can join both or pick the one that appeals to you most!

The Summer Tree by Guy Gavriel Kay

Five men and women find themselves flung into the magical land of Fionavar, First of all Worlds. They have been called there by the mage Loren Silvercloak, and quickly find themselves drawn into the complex tapestry of events. For Kim, Paul, Kevin, Jennifer and Dave all have their own part to play in the coming battle against the forces of evil led by the fallen god Rakoth Maugrim and his dark hordes.

This is our throwback title and there are definitely some (not so) sneaky references to our theme of five and our theme of forest fantasy!

The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black

Hazel lives with her brother, Ben, in the strange town of Fairfold where humans and fae exist side by side. The faeries’ seemingly harmless magic attracts tourists, but Hazel knows how dangerous they can be, and she knows how to stop them. Or she did, once. In the forest of Fairfold, lies a glass casket. Inside the casket lies a sleeping faerie prince that none can rouse. He’s the most fascinating thing Hazel and Ben have ever seen and they dream of waking him. But what happens when dreams come true? In the darkest part of the forest, you must be careful what you wish for…

This is our very obvious forest fantasy, full of faeries, knights, magic, and darkness. I have never read anything by either author so I am looking forward to taking part in both readalongs!

Join the Party

If you’re like me and want to get prepared early, then welcome aboard and join our party by signing up here! The more the merrier, as we’re definitely not on a quest that needs stealth – this is definitely much more the kind of adventure where we sing as we ride and tell stories by the fire.

If you’ve read this and it sounds exciting but you still have no real idea what Wyrd & Wonder is, then I recommend browsing through our intro posts from February:

• Imyril at onemore.org
• Lisa at Dear Geek Place
• Jorie at Jorie Loves A Story
• Annemieke at A Dance With Books

Hopefully those, as well as our backlist posts, should give you a good idea of what to expect and convince you that there’s nothing you’d rather be doing this May than jump on the bandwagon. We’ll be delighted to have you!

Fly the Flag

Our Wyrd and Wonder mascot this year is a fantastical tree wolf, as a nod to our forest fantasy anniversary. Please feel free to use the banners and buttons to shout about the event, but remember to credit the artist wherever possible (details below).

ARTWORK by chic2view from 123RF.com

Note: The gorgeous wolf image has been licensed for use for this event online. You are welcome to use the banner on your Wyrd and Wonder posts, but please make no changes and always credit the artist!