A to Z Challenge Theme 2022 #AtoZChallenge

         It’s time once again to announce my theme for the April A to Z Blog Challenge in which bloggers all around the world post a piece for every letter of the alphabet throughout the month of April.  This year I will be looking at How to Make a Fantastical Creature.  In other words, I’ve picked 26 characteristics that, when applied to a creature, turn it fantastical and mark it out as more than ordinary.  Around the world and through time, humans keep coming back to some common themes in the stories we tell and the magical, mythical monsters we imagine.  If you’d like to consider those themes, come along with me for the next month and a half to look at what traits we seem to find particularly entrancing and why.

        Of course many of the creatures I’ll be sharing this year will be ones you know and love (or love to hate), and ones I discussed back in 2016 and 2019 when I also had mythical creature themes.  Still, there will be some new ones, plus this time we’ll be considering just what it is that makes these mythical beings so… special.

        As always, I’ll start early so that I can take a few days off during April, so having revealed my theme I’m going to dive right in.  You can come back next week for A if you want to get a head start on the alphabet with me, or you can wait until April, when I’ll include links to get you to the proper letter for each day.  Having already posted about lots of these creatures, I’ll provide plenty of links for those earlier posts, as well.  You can also go to the List of Participants to see what themes other bloggers have selected for the year.  There’s always a great variety.

        So, what’s your favorite magical being, humanoid, or beast?  Let me know and I’ll try to make sure it’s included!

[Pictures: Portrait of the Artist, rubber block print by AEGN, 2019.  (Read more about the making of this piece here.)]