ApollyCon 2022 Recap: Day Two

Day two of ApollyCon didn't allow for a lot of sleep either, but we got to wake up later than 5:45 a.m. Thank goodness. However, it was kind of worse because we had to lug around our giant backpacks full of books. And our bus to the hotel didn't show up, so we had to walk to a station that was a seven-ish minute walk away. Yay for more walking... Ugh.

The first half of day two was all about author panels. The first one we attended was the Young at Heart panel, and the authors who talked included Lizzy Mason, Brigid Kemmerer, Shaila Patel, Mary Ting/M. Clarke, and  Molly E. Lee. We were mainly there for Brigid Kemmerer, but everyone else was funny and entertaining as well. There was a lot of talk about how Twilight inspired them. Brigid also mentioned Annette Curtis Klause's Silver Kiss and Beauty & the Beast. Also, Mary was so cute. She loves Superman/Clark Kent, so she decided to use Clarke as her pen name.

The second panel we attended, Romantasy Lovers, filled up quite a bit, but we were lucky. It was held in the same room as the Young at Heart panel, so we got to keep our good seats. The authors for this panel included Jennifer Estep, L. Penelope, Amanda Bouchet, E.J. Mellow, Laura Thalassa, and Danielle L. Jensen (not pictured here). There was a discussion about romantasy versus romantic fantasy and what makes a good love interest. Danielle mentioned that she kept seeing how blondes weren't cool on TikTok, which was particularly hard for her, since she'd just launched a blonde hero. There was a lot of enemies-to-lovers talk, and even a discussion about how difficult it is to write a good friends-to-lovers story. The favorite tropes listed were enemies to lovers, one bed, and fake relationship. Okay and here's where I'm going to just write up a list of some fun facts the authors said about 1) their favorite romance book, 2) the movie/show that would describe them or their book, and 3) their favorite scene in their book.

 

Amanda: 1) Lisa Kleypas's Secrets of a Summer Night, 3) In A Promise of Fire when Cat breaks the hero's nose and makes him eat a magical salamander

Danielle: 1) Outlander and she talked about the love triangles trope because the Infernal Devices is a true love triangle that she loves, 2) Peaky Blinders because of the morally ambiguous characters, 3) the end of The Traitor Queen and book one's bedroom scene

 Laura: 1) Plated Prisoner and FBAA (Woot! Woot!), 2) Thor and Meet Joe Black, especially for the Four Horseman's first book love interest, 3) in Rhapsodic when the realization moment of why Des couldn't come back happens

Leslie: 1) Immortal Guardians, 2) wants the aesthetic of Stardust in her books, but with more conflict and social issues

Jennifer: Beauty by Robin McKinley and Sugar Daddy by Lisa Kleypas, 2) Alias and Princess Bride

Panel three was Fantastic Beasts + Paranormal Heat, and it was a hoot. The authors, Maria Vale, Juliette Cross, Stacey Marie Brown, April Asher/April Hunt, LeTeisha Newton, and Megan Erickson/Ella Maven had pretty good chemistry together, as they were able to make almost anything into a joke. LeTeisha and Ella especially. It got to be a little too much towards the end, but when it was good, it was soooo funny. They talked about real men vs. fantasy men, fun and impossible male anatomy, their favorite tropes, the anti-damsel, and their favorite worldbuilding details (languages and twisting things like histories, myths, and species were two of my favorite answers).

 

After the panels, it was time for lunch, so we went to a nearby Chik-fil-A. I got a chicken wrap, since I was tired of fries and really wanted something with greens. And it was pretty good too. I'd never had a chicken wrap from there before. So I was trying new things, even though I'd been to the restaurant before. Yay me! My friend wasn't as forgiving. She's a foodie, and she wasn't completely satisfied by our food choices for the trip. However, we just didn't have the time or the energy to go to a lot of fancier places. Once food had been eaten, we walked back to the hotel, and then we sat at a nice bench/desk area to chill and strategize for the upcoming three-hour Titan signing. It was at this point, when we were pulling books out of our bags to arrange them, that my friend realized she'd forgotten her special ApollyCon edition of ASITE at the AirBnB. The special edition that was specifically designed to be signed by JLA at ApollyCon. And, unlike a lot of people, we did not want to attend the signing on Saturday. We wanted to get our signings complete on Friday so we could sight see Saturday. So she had one hour to hop on a Lyft, grab the book, and then take a Lyft back before we needed to line up for the signing. She made it in time, but it sure was cutting it close. And after all that drama, we got reshuffled around to the Titan Group A line and then we sat and waited for an hour. You can see the giant backpacks up above, though we did use a bag check so we didn't have to lug around as many books at once.

  Group A went upstairs during the first few minutes of the signing, while Group B stayed downstairs. Titan ticket holders could bounce around each floor during the three signing hours, but they started us out separately to do a bit of crowd control. Since Elise Kova was the only author I had a low ticket number for (#10!), she's the one I went to first while my friend went to Brigid Kemmerer. Elise Kova's table area was amazing! It looked so cool! I only got one book of hers signed, just because I've only read the one book, and that's A Deal with an Elf King. I'd like to read more of her stuff, but, well, time.

My friend and I met back up to go to ArtbyStefani's table. She had Roth and Zayne just chilling next to her. I believe that Roth one now lives in JLA's house/office space. She's very lucky. Lol. But I did end up buying the NSFW version of the Roth print as well as a Reaver print. I grabbed a free PoppyCas sticker too. (The pin is something I bought from The Bookish Box later on when I went downstairs.)

Then, we went over to Jennifer Estep's table where I picked up a signed preorder of Capture the Crown, a spinoff of her Crown of Shards series. I've been reading Jennifer's books since the Mythos Academy series came out, so it was nice to meet her at the event. She also handed us a bunch of swag, including mini colored pencils and colorable bookmarks. There's a photo somewhere below. Haha.

Stop three was Danielle L. Jensen's table. Unfortunately, her line started getting too long right as we joined, and we were cut off like three people from the end. So, we just had to chill for a bit until our new ticket numbers were called. But we made it back to the line and I got my paperback copy of The Bridge Kingdom signed. We also took a photo together. Look at me, I already look exhausted and this is just hour one of the signing. Yikes. You'll see how bad it gets soon. Haha.

Now, I'm not sure if we went to Stacey Marie Brown immediately after Danielle. I actually think we went downstairs for a while first. My friend went to Raven Kennedy's table since she had ticket #1 for her (lucky), and I kind of floated around grabbing tickets for authors we didn't have yet. (Tickets are for authors whose lines are too long. Some authors didn't have an original ticket system in place at the start of the event, so we had to grab some to get in their lines later.) I also went to the Book Beau table to get a Feelin' Stabby sticky badge banner thing that I never actually ended up putting on my badge, and I bought the pin pictured somewhere below at The Bookish Box booth. It was the display one, so I nabbed the last one. Mwahaha. I think I stopped by Sophie Jordan's table as well and had her sign my frame, which I'll show in a bit. I'd already met Sophie a few years ago, so I didn't bring any books for her this time. After all this, we went back upstairs and got into Stacey Marie Brown's line, I think...

Sadly, after those authors, it was kind of just a waiting game to see when our ticket numbers would be called. Since ours were pretty high numbers, we just kind of stood there for a bit. Because we were at the end of hour two of only three hours total, we decided to divide and conquer. My friend gave me her #126 (or something like that) Laura Thalassa ticket and she went to see Scarlett St. Clair. So, sadly, I don't have any photos with Laura Thalassa. I did pick up a preorder from her, though. It was the omnibus edition of her Bargainer series, which is ginormous! But Laura did sign it while I was at her table, and I got to see her husband who was helping her out. #couplegoals. Scarlett St. Clair ended up needing to take a potty break while my friend was in line, so I was able to take some photos of her getting her books signed. I didn't have anything for Scarlett to sign besides my photo frame. My friend took it from me and was able to get it signed for me so I wouldn't have to stand in line.

And then, back downstairs we went. This time we were able to get into Lexi Ryan's line with the tickets I'd grabbed earlier. Because I own the FairyLoot edition of These Hollow Vows, which is already signed, I decided to have Lexi just sign my frame. I was tempted to buy the regular US hardcovers of the duology, though, as they are also very pretty. I just don't need two copies of the series. But anyway, here's some swag I got at her table as well as the other authors' tables I visited.

And the last author we managed to see during the "official" three-hour signing time was Amanda Bouchet. She was so sweet, but like most of us, she seemed tired. A lot of the other authors were packing up their tables for the night, so I'm sure she was ready to get out of there, as were we. However, we had heard a rumor that JLA was staying late to sign books, since so many people didn't get their numbers called during the ticket calls. (Mine was like #509, so I would've never gotten mine signed.) Raven Kennedy was also signing after the signing time. So, I went to Raven Kennedy's line, and my friend went to JLA's to save us a spot.

 

I had Raven sign my paperback copy of Glint, since it's my favorite of the series so far. Also, I wasn't sure if I'd keep the paperback versions as I think FairyLoot has plans to release a special edition set. Therefore, I decided not to have her personalize my copy. I will say that Raven's line took a long time, but I got through it eventually! And I managed to make it through her line before my friend got to the last curve of JLA's line.

 

Now, here's where it gets a little sad for me. Because though I was able to rush into JLA's line and get her to sign my books, I was just a mess of epic proportions by then. And I was so goshdarn tired that the photo I took with her looks so bad. I wasn't thinking clearly when my friend said to look at the camera, so I didn't pause to take the photo. Plus, my back is so stooped from carrying my backpack full of books that I just look dead on my feet. It breaks my heart a little that I traveled all that way specifically to see JLA and I didn't even really get to enjoy it because the ticket system for the event was so messed up. As someone who was maybe 30th in line during registration, I should not have ended up with #509 for JLA's ticket line. That was so ridiculous. But there's nothing I can do about it now. Hopefully, if I get ApollyCon tickets for next year (which I should know whether or not I got them by the time this post goes up), that mess will be sorted out.

 

Anyway, back to the lighter side, I had JLA sign my frame, my ASITE copy, and the first two books of the Dark Elements series with the original covers. And I did get these personalized, because JLA, DUH. Well, except for ASITE. I just didn't think ASITE's signature page left room for personalization, in my opinion. My friend did end up getting her's personalized, though. By this time, you could tell JLA was exhausted, but she had like 50 people still waiting behind us, so that sucked. I think the con is having a separate JLA signing for her next year. That should help spread things out a bit more.

 

By this time, we'd missed out on the Sparkler Event, though we were able to grab a leftover goodie bag at least. It had some random stuff in it along with a 1,001 Dark Nights novella in it. Mine was Ride Dirty by Laura Kaye. After grabbing our bags, we headed back to the AirBnB to rest for the night before starting all over again in the morning. So stay tuned for the ApollyCon Day Three Recap!