2026 ApollyCon Recap: Part 3

My ApollyCon 2026 recap is now up to Friday's events. And I just realized that Friday wasn't signing time. All I did on Friday was attend panels and go to smaller-sized events. So, this post will include some of Saturdays signings, since otherwise it'd be a fairly short post. It'll have the first half of the signing day, before lunch. That means there will definitely be a Part 4 for the afternoon signing and remaining events, but that should be all. I'm not writing a Part 5! I'll just do a really long post before I make a Part 5. I'm very tired of uploading pics.

 

Friday mornings at ApollyCon are for author panels. Last year, I didn't attend these because my friend and I were too exhausted after staying up late the previous night. However, because I was an Ascended ticket holder, I didn't have anything going on later. Therefore, might as well attend the panels. Plus, I really wanted to see Elizabeth Helen. So, we ended up attending the 8 a.m. Moonlight, Mischief & Mating Calls: Where Romance Meets Fantasy panel with Melissa Roehrich, Elizabeth Helen, Stephanie Blair, Holly Renee, R.L. Caulder, Analeigh Sbrana, and Amalie Howard.

 

 

We stayed in the same room for the next panel, which was the Three's Company, More's a Party: Why Choose panel. Elizabeth Helen was also on this panel. Kalista Neith, Allie Shante, T.C. Kraven, Steffanie Holmes, and R.L. Caulder were on this panel too. This was the final panel we attended until the Sunday brunch panel. After, it was all about signings and party-type events.

The next event we went to was the Holly Renee event. I attended this as an aid, as I didn't have a ticket for it. That just meant I couldn't have a free bag. They had an embroidery station for the bags to get them personalized with a strawberry or a cowboy hat. Holly Renee's events are always themed, and usually, that theme is the color pink. Like last year, there were some carnival-type games, and you could make a keychain. You could also get signatures from five authors that attended and then turn the signatures in for a raffle. R.L. Caulder and Emily Blackwood were at the first author table.

 

The next two authors I didn't remember off the top of my head. I had to google them. Amber Palmer is the author on the left and Ambar Cordova is on the right. They were very nice. All of the authors were. I was very tired by this time, though, so I was probably a mess. Lol.

 

Next up was Holly Renee herself. I'd met her last year at ApollyCon during her late-night event. She's a lot of fun. I really need to read more of her books. I've only read one, and I need to finish the series I started. Holly revealed the cover of her new book Moon Cursed at this event as well. It's obviously widespread now, but we did get to see the reveal live and in person. I did preorder this book, so I'm excited for it. 

 

I was super tired after this event, but we ended up going to another event. I don't remember the author who hosted it, but it was basically a dance party. The event handed out goodie bags at the end with swag and books. I don't believe I kept anything except a key chain that you'll see in Part 4. At some point in the day, I took a selfie in front of one of the the ApollyCon displays. I'm just putting it here. Oh, and after this event (or before this event, I honestly can't remember), we went to the Arcane Society Shopping Event where I picked up my The Summer Prince novella bindup and The Summer Prince mini individual paperbacks. I got two from them and traded for the second book. And we also stopped by the Barnes & Noble shopping space throughout the con.

 

Now, we're at the Saturday signing, which is when Ascended ticket holders can officially get their items signed. I won't bore you with more line waiting, but the first place we went to when we got on the signing floor was Jemlin's table. I purchased the Grim Gates edition of From Blood and Ash, which is quite naughty, and the Interview with the Vampire cards. I also got Violet Sorengail and Xaden as freebies. Later on when things were calmer, I picked up my preorder of the Lady of Darkness set as well.

 

After that, I had to go to Elizabeth Helen's table. Them and Tricia Levenseller were the authors I wanted to see most, as I'd never met them before. I also really wanted to get one of their freebies, which was a wedding invite from the Beasts of the Briar series that they gave out to the first 50 visitors. I didn't think I'd make that cut, but I did! I got an invite! They were super sweet, and I took an awkward picture right in their faces, so apologies for that. My friend did joke about the dating app/being single comment they had made during one of the earlier panels. It was funny.

 

Emily Blackwood was up next. She's probably the author I spent the most money at, oddly enough. My friend peer pressured me into buying Beg the Night, a paperback copy that I thought was a fancy special edition but ended up being an ARC. I spent $20 on it, so that was weird. I also purchased her limited editions of Wings So Wicked and Blood So Brutal. These were the expensive books. I think it was $80 for both. I was panicked at the time. I shouldn't have bought any of them. I just wanted a regular paperback of Wings So Wicked, but the B&N had run out, so I was stupid and bought these. I hope I love the Wings So Wicked book, because, if not, I wasted some money there.

I believe after this, we saw Rebecca Yarros since our ticket wristbands were in the lower numbers. I'd met Rebecca a couple of years before this, so I had my first two Fourth Wing books signed already. Therefore, I just brought Onyx Storm to get signed. I only have the regular hardcovers of this series, unlike some other people I saw who had very fancy editions with them.

 

I think I went to Tricia Levenseller next. I loooooved her What Fury Brings book, so I brought all my unsigned copies with me. That included the regular hardcover, the UK ARC, and the US ARC. If she comes again and I get a ticket, I'll have to get my Warrior of the Wild book signed. I honestly forgot I had it. But anyway, she had cardboard cutouts of the two main characters in What Fury Brings. I obviously had to take photos with them. She was giving these away at the end of the con too, but I didn't have the suitcase room to take them. I probably wasn't fast enough to claim them either. 

  

And then, I took pics in front of the Heated Rivalry cardboard cutouts while I waited for my friend. Shane and Ilya were drawn by Jemlin, of course. They're so cool. I kind of regret not buying the bookmarks Jemlin had of these two, but I don't really collect TV character art because you can just see the actors in the show, unlike book characters who are often just words on a page. Though, I did buy the IWTV cards, so I do have exceptions to this arbitrary rule.

Emma Hamm was the next stop. She was generous enough to contribute a copy of her A Darkness So Sweet book in the bags we received at registration, so of course I needed to stop by. She's always so nice, though she'd been sick with food poisoning the night before. She was way more put together than I would be if I'd had food poisoning earlier that morning. I still have yet to read an Emma Hamm book, but I will one day. I own three now, so I need to get to one of them soon.

 

We stopped by Jordan A. Day's table because her artwork was gorgeous. I've seen her books around, but haven't delved into her writing yet. I did take some of the prints that were on her side table, though. They were freebies. The artwork is very pretty.

 

 

After that, I saw Melissa K. Roehrich. She was another author I really wanted to see. I'd already met her the previous year, but I hadn't read her books then. I'd finally read her Lady of Darkness series and a bit of her Legacy series right before this year's ApollyCon, so I was excited to actually meet her after I'd read her books. Since the books I owned from her were all already signed, I bought the Unrelenting Winds novella at her table for her to sign along with a bunch of character artwork. One of my roommates also gave me this MKR tote bag she didn't want.

 

Stacia Stark was next. I'd also met her the previous year. I bought an entire huge series set from her table in 2025, and I couldn't do that again. I just didn't have enough suitcase space, so I opted to bring my Aurora Crate Speak of the Demon book to get signed. That also means I have two more sequels to get signed by her in the future, which saves me the dilemma of choosing what to get signed by her if I'm able to attend again.

At some point during this, we stopped by S.M. Gaither's table. Her assistant asked us questions to get us to give a code phrase in order to receive a chapter sneak peak of S.M. Gaither's upcoming Ashwalker release (now out, I think). The code phrase was dragonbred, and the hints were confusing to me because I was exhausted and operating on zero energy by this point. I was a zombie. 

 

 

Danielle L. Jensen was the last author I saw during the a.m. signing session, I believe. I had brought two of my The Traitor Queen copies. One is the original indie paperback and the other was the new hardback release. This was the second time I'd seen her, so my indie The Bridge Kingdom was already signed. Her setup was super bright and fun, and, like many authors, she had free prints up for grabs.

Well, that was all for Friday and the first half of Saturday. After this, I think I went up to my hotel room to rest and grabbed a pizza from the concession shop area to fuel for the p.m. signing session. Stay tuned for that recap in next week's post.