2026 ApollyCon Recap: Part 2

Here you have it, Part 2 of my ApollyCon recap posts for this year. I'm making my way through these posts one by one. Sigh. Not that I'm not excited to go through the memories of the events, it's just tedious gathering all of the information for it after I've waited for so long. But, that's my own fault. I should've written this up months earlier. Work was just overwhelming, so I delayed it. Anywho, Part 2 is just going to cover the Welcome to the Capital event during night two of ApollyCon. It's the signature JLA panel event where she discusses all things Blood and Ash and/or her writing in general.

  

When we walked in to the Welcome to the Capital event, they were handing out poppy flower crowns. I didn't put mine on because I didn't want to mess up my hair and it didn't match my green outfit. It turns out, that was a mistake. JLA specifically mentioned how cool it was to see all the flower crowns in the audience and wanted a pic of everyone with theirs on. Oops. Oh well. As usual with these events, there are so many things to take pics of. There are cardboard cutouts of the characters, large dragons, fancy decor, it's all very cool. On the walk in, there were even revenenants that we had to follow. I think you can see me in the original video, but I don't know if I want to watch it back. I'm sure I looked swell after waiting over an hour for the event to start.

 

A lot of the decor was from previous events, like the cutouts of the Flesh & Fire characters from 2025. However, they had an awesome spoilery image of Cas as the backdrop behind JLA and the Blue Box Press ladies, Jillian and Liz. There was also a more 3D cardboard version off to the side. It was super cool. JLA even took pics with attendees before the event started, which was great as my Friday signing day photos ended up being blurry and terrible, so at least I got these.

 

 

 

And here is where I start the photo dump of all the cool decor and cutouts. I don't have  much to say about them at the moment. Because I, once again, don't remember much since I let so much time slip by before writing this up. I also didn't take pics of some of the things that were there in previous years. I was trying to make good use of my limited time before the event started. I also had to take some selfies, which was difficult. Normally, my friend (who didn't attend this year) takes pics with me. The friend I did attend with took pics, but, understandably, she had to rest after we waited in line for so long. I must say, even with it being a selfie, the pic with shirtless Reaver is pretty great. Oh, there were also free macarons.

 

The panel itself didn't really consist of any new information. I think the biggest piece of news was that the final Blood & Ash book, The Throne of Bone and Ash, wasn't finished yet and probably wouldn't release in 2026 due to JLA's health and also because of how stressful the world currently is, which is definitely understandable. It was also mentioned that JLA designed the FBAA endpapers/edges and the A Crown of Ruin edition. 

 

As Ascended ticket holders with panel passes, we received a free Lug bag with the ApollyCon exclusive paperback of The War of Two Queens. My friend said the Ascended Lug bag looks like a lunchbox, and I can definitely see it. To me, it looks like a freezer bag or a sci-fi tote bag. I ended up giving mine to the friend I usually attend ApollyCon with. I thought about keeping it, but I have so many totes and there just wasn't any point. The Primal ticketholders received a mug and something else in their fancy silver bag. I was fine with what I got, though. I don't even use the Lug bag they gave out in 2025. I will say that trying to exit this event was a nightmare. People did not listen to the announcement about how/when to exit. It was chaos.

 

Well, that was all for the JLA event. This event is typically my favorite part of ApollyCon, followed by the signings, so I'm always taking more pictures than I probably need to. I felt like I didn't get as many good ones this year, though. My usual friend wasn't there to force me to pose better or make sure the pics weren't blurry. But, oh well, I still got some good ones. Stay tuned for the next recap post. Part 3 should cover Friday panels and a majority of the Saturday signing time.

2026 ApollyCon Recap: Part 1

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!

ApollyCon 2025 Recap: Day Four

It's the final 2025 ApollyCon recap post! Right on time for 2026 tickets to go one sale next week. Woo! Actually, not woo. Trying to buy tickets to ApollyCon is always stressful. I've gotten lucky every year except one so far, so we'll see how everything goes this time. I swear this event likes to give readers ulcers. Why does it have to be so insane?

 

So Saturday, the fourth day of the convention, is all about signings. It starts super early, like 8 a.m., so lining up is even earlier. After the previous day, we were too tired to get up super early. We got up just early enough and managed to hop in line at a decent time/place to get fairly okay tickets for ticketed authors. First up on our stop once we got in was Amanda Bouchet. We see her every time we go, with the exception of the year we volunteered. She's always super nice. 

Next up was an author I hadn't read before, but I kept hearing about the book Servant of the Earth. So, I bought the UK cover, since it has a dustjacket, and had her sign it. She was also very nice. Her line was pretty quick too, which is always a bonus when the feet start hurting from too much standing/walking.

 

 

After that, we went to Clare Sager's line. Clare is actually British, I think, which I wasn't expecting. Her accent is amazing! I brought a copy of A Touch of Poison for her to sign, since I technically had the first book in her series signed by her last year. I just didn't get to meet her because my friend picked it up for me when I was volunteering.

 

We stopped at JLA's table to take pics with her decor, since we didn't get a pic of it with her at her table from the previous day. The room she signed in after hours was just a bland hotel conference room. Her actual table area had the dragon (draken) from the Coronation event along with some nice backdrops. 

 

Emma Hamm was next. She had a wonderful standee of her new troll male main character. It was pretty great getting pics in front of it. Emma seemed to recognize us a bit from the previous time we'd met her in 2023's signing, so that was cool. I had her sign the second book in her dragon series. I still need to read her books, though. She's awesome, so I need to get on it.

 

 

We went to Juliette Cross's table after that. We'd preordered a special copy of her The Wraith King book. It has a gorgeous cover. I haven't read this book or Firebird yet, but I've heard Firebird is very controversial, for reasons I completely understand. I need to read it, though, as I'd like to know if I even want to keep my copies. I have the FairyLoot and the regular hardcover.

 

 

Next, we went to Abigail Owens, and she signed our copies of The Games Gods Play. I started reading this one, but put it down for one reason or another. I need to get back into it soon before I forget everything Luckily, I think I'm only about 30 pages in if I do choose to restart it.

 

 

Here we have Stacia Stark. We picked up our preorders of the entire Kingdom of Lies four-book set. This was a special event exclusive set, and it's very pretty. I hope Stacia does a matching set for the spinoff book(s). Stacia also has a cool accent. She's from New Zealand. Oh, and like with Callie Hart, Stacia's table was another one that I decided to leave behind my yearbook at. Again, I didn't get very far before someone reminded me, but it just kept happening. Ha ha.

 

 

We got to take pictures with Rhage from the Black Dagger Brotherhood series! It was so cool! Look at the set up Art by Stefani had! It's so cute! The stars for each brother! The red carpet. Gah! I love it. I'm glad I got to have a miniature Rhage sticker to take home with me. I need to get this and the JR Ward pics framed so I can have them all together. That'd be cute. 

And then, we went to Zoey Draven's table. We'd received a copy of her book, Desire in His Blood, in a previous ApollyCon bag, and we were finally able to meet her and get it signed this year. Huzzah! She was very nice. I was super glad her line had died down, because it was pretty full when we went to check a few times.

Up next, we have the actor who plays Zsadist on the Passionflix show, Andrew Biernat. He was nice. He talked a lot about his process for getting into Zsadist's character. He was also tall, as you can see here. Totally not used to taking pics with guys attending ApollyCon, as normally the authors are around my height or shorter. I think Amber V. Nicole is the only one who's really wowed me with her height.

 

We were able to stop by Olivia Rose Darling's table to get our books signed by her. Once again, I haven't read her book. My friend did, though, and she really wanted to get Olivia's signature, even though we were running short on time. Actually, this may have been the point when we came back from lunch for the next signing, as the floor is different here, meaning we were in the other signing room. Well, lunch shenanigans consisted of packing boxes to ship them via UPS and dropping the boxes all along the way, and then blocking traffic briefly when they toppled. I also bruised myself pretty well on that trip. It was a great time. 

 

 

 

 

At some point, I picked up my L.J. Andrews preorder of Curse of Shadows and Thorns. I wasn't able to meet her because her line was too long, but she'd presigned the books, so that was convenient. I think she's coming back in 2026, so hopefully I can see her then, if I get tickets.

 

 

K.A. Knight was the last author we saw during the signing hours. We were totally dead by this point, even though we'd taken more breaks and only stayed like an hour or two for each signing session. It had all just been a lot. But, we got her signatures. Then, it was off to get some food. We ate at a barbecue place nearby, it wasn't great. Last time we'd gone there, we just got appetizers, so I think that's the plan if we ever have to eat there again.

 

 

Oh, and I wanted to mention some of the authors that we saw that I didn't take pics with. Max Walker was one. Jennifer Estep, Elise Kova, and Mai Corland were the others. Two of those authors I'd seen before, so I was fine not taking photos. The other two, I just hadn't read their books yet and I was too tired to get a pic. Once the signing was over and food had been eaten, we went back to our rooms to pack our bags, as we had to be at the airport very early and we still had one event left.

 

The last event of ApollyCon is always the After Party. This year, it was sponsored by 1,001 Dark Nights/Blue Box Press, and they had the Coronation event decorations all throughout the room. The theme was masquerade, hence the masks in the pic, and most people dressed in gowns. We were too tired to put our dresses on, so we just went in t-shirts and comfy pants. We couldn't stay the whole time anyway, so it was fine. When we got in the event after watching the young cheerleaders who were also at the convention center leave and tumble their way down the hall we were lined up in, there were free books on tables inside. Some jerks were taking stacks of books, but I just took two Kresley Cole ones. Because I love Kresley Cole. There were also books in the goodie bags we received on entry. I didn't keep them, though. I let someone else take mine. So, after that, we basically just sat and swayed to the music. Eventually, we decided to get up and take pics at the photo booth. We were going to take pics with the cardboard cutouts, but the staff started taking them down because people kept touching them. I don't see why the staff didn't just have the DJ announce not to touch the cutouts. Instead, they just took them down. It was weird and disappointing. We stayed a bit after that to see if JLA would come by to give her usual end-of-event speech, but I guess she never did. We had to leave for our flight in the morning, though, so we gave up waiting about an hour before the event ended anyway.

Well, that was all for the fourth day. It was chaos and pain, but after it was over, we slept for a few hours before we had to head to the airport very, very early to go home. We got conned by the hotel into paying for an expensive cab ride instead of using a Lyft or Uber, but at least our suitcases fit. That's all that mattered. We can cry about the extra price later while I cry about how much I spent too. Ha ha. Overall, 2025 ApollyCon may not have been my favorite of the past years' events, but there were some nice moments. I hope 2026 is better, though. Fingers crossed I get tickets. You can see all the books I added to my shelves up above, along with all the swag I got. The crazy thing is, I didn't even keep it all. I got rid of some of it. And this is definitely less than what we got last year, thankfully. There were way too many pens in last year's bags.