Wyrd & Wonder – A Month to Go

ARTWORK by chic2view from 123RF.com

Despite what the weather might be saying in my little corner of the world, it is already April, and that means it’s less than a month to go until our May celebration of Wyrd & Wonder! It is so very exciting! If you’re reading this and wondering, ‘what is this Wyrd & Wonder you keep talking about?’ then you can read my ‘Announcing Wyrd & Wonder 2022‘ post and last month’s update on it, ‘The Trees are Calling.‘ But the essence of it is this: it is a month-long celebration of all things fantasy – books, tv, music, art – that takes places online, with people sharing on their blogs, twitter, instagram, TikTok, and whatever other platform they use. What they share is also manifold, and you can expect book lists, reviews, live-tweeting, giveaways, book bingos, readalongs, insights into fantasy and its many subgenres and tropes… it’s all fair game, as long as it’s fantasy! It was created by Imyril at There’s Always Room for One More, Lisa at Dear Geek Place, and Jorie at Jorie Loves A Story. This year, myself and Annemieke at A Dance With Books have joined the team to make it even more wyrd and wonderful for its FIFTH anniversary!

If you’ve taken part before, I hope you will join our party again, and if you haven’t, but like the sound of it, don’t be shy and sign up! You’re under no obligation to make a certain amount of posts or anything of the sort. Just take part in whatever way you like, and see what other like-minded fantasy lovers are doing. I guarantee you’ll meet some lovely people and have more books added to your TBR by the end of May than you thought possible! To let us know you’re joining, you can use our sign up sheet so we can welcome you and know where to find your content!

For those of you who like to plan ahead, we have some exciting things for you!

Readalongs

As you’ll know if you read our posts from last month, this year we are offering TWO read-alongs for people to join.

Imyril is running the read-along for The Summer Tree by Guy Gavriel Kay, and the first discussion post will go live for that on Thursday 5th May.

Lisa is running the one for The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black, which will have posts going out on a Saturday, starting with 7th May. I will be taking part in both of them because I love a read-along and both books sound so good! But if only one appeals to you or you don’t think you’ll have time for both, you can absolutely just join one! The breakdown of the chapters and official read-along schedule can be found in our Master Schedule, which also has all our prompts for the photo and post challenge, and is where everyone will upload links to their content.

Book Bingo

dragon image by kasana86 (Wyrd & Wonder 2019)
phoenix image by Sujono Sujono (Wyrd & Wonder 2020)
pegasus image by Svetlana Alyuk (Wyrd & Wonder 2021)
raven image by Olga Yastremska (Spooktastic Reads 2021)
tree wolf image by chic2view (Wyrd & Wonder 2022)

If you’re uncertain as to what to read for Wyrd & Wonder this year, why not use this brilliant book bingo by Imyril for inspiration? Inspired by some of our challenge prompts, quite a few give a lot of room for interpretation so have fun with it! This year completing book bingo won’t enter you into a giveaway, but don’t worry. We do still have a giveaway!

Giveaway

Imyril is offering to send one lucky participant a copy of all three volumes of The Winnowing Flame by Jen Williams (open internationally).

A vampiric elf desperate to awaken her slumbering tree god. A historian determined to unearth the secrets of a long-dead enemy whose toxic ruins poison her land. A rebellious fire witch who wants a say in who she sets fire to. They will not stop until they achieve their goals – but Sarn may not be able to survive the horror they will unleash…

To enter the giveaway, sign up for Wyrd and Wonder and contribute a post between May 1 and May 7. Full terms and conditions on the sign up form, which I’ve linked above.

There may be a few other giveaways throughout (I’m definitely cooking one up) so keep an eye out!

Say Hello

It’s not May yet, of course, but why don’t you find us on our various accounts and say hello? We have a twitter account @WyrdAndWonder and a brand new instagram account, also @WyrdAndWonder, and on both of those we will be posting leading up to the start of May; you may find yourself already tempted by some of the books we’re recommending and we wouldn’t have it any other way! As for where to find us as individuals, here is a handy list: