Yikes. This post is late. Like late late. I thought 2025's ApollyCon recap post was delayed, but at least I managed to get that up in June. I didn't even start this one until the end of July. Terrible. So terrible. And this is just Part 1. There will be at least 2-3 more. Sigh. It might be hard for me to remember some details, since I waited so long to write this, but at least it'll be done. I don't even know if anyone reads these recaps, but I like to go back and look through the memories every once in a while.
First, I need to mention the whole ticket fiasco. I was planning to go as an aid for a friend of a friend, but I ended up getting an Ascended-level ticket literally a day before the ticket sales closed. It was insane. I was ecstatic, though! And I got to help my other friend out as an aid while still having a ticket, so that was nice. I hadn't planned on bringing that many books when I was just going as an aid, but once I got a ticket, I threw together every book I had that I could reasonably get/wanted to get signed. I decided to take Sweet Peril by Wendy Higgins; The Traitor Queen indie paperback and the new hardcover; the Aurora Crate edition of Speak of the Demon by Stacia Stark; Prince of the Arena by Elizabeth Helen; the hardback, UK ARC, and US ARC of What Fury Brings by Tricia Levenseller; Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros; and the 2024 ApollyCon Arcane Society edition of From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout. I also took the Arcane Society editions of Wicked and Torn by JLA, but I think I only managed to get one signed. Maybe. I should probably go check... You can also see the books I brought back with me in this pic too, but I'll get to those throughout the recap posts.
This year was a lot different than previous years, since my usual friend I attend with didn't go. I ended up sharing a room with three other attendees, one of whom was the friend I was aiding for. It was wild. I'd never stayed with that many people before. Everyone was cool, though. It was just a crazy time with a lot less space. The first event for the convention is always registration on Wednesday. Because I was an aid, I got to stand in the shorter line, so we got out of there a lot faster than others. I got my two lanyards, one for my ticket tier and the other for my aid status (the red one). My Ascended bag also came with some swag, five random books, and, of course, the From Blood and Ash special edition hardcover. JLA also surprised everyone and put a paperback edition of A Crown of Ruin in the bags as well. That was amazing! I loved that so much, especially since JLA said there were no plans to put this novella in paperback any time soon. Of the five other books I received in my bag, I only kept two: A Darkness So Sweet by Emma Hamm and The Midnight Arrow by Zoey Draven.
After registration, we waited in another line for the JLA and J.R. Ward opening panel. I don't remember everything they discussed, but I do know J.R. Ward talked about how Lover at Last ended up going #1, even though it was a MM paranormal romance book. It was the first one to do so. I didn't know that. J.R. Ward also made fun of the name Roth, and of course, JLA let her know that she has a character named Roth, so that was a funny moment. Those are the two major things I remember, other than the event starting late because registration took so long. J.R. Ward stalled for time by asking attendees why they were there or why they liked romance or something like that, so of course she was running around in the audience with the mic, as she does.
I almost forgot that after the event, volunteers/staff handed out goodie bags. The bag came with a teal/blue water bottle and set of the Prettygal Pins Black Dagger Brotherhood cards. I was ecstatic to get these! I already head Rhage and Wrath, but I didn't have Zsadist. And of course, Vishous and Phury were new. Funnily enough, we got like two more of these goodie bags during the con. I guess they had ordered too many of them, so they were just handing extras out to everyone throughout the con. Our hotel room ended up leaving like eight bottles lined up on the table of our room. I took one back to give to my friend who couldn't attend, but I couldn't keep the others. I had no space in my suitcases. I did keep a second PGP card set, though. The third bag I got didn't come with extra cards. I don't know what I'll do with the extra set yet.
For Day 2 of ApollyCon, we attended panels in the a.m. The first panel we went to was the Forged in Fire & Fate: Romantasy panel at 9 a.m. Gina Maxwell, Rebecca Yarros, Morgan Gauthier, Jen L. Grey, Sariah Wilson, Amanda Bouchet, and Stacia Stark were the attending authors. I only remember that Amanda Bouchet made a comment about killing, but not really killing, the animal companion in her new book. We all gasped when she first said it. I think Rebecca also teased her Threshing Day book as well, but that's old news at this point.
Panel number two was Horns, Hearts & HEA's: Monster Romance. The authors on that panel were J.R. Ward, Regine Abel, Kait Ballenger, Jenna Wolfhart, Kalista Neith, Juliette Cross, Lexi Foss, and Emma Hamm. I don't remember much from this one except that the mics went out. I think. Once that was over, I think we got some food and just kind of hung out until the JLA Welcome to the Capital event that evening, which I'll share in Part 2. It deserves a full post.
I almost forgot to mention that I took pics with the Jemlin Cas and Kieran cutouts that were set up in the hall. I ended up taking pics multiple times throughout the event. I just wanted to make sure I got good ones in different outfits. Honestly, I just wish I could have taken these two cutouts home with me. I would've paid for them. Lol. Speaking of that, I did end up trading with another attendee so I could get her Cas and Kieran Jemlin cards. The cards only came in the Primal bag, so I had to figure out a way to get my own set. Luckily, I have a friend who loves helping people with trades and was able to hook me up. If that hadn't happened, I think my con might have sucked. At least, it would've sucked until I could go home and purchase a set online for high resale prices. I totally would've done it if I had to. I'll share a pic of those with my Jemlin/Gremlin Gates signing day stuff.
Well, that's all for the first day and a half of ApollyCon. Above is a pic of me with my lanyard and another when my roommates and I took a walk around the hotel area. Part 2 will be the JLA event recap and Part 3 will be the signing day. I'm hoping I can get all the signing stuff in one post, but I think I'll have to split that up if I want to include the Friday night and Saturday morning stuff too. I'm planning to schedule a part every week, so stay tuned!
