ApollyCon 2023 Recap: Days Three & Four

Day three of ApollyCon was a much nicer time than day two's packed schedule. It mostly consisted of getting some more author signatures in the first half of the day and then napping the rest of the day. Or at least, napping until the After Party later that night. Day four, the last day of ApollyCon, was stressful just because it was the final day, and we were worried about storing our luggage, possibly missing our flights, the rain, etc. Otherwise, it was chill.

I 100% think the authors in this list are out of order, so forgive me for not remembering who I saw first, second, third, etc. I wanted to write up this post last week, when my memory likely would've been a little better, but work was so chaotic that I couldn't make myself sit in front of a computer for another three to four hours to write this post. But anyway, the first photos I have saved in my files are with Harper L. Woods. I read What Lies Beyond the Veil right before ApollyCon via Kindle Unlimited, so I decided to purchase a copy of the exclusive cover to get signed, along with some art prints. This was another author I made a fool of myself talking to. It wasn't nearly as bad as the Jess Wisecup fiasco, but when I was trying to buy prints, I thought they were all sold out. Turns out, I was just looking at the display versions and they had them all stocked behind the table. Ugh. Silly, me.

After that, I think we went to see Jennifer Estep. She had a nice corner space with lots of air conditioning. It was pretty calm over there compared to the Katee Robert and Harper L. Woods chaos. I got my copy of Kill the Queen signed. Since I have like 20 of Jennifer's books, it's always difficult to pick which one to take with me. If I get tickets for next year, I may just do the sequel to this one. Or maybe I'll do the first Mythos Academy book. Hmm... Decisions, decisions.

 

Next up was Maria V. Snyder. I'd brought my UK copy of Touch of Power for her to sign, and she talked about the different covers with me for quite a bit. I also got to talk with her about the FairyLoot editions I ordered, which will hopefully ship soon (*fingers crossed*). I think I'd brought up how signing makes authors' hands hurt and then she said she only signed like 500 a day or so, so her wrists wouldn't be in any pain. I think she mentioned she'd signed like 10,000 tip-ins for the FairyLoot editions.

And I believe Wendy Higgins was after that, but I could be wrong. Wendy was nice, she had a bowl of candy at her table, and I think it was her husband who took the photo. (Technically, a lot of husbands were there to take photos and assist their wives that weekend.) I'd grabbed a piece of candy and put it in my pocket, but I think it fell out at some point. Boo.

  We went to Lana Pecherczyk next to get the fancy special edition book from the Titan bag signed. I haven't read The Longing of Lone Wolves, but offering a special edition of the first book in the series is a great way to get new readers hooked onto your books. We didn't get a photo with Lana, since we didn't really know her or her work, but we got our bookmarks signed. Oh, and before I forget to mention, all of these signings were on the upper level, the Independence room. On the second day of signings, you have to stay in one area for the four-hour signing a.m. session and then switch in the afternoon. Attendees are split up by group A or B too. Because we'd already done all of our Ballroom signings, we didn't need to do the afternoon signing. But I'll talk about that later.

We saw Amanda Bouchet again this year. She's always so sweet. We talked about how her books are part of our book club picks, and we asked her about the next release in her Kingmaker Chronicles series. She told us that the next one likely won't be out until next year, but that's okay. I don't need it anytime soon. I'm drowning in things to read right now. I took book two in the Kingmaker Chronicles. Breath of Fire, to get signed by her.

I guess after Amanda we went to Katee Robert's table. I feel like this one is out of order, but oh well. At some point, we did go to Katee's table, so it doesn't matter in the long run. Also, her table was hard to find because there weren't any posters or signage. However, she was very friendly. Also, she stamped her books instead of signing due to wrist mobility issues. I had her stamp the ARC of Wicked Beauty I received at last year's ApollyCon and The Dragon's Bride, which I got from this year's ApollyCon. And I've read neither of them.

 

Then, we saw Stacey Marie Brown. We actually saw her last year as well, so I didn't have a book for her to sign this time. I still haven't finished the second book in the Savage Lands series, and I don't want to collect the paperbacks for the rest of the series since the spines don't match. Boooo... Stacey is hilarious though. She signed our library card bookmarks and dated them PAST DUE. She also talked about the artwork of two of the secondary characters in the Savage Lands series that you can see pictured above. Totally not how I pictured them, but it was cute.

I haven't read any of K.F. Breene's books, but she was the author we went to next because my friend had a preorder from her. I also had the paperback of Magical Midlife Madness that came in the Titan bag, so I figured I'd get that signed while I was there. Funnily enough, K.F. Breene ended up being the author that took the longest to get to. I guess because we didn't get tickets until later on, maybe? But we had a bit of a 10-minute-ish wait since she was the second-to-last author we wanted to see. We couldn't see the last one because of reasons I'll talk about next.

Because C.N Crawford is a husband/wife writing duo, my friend didn't want to go to their table until after she'd seen K.F. Breene. The reason: she only had two spaces left on her library card and she didn't want the two authors to take up both spaces when K.F. Breene needed a space too. Turns out, that wasn't an issue. They just sign half of the C.N. Crawford signature each. Also, this photo was really awkward to pose for. I don't think they'd had photos taken with anyone before because they tried to stand behind us. It was odd. Anyway, I've only read Frost by them, and I might read Ambrosia one day, Frost's sequel, but it's not high up on my priority list at this moment. I didn't have any books for them to sign, since I'd read Frost on Kindle Unlimited. And with that, we finished the signing portion of ApollyCon! At least for us, that is. Other people stayed for the afternoon signing. We didn't.

 

Before we left the Hyatt for lunch, we did end up doing a couple of photoshoots with the displays they had around the hotel. The neon sign was on the same level as the Independence signing room, while the other two were on the bottom Ballroom floor. The Bloom Books sign was kind of fun. You could point to your reader description, basically. I pointed to Series Junkie and Book Juggler, since I love my series and tend to read four to five books at a time for some weird reason. Once that was complete, we dropped our new and old, but now signed, books at out hotel room, and then went to eat some Mexican food. And after eating, we did what any tired person would do, we took a nap.

The After Party was later that night, so we left a good couple of hours beforehand to get in line at a decent time. The event only had 400 goodie bags with 600 people who could possibly attend, so we had to get a decent spot in line to guarantee a bag. My bag came with some of the stuff you see pictured, like a spray tube of hand sanitizer and a print from Haunting Adeline, a book I will probably never read. It also came with two books. The one I kept was A Dash of Salt and Pepper by Kosoko Jackson. The one I left outside the event for anyone to grab to take with them was A Fate of Wrath and Flame by K.A. Tucker, since I already had a signed copy and couldn't fit a second one in my suitcase. I was actually kind of miffed we received it in the After Party bag after I purposefully preordered it for ApollyCon. It was kind of a waste of money.

 

I don't think this year's After Party was as fun as last year's. And that's saying something since this is pretty much my least favorite event. I'm just not a dancer, and we didn't dress up in costume because we didn't have the money to purchase clothes for both the Blood Forest event and the After Party. But it was cool to see a couple of different costumes in the crowd, like the couple who cosplayed as Sera and Nyktos, since the theme was Gods & Monsters. But unlike last year, they didn't have a giveaway. It was just dancing, drinks, and a 360-degree camera thing. Since I don't drink and I don't dance and I didn't dress up, it was kind of boring. My friend talked to someone sitting at our table, but the music was too loud for me to hear what they were saying. I pretty much just hung out on my phone and stuck around to wait until JLA showed up. But, even when she did, she didn't say much. Just gave a thank you, a warning about using the buddy system when walking back to hotels, and then she bounced. We stuck around until the end of the event, but I was glad to be out of there when it was over. Unfortunately, though, we had to pack after that and try to get all our new crap into our bags without being over the weight limit. We even borrowed a scale from a girl we met on the shuttle ride to the hotel who was also attending ApollyCon and was in a room a couple of doors down from us. Thankfully, I managed to get my suitcase under the 50-pound weight limit. My friend did not. She had to pay $75 for her checked bag.

So, the last event was the Brunch and Q&A with Jodi Picoult. My friend and I got up early, dropped our suitcases down at the hotel lobby for safekeeping, headed to the Hyatt, waited in line, sat near the back of the room once we got in so we could sneak out early, and then grabbed our food once our table was called. Unfortunately, by the time our table was called to go get food, a lot of it had been picked clean by then, despite the catering service replacing stuff every once in a while. I didn't get any potatoes with my eggs. Boo. But anyway, after the brunch, they gave us our bags. The bags had a special edition of Frost & Fire in it, a bind-up of Frigid and Scorched by JLA. It also had a plastic cup in it, a little pocket mirror, a nice pen and notebook, and a booksleeve, which the book was in. I let my friend have my cup, since it wouldn't fit in my backpack on the flight home, but everything else I was able to keep.

 

 

 

After that, JLA and Jodi came out for the Q&A. JLA basically interviewed Jodi about what she was working on, how she's co-authored a book with her daughter, and all the book-ban nonsense that's been happening around the U.S. It was actually pretty interesting, which I didn't expect considering I've never read a Jodi Picoult book. However, my friend and I had to duck out early to make it to our flight. Or, so we thought. We actually ended up picking up our bags and getting to the airport a little earlier than we anticipated, so we could've stayed at the Q&A a little bit longer, but oh well. Better to be safe than sorry. So yeah, I eventually got on my flight, met my parents at the airport to drive me home, and got Culvers for lunch on the way back.

 

Well, that was all for ApollyCon 2023. It was five days of craziness, but it was a controlled chaos, unlike last year's overwhelming madness. Tickets for 2024 go on sale soon, and I'm crossing my fingers I get one. It'll suck if I don't. With the new hotel location, though, I have a feeling 2024's event is going to be just as crazy as 2022's event was. But I still really want to go. Let's all pray to the book gods I get a ticket.