Villains And Vixens Convention Recap

A book convention can look like simple shopping from the outside, but once you’re on the floor it’s really a live map of what readers want right now. We’re back from Villains and Vixens 2026 in Orlando, Florida, and we’re breaking down what surprised us most: the heavy lean toward dark romance across categories, the pockets of monster romance and sentient object romance we practically stumbled into, and the way the event’s layout made discovery feel effortless instead of chaotic.

We talk logistics that matter if you’re planning your own trip to a romance book convention, especially an 18+ event. Think wide aisles that can handle book carts, fast registration, volunteers who ask about ADA accommodations without you prompting, and the confusing side of communication when updates live across Facebook, apps, and last-minute posts. We also unpack the schedule, the long lunch break, and why a two-day badge can save you from FOMO when some authors aren’t there both days.

You’ll also hear quick chats and spotlights from the con floor with creators like DJ Russo, B. Northwick, JD Netto, Kara Reynolds, KR Fryett, Lauren Sinatra, Jessica Lee, Jenny Hickman, and Kelsey Lee, plus our real-world buying lessons: limited stock goes fast, and the last stretch of the day can turn into surprise markdowns. If you like dark romance, fantasy romance, gothic horror, folklore horror, or monster romance, this recap is packed with leads for your TBR.

Subscribe for more fantasy and sci-fi with romance, share this with your favorite con buddy, and leave a review so more readers can find us. What’s the one genre alley you’d beeline for first?

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Transcript

Welcome And Villains And Vixens Basics

Mari 0:00

The views expressed in this podcast are solely those of the hosts. All creative works discussed or reviewed are the intellectual property of create of the creators of said stories and are being used under the Fair Use Doctrine. Hello and welcome to Of Swords and Soulmates, a podcast where we read, watch, and discuss fantasy and sci-fi stories spiced with romance and ask, is this a kissing book? I'm one of your hosts, Mari, and with me I have Kelly.

Kelly 0:37

Hey everyone, it's Kelly. We also have Ashley.

Ashley 0:40

Hey guys, it's Ashley. We also have Jonathan.

Jonathan 0:42

What's good, everybody? It's JP.

Mari 0:46

Today we're going to be discussing our experience at the Villains and Vixens book convention in Orlando, Florida this year in 2026. It doesn't normally happen in Orlando, but it did this year, and it was a very, you know, relatively easy drive for most of us since we're all universal people and are in Orlando, anyways. So we ended up going to it. Um it is an 18 plus event. It took place July 24th and 25th at the Orlando World Center Marriott. It is described. Hold on. Hold these. Okay. Somehow something came out in weird text for me. So their description of this is villain, their official like from the FAQ description is that villains and vixens is a book event where all genres are welcome because villains and vixens can be found in every story. That makes more sense to me, because there were some things where there were like horror genres, and I'm like, I haven't been to a con that's got like horror, straight up horror, as some of the authors. And I did see several horror books there and horror authors there.

Jonathan 1:55

Um makes sense. Hey Mario, was it the same text on highlight? I thought you were trying to like redact information.

Mari 2:02

No, I copied and pasted from the the Vixens and Villains website from their FAQ, and I guess it was in a different color. And I was doing it on my phone. On my phone, I could read it, but now I've got it pulled up on my laptop, and it's like, no. Like that's fine, whatever. It's Monday. It's the Monday after being out of town all weekend, and I was real smart and like took off of work today so I could recover, but then I forgot. So you went to work anyway? And I'm tired. Not again.

Jonathan 2:32

This is not the first time that you've done that.

Mari 2:34

No, it is not. And my coworker was like, Mari. I'm gonna start asking you before you go on trips. Yeah, yeah.

Jonathan 2:44

When did uh did you did you then uh did you stay the day or did you end up coming home?

Mari 2:49

So I drove down a day earlier than you guys. I got there on Thursday because I wanted to um do some other stuff in Orlando that wasn't the parks, and I wanted to kind of maybe go to some of the independent bookstores in Orlando, which jokes on me, there are way more independent bookstores in the Orlando area than can be done in one day. Um but I did get to visit a few, which is cool. I'll post about them as I, you know, as it goes on uh on the Instagram page. But they were they were all really cute little bookstores. And then Friday and Saturday was the event, and then Sunday, I I drove home on Sunday, but I drove home later than you guys. I went to Sarah's piss and kiss, and I went to her house, and she and I are doing a costume uh for Dragon Con. Uh, so she had to do a fitting. Um so we did a fitting and chatted for a bit, and then I got home. I didn't get home terribly late, but I was just it was a long um weekend. Kelly wasn't able to go on this trip, so I I was unable to play passenger princess. So I had to do all the driving, all of my own driving, and I came home and I'm like, I am tired, and slept really hard when I got here on Sunday, which means Sunday night when it's time to actually go to sleep. My body was like, No, no, we don't need to sleep again.

Jonathan 4:08

I'm sorry.

Mari 4:10

It's fine, it's all good.

Feeling Prepared Versus Going Blind

Mari 4:12

Um, so I know going into this event, I did not feel actually let me backtrack. I don't know exactly how much minutes of audio we got at the con. I tried to record as we went on, like I we did with the Monster Rodica book on event. So after this you guys will be able to hear basically us talking about the event and the experience of the event as it as we experienced it as it went on. Um but I figured we'd just do a little bit of talking about it in general. I know that leading up to this event, I felt very unprepared. I like didn't read, didn't didn't make it a point to read a lot of like authors or anything. I was just like, I'm going in blind. How did you guys feel about it going in?

Jonathan 4:56

I felt good. I mean, I I read ahead. Um it's uh I I think I read like three or four books of authors that were attending in that like last week leading up to it. Some of them were like tiny like novellas. I definitely got a little choosy. I like started, I didn't recognize a lot of names on the list, and then I just started kind of googling them. Um I think so if you're if you're a book convention host, link up to your author's pages for me. Makes it easier. Nobody does that.

Mari 5:35

I don't know why. I don't know if it's real hard. I I don't know why nobody does that. I I I wish more did that, yes.

Jonathan 5:41

Yeah. You have to probably maintain it every time an author pulls in or pulls out, kind of thing. Like you'd you'd have to update the the website, which can cause some some hiccups if you're like pushing to uh if you're not the one building your site.

Ashley 6:00

Yeah, yeah. You don't have a channel or whatever.

Jonathan 6:02

But if you can, you can if you can handle that stuff, linking to it would save it would have I would have been able to research more authors. Uh but I feel like of the ones that I did get a chance to read, 75% of them were uh uh a great hit for me, and I went and sought out at the at the convention.

Ashley 6:24

Yeah.

Mari 6:25

I think um so the authors I had read several authors that were there already, but it just I happened to have read them. I didn't read them specifically for this, like I just in my reading journey I I read them. Because several of them were Monsterotica book con authors, so I'd read them from or I'd heard of them from that. Um which leads me to like I think one thing that I was surprised about, I think we talked about this a little bit, was the the makeup of like the genres that were there. Um I feel like you know, we've been to a few book conventions in Orlando now, and I feel like I was telling Kelly, I feel like we tend to see a lot of the same authors, but this event felt like I had a lot of different authors I hadn't seen at other Orlando events. It was more like variety. I mean, there were some regulars for sure, like some locals or whatever, but it seemed like there were a lot of authors that were new to me. Um that was kind of interesting to see.

Genre Mix And Floor Layout

Mari 7:20

But I feel like we uh we went right down like dark romance alley at the beginning. We went in, we're like right or left, we'll go right. And uh we found ourselves in a deep, dark, masked alley.

Jonathan 7:35

How did you how did you feel about how did you feel about that? Because like what they did was they it or it seemed like what they did is they kind of took like-minded authors and like put them in the same row. Like it was like being at a department store and you were just gonna shop this department.

Mari 7:49

What like a in a bookstore or like a library too? Yeah. I thought that was really I thought that was a really good way to organize it, because most likely if you like this one author who does this one genre or this one type of story, and there's two or three other authors that are like have elements that are similar, then it's very you know, it's likely you're gonna like them too.

Jonathan 8:12

Yeah. And then I found that those authors fed off the energy of their colleagues.

Mari 8:18

Yes.

Jonathan 8:20

And that made things just so much better. Another part about the layout I think that was really interesting, it was so in retail, we would take the high attractive item and put it in the back of the store. So you would have to kind of like walk to the back of the store, sorry, walk past all the other stuff. Um and I think for two reasons, so they put the authors that were the ticketed ones at the end of the aisle at the back of the space, but which was smart because then you had to walk down the aisle of all the other authors that they were those authors were supporting. Like they were like almost like anchor authors at the end of each aisle.

Mari 9:00

Yes.

Jonathan 9:01

And then it gave the hosts of the venue an opportunity to cue people or ticketed signings at the end uh using a space that wasn't uh the alley walkway, yeah. Yeah, it was it was it was uh and it would seem like they had attendants or supporters there helping. So I thought that was a neat use of the volunteers were did a good job.

Mari 9:25

This whole con, I think, was very well put together. The the walkway the what to call them, but the shopping walkways like where the authors were, felt nice and wide, like even though everyone had their book carts and things they were hauling around. Other than maybe the high, high traffic times, I didn't feel like it was terribly hard to get around really.

Jonathan 9:43

Yeah, I think you could ease easily be three abreast, possibly four abreast.

Ashley 9:47

Yeah. It helped too that they didn't stack vendors on the like the perimeter of the space, which I think our other experiences at BookCon's have been. Like people are you know, stacked and stacked and stacked.

ADA, Wide Aisles, Fast Registration

Ashley 10:03

To be very clear, I don't know if it was the event or the hotel, but there was a lot of acknowledgement and signage and uh a general appreciation for ADA needs at here, which was refreshing to see. I I don't need anything special. I'm just you know an everyday I'm a Karen, right? I'm gonna complain about stuff, but I don't have any anything that I need someone else to pay attention to. And so I appreciated that this event and the hotel coordinated, you know, these extra steps for folks that might need, you know, extra attention or extra space or they made it very seamlessly, you know, places to sit down. Yeah, very seamless. It was it was a pleasure, yeah, honestly.

Mari 10:51

From registration, you go up, which registration was really fast, like you're getting your ticket, uh, I mean your badges up, and you don't even have to say anything. They asked you if you needed ADA accommodations.

Ashley 11:01

Yep.

Mari 11:02

Uh which was part of like I guess the training they did for the volunteers and everything, which I thought was really, really well done.

Jonathan 11:07

It was, it was definitely well done. Ashley and I uh went through registration at the high point of registration, and I can promise you that it was like uh a minute or two, just so you know. Like it like so when you were like registration was really fast, and um, I know that when you register, I think they did you have a line to to wait in?

Mari 11:27

No, so like um registration opened at what like uh nine? Nine. And I think I got there at like nine thirty because we couldn't get in till 10.30, right? Right. Yeah, so I think I got there at like 9.30. And so by the time I got there, there was it was uh there may have been one person in front of me.

Ashley 11:45

Yeah. I think we must have gotten there at like 9 15. I think we had parked at like nine on the nose, and then it takes a few minutes to walk over because we walked. Um there there were two lines.

Jonathan 11:56

Yeah, it was it was it was pretty, but it was only minutes. Like it was like it was not like weird.

Ashley 12:01

Oh, I mean, obviously, because by the time Mari got there, there was no line. So she wasn't terrify she wasn't super far behind us. So yeah, they were very efficient, they had the bags ready, you know. They only needed one of our IDs. They scanned, you know, the ticket in the wallet. It was a very, very pleasant experience there. I think she said though that they only needed one. I think we had misheard. But she did take it and look at it.

Jonathan 12:29

I mean, she was polite then, if that's

Ticket Transfers And Communication Gaps

Jonathan 12:31

yeah.

Mari 12:31

Yeah, I um super nice. I will say shout out to the the Lens and Vixen's team too, because Kelly couldn't come kind of last minute, so I had an extra ticket, and I really didn't to be honest, I didn't do any research and to try and figure out if I could sell it or any of that mess. But I did run into um uh somebody um at one of the bookstores uh who like was looking for a ticket and they weren't able to get one last minute, so I wanted to give them Kelly's ticket, and I didn't know if I could even do that. It was the day before the event. And I messaged, I messaged them on Instagram because uh they don't have a Discord or anything. And I got an automated response like right away telling me, you know, that they would be a delayed response, blah, blah, blah, and that the best way to contact them would be the email. So I then went right in right away and sent them the email, and they responded back to that email right away with like how to transfer the ticket. And I was able to do like the whole automated process of transferring the ticket the day before. And the person got it, got in, had no trouble. Um it was really smooth for it being like basically when I know they were in the middle of stuff of doing con stuff.

Jonathan 13:36

Yeah. That's good. It was good, uh good to see that they were at least monitoring that space then.

Ashley 13:43

Right. Well, and allowing those kinds of changes. I don't know if um Romana C. But con did that or did that as close to the event as they did, but I mean, I think overall their communication was was pretty sharp throughout the process. I just think it was a little like you couldn't really tell where you were supposed to look, maybe. So like Facebook, and then eventually they had the app, but I didn't really understand the Yap app. And so I think they tried.

Jonathan 14:12

I mean April the Yap app. Yeah, yeah.

Ashley 14:16

That was uh it was a little frustrating the day of, but it was just new to us, to be fair. Um and we didn't really understand, you know, like the ticketed author process. I think we had missed that update, but I do think that they had been pretty communicative on the Facebook group.

Mari 14:33

Yeah. I've not been on Facebook much at all.

Ashley 14:36

I had not been very great about it at all.

Mari 14:39

I have I I cannot say what they were doing on Facebook. And I do I do know that that was I think the main place that they were communicating is Facebook because like they have the website, but it just has like the basic information. They didn't have anything up to date.

Ashley 14:53

The authors in hindsight, I think, were super chatty and like advertising, you know, a lot of stuff on Instagram. I'm not super great about following authors, but I noticed that, you know, especially on like day two, I started getting a lot more of their stuff and their posts on Instagram. So, you know, for future goers to events like this, you know, just like it's probably a good idea to start following some of the authors that you enjoy in advance, and you'll have a better idea of the things that they're offering or the activities they're participating in, you know, like all the bingos that they were doing. That probably would have been helpful too. We I was just a slacker.

Mari 15:38

Yeah, yeah. But we did um, so it was like two hours of like looking around time basically.

Scheduling, Lunch Break, Two-Day Strategy

Mari 15:45

We got we kind of were able to look at the first half, and then we had our break, it was a two-hour break for lunch where they closed it down. Well, they closed the bending shopping area down. There were panels that were going on, which we didn't get to any of the panels. Um But we did we did lunch, and uh at that point Sarah met up with us from Hisson and Kissin, and then we did the the afternoon portion, which was like another was it three hours? It was till five, I believe, right? Yeah, until four.

Ashley 16:16

Yeah, three hours in the afternoon. On Friday, yeah.

Jonathan 16:19

But till we had lunch and everything, so we had a late lunch then on Friday.

Ashley 16:22

You're right, you're right.

Jonathan 16:23

So we probably only had like the last two hours, but I would say like I thought it was I feel like you could get through, and you may have, Mara, you may have gotten through the whole venue in one in one day.

Mari 16:36

Yeah. Um and then because I really I had to I had to make it over to the left-hand side, which is where the monster romance authors were, because I had a pre-order that I wanted to pick up. So I wanted to get over on that side. So I had like the monster romance, the um Senior Object Romance people were generally together. Um and then I think like romantic fantasy romance was kind of spread out, sprinkled in between, and horror was kind of sprinkled in between. I don't know that those those were very like clustered in one spot or anything. But yeah, I think I was able to talk to everybody, just kind of look at everything and talk to everybody the first day for sure, which made it easier for me to go back the second day when I was like, I'm not gonna get any more books, I'm done. Lies is lie, liar told you. I did in fact buy books the second day as well.

Jonathan 17:32

Sorry, Kelly. We tried to stop her, but she's a biter.

Ashley 17:38

I don't know truly if Kelly would have been able to rein her in. Kelly, I think that Mari being in her state of euphoria when it comes to books and these cons. I don't know that you would have been able to resist her. You're strong. Don't get me wrong.

Kelly 17:57

I'm not I'm not judging.

Ashley 18:00

I just I think I think you're happiest when she's happiest, and I think you just you would have been just mush at her feet, truly. She was so happy. We were all just like floating on air.

Kelly 18:11

Yeah, no, it's the old mantra, happy wife, happy life, but also I find slightly annoyed wife amusing life.

Mari 18:19

This is true.

Jonathan 18:23

Well, I've ticked that box for Ashley. I I yeah, it's amusing here often.

Ashley 18:31

I mean, I think you did more damage on day one by far than you. Yeah.

Jonathan 18:36

Yeah, I think I found my people.

Ashley 18:38

Yeah, Jonathan thinks he's found his people. This is a good story.

Jonathan 18:42

Yeah. It's uh it turns out my people are sentient object uh writers and uh just the unhinged kind of like was it in was it Nicole Parker who wrote uh Hello Nurse? And uh Kelly, if you're interested, uh legally, legally speaking, it's not the Animaniacs. Yeah, legally. But uh yeah, I think like finding that um finding that space where I could maybe say like not say like in like odd ways, but just talk about the subjects. Like I wonder, I wonder if this is a topic that gets covered in books. Um and to find out that, yeah, heck yeah, uh, that's a thing. So I was uh I was stoked to find those those people. I look forward to more of those people.

Mari 19:35

I will say all the sentient object romance authors that were there are also at Monster Rodica Bookcon. Just if you guys want to ever try and go towards that event.

Ashley 19:47

Our new friends in that alley were telling us as well. I think if it wasn't so close to Kansas, he would be far more amenable. Yeah. Or if it was closer.

Jonathan 20:02

Yeah, that's uh it definitely has my eyes are on more of the authors in that space as a result. So that was a a a huge positive for me.

Ball Invite Mystery And Nightlife

Mari 20:16

So to be clear, much like how we do Romanticy con and I think all the other cons we've we've been to as a as a group, we didn't do any of the the night activities. I know there was like a evening night activity on Friday, and then there was like a a ball kind of situation on Saturday, which I've heard good things about both of those. I just no none of us went to any of that. Um we went to Universal Halloween stuff.

Jonathan 20:41

Yeah, this is a good question. I'm gonna I'm gonna uh I'm gonna dump this over to Ash because this is a I think this is a question we're not sure about and uh fire away.

Ashley 20:50

Yeah, I want to take a step back and talk about the swag bag that we got at check-in, because that girl was hefty. If you're going to villains and vixens next year, you're gonna need a bigger book cart because my book cart, which has all of the appropriate wheelage to carry weight, was very weighed down by Jonathan's and my swag bags before even buying anything else. But here's my question: inside the swag bag that nobody probably took enough time to really get into before the end of the day, there seemed to be an invitation to the ball. And it said the date, and it said the ball. I think it said the ball, but it didn't say the time. And it didn't There are no details. It just said you're invited, and then it said the ball name and the date. Was it really an invite? Or was it saying like, hey, this could have been an option for you? I don't know.

Jonathan 21:51

It there was so like if there's a negative for this uh con the communication elements and kind of what was Going on. There's it was lacking. Right. So I I if things changed on the fly, I don't know that we were totally made aware of it.

Ashley 22:10

Like that definitely wasn't announced. Like, hey guys, make sure you keep an eye in your swag bag for a handful of select people being invited to the I don't know that we would have gone, you know what I mean? We certainly weren't prepared. But they could have if that's a ball gun in my back pocket.

Mari 22:26

Right.

Ashley 22:26

But had that been a case where we would have known that it was a possibility, then perhaps we could have potentially packed in preparedness for that. But that's assuming that that's what that stupid thing in the envelope because remember you opened the envelope and we were like, oh, this looks fancy.

Mari 22:44

Yeah.

Ashley 22:44

So that was unclear. And I don't know if everybody got it, but there definitely weren't any announcements the day of that I saw that was like, hey, you know, keep an eye out, you might have this invite. And definitely I didn't see it before then to be to understand that it was possibly a possibility in the ticket package that we had, which was basic two days. Right, right.

Jonathan 23:05

But I I But also like I I did see some people attending the ball and they weren't wearing gowns. There were some.

Mari 23:11

No, I don't think there's an actual dress code. So like it was like a pajama party was Friday night, and then Saturday night it was I mean, they these book events, I think they're all labeled either b balls or masquerades or whatever. But it's not like they're gonna kick you out if you don't, you know, if you don't have like a tux or you know, a nice suit or or a fancy ball gown or whatever. Like it's not that. It's like it's an opportunity to dress up if if you're interested in it, but I don't think there's an actual dress code.

Jonathan 23:38

I think uh on Saturday it struck me as more of an opportunity to like we survive, let's let our hair down, and let's go, let's go just cut a rock. Right? I think I saw somebody in like a hockey jersey, uh which is a uh popular.

Ashley 23:52

It was definitely a big character reference.

Jonathan 23:55

So there there was like some of that going on. So I I think it for me, not that I listen, I'm not staying up that late, but it w it might have been nice to have a better understanding, and maybe we would have pop popped in or encouraged.

Ashley 24:13

It's funny, he was just talking about it. Um yesterday, I think we said, you know, maybe I think we just need the right planning. Probably the right planning. I mean, so that seemed to be his reasoning for it. And I was just like, if you're gonna make me go to a ball and I'm not opposed, but your ass is gonna have to dance with me. And then he was like, Ugh, I don't know about that.

Jonathan 24:37

I got the I can do the hokey pokey.

Mari 24:41

I'm not, I got you asked. You and I will dance if that's the last one.

Ashley 24:44

We don't need stupid boys, we don't need boys. Um so it was interesting that it wasn't a hard no for him, but yeah, maybe. I mean, I think it just depends. Uh I think this one though, this week I, you know, when we saw the young lady in the jersey that he was just talking about, that was actually Saturday night. So it seemed like people were doing character dress-ups and such for the for the ball Saturday night, unless there was a second pajama party. There were definitely people in pajamas, there were definitely hockey romance characters, there were um there were a few other romance-related characters, and you know, you could just tell by the outfits. So it kind of seemed to be like a whole fun situation and not just like a fancy pantsy ball situation, which seemed nice. Yeah, like a nice option.

Mari 25:31

I would definitely be in favor of a more relaxed option where you can dress up and have fun if you want to, but you're not required to. Right. I mean, everybody can be at their level of comfort and enjoy that as a few. Yeah. So I would say if you don't think it's gonna be closer to you, then you might want to look into their announcement 2027.

Ashley 26:01

Yeah, I think they said like next week. Yeah, something like that. That that number sounds right.

Mari 26:05

Um early in August. If that's something that you think about, I would say I just remember I was gonna say I wish I would say this because Discord has its issues as well, but I kind of wish that the tables in the exam had in the Discord, because that tends to be a really good source for crowdsourcing information, which you're aware is not the official source, but it still looks like people helping each other so that they don't have to do all the uh information. So it's like little you know, chat rooms or just like the day of if you had a question, or if you're like, hey, did anybody else get this, you know, in their swag bag or things like that, you can kind of talk back and forth with people, which I I believe the Yap app has some of that functionality, but I don't believe people were really using it.

Ashley 26:51

Yeah, it wasn't intuitive the uh the Yap app. And maybe it was just because we downloaded it the day of, I don't know.

Buying Tips, Markdowns, Limited Editions

Ashley 27:01

Um I I overall I was very pleased with the event. I wasn't mad at the money, I wasn't mad I was maybe a little perturbed about the time that we had at the event. I you know, everybody deserves lunch. I'm not trying to take from anybody's time, but it did feel like we had less time on the floor. Um, and so while we could have gotten it, gotten it done in one day, I I probably would have had some FOMO after one day that I had missed something, you know, if that makes any sense.

Mari 27:31

I think it definitely, yeah, definitely I would recommend anyone uh have even if you're just gonna do like the day the the day stuff like we did, to do two days. I think one day would be really uh hard. Unless there's just like one genre that you're into and you don't care at all about anything else, then maybe. But I I I think if you're gonna be there, you might you're gonna want to like look at everything. It it makes sense to go two days because some of the authors weren't there both days. And also because uh as we discovered towards the end of uh Saturday, authors don't want to take their stuff home. So a lot of people were doing like specials and markdowns on like books and things.

Jonathan 28:11

But also, like, hey, don't just wait on it, you know what I mean? Like don't those things disappear too if there's a book you're wanting, like you can't just sit out and wait for those things to sell out, they sell out. Yeah, yeah. And we've miss out on some people on day one for didn't we miss out on like a Juliet Cross book? Like we got we got like uh very limited. Not that this is a romantic copy or sometimes they'll have like we when we bought uh we bought DJ Russo's uh Omnibus, right? She had like I think she only had like 25 copies of that.

Ashley 28:48

Oh really?

Jonathan 28:49

Yeah. So I was really stoked that we Amari, myself, and Sarah were able to get one.

Mari 28:55

Yeah. And uh we were able to get it signed by DJ Russo, the author, and then go a few awesome, where the artist who did all the artwork for the cover was their rouge fox art. We were able to we were able to get them to sign that as well. Uh which is funny because we go we go up to them and they're like, You want me to sign? Yes.

Jonathan 29:16

Oh yeah. I had her like when I handed her the book, she opened the book and I said, Oh no, ma'am. I said, You you should sign this where you sign where would you sign your print?

Mari 29:24

Yeah.

Jonathan 29:25

I was like, so she was like, Oh, okay, she signed right on the conference for me.

Mari 29:29

She was at Monster Radica BoCon and I bought uh her print of uh the thinkerswim character of DJ Wusso's book. She had like a little print of it because she designed it. Um so I I I bought it and I was like, Could you sign it? And she was like, You want me to sign it? Like on it? I'm like, yeah, like you know, like artwork. Um yeah, there were several good authors, not authors, obviously, yes, authors, but artists there as well. Like some of the people had done the artwork for some of the Opal Rain books, Rouge Fox Archer has done a bunch of covers, Conki was there who's done a bunch of covers, and art and like character art. Um so yeah, if that was something that was more of what you were interested in. There was definitely a venue for that. There were also several like narrators that were there.

Ashley 30:17

Oh, there were, yeah.

Mari 30:19

Yeah, so I didn't I'm really bad at knowing the narrator's names. Like I'm good to remember the book title and the author. Narrator name usually feels right out the window of my brain. But there were several of them there, which was interesting just to see, you know, the span of their work and how like their their their viewpoint of it. Yeah, overall I was really happy with the variety of authors and everything over there. Um, I think it was a well-run con, and I would absolutely if it's if it does East Coast again or like an easy drivable distance to us, I would absolutely do it do it again. Do about that. I wouldn't have to do it.

Ashley 30:53

I wouldn't be more being in Florida, I wouldn't travel to Texas for it. Um I think for me it would have to be in Florida or maybe like you know, Georgia area. But it was very much, you know, a pleasant uh event uh overall. I don't think the venue itself was terrible. I think all the volunteers went above and beyond. I mean, they were carrying trays of water right to all the authors. Yeah, and and like offering to regular people too, and I think the way they handled all the ADA stuff was just really impressive, and everybody was very patient and very kind. All of the authors were just a delight, you know, like it was their first con. You know, nobody was snippy, nobody was rude, every all everybody was complimenting everybody. Um, you know, there were a lot of like cosplayers and people dressed up and it was all just so beautifully done. I outside I just I I don't I have no notes on the actual event, otherwise, like there's no red flags for me there.

Mari 31:56

Anything else we want to say about it before we wrap it up?

Jonathan 31:59

I had overall had a great experience. I thought it was awesome. I am I'm stoked that we had the opportunity I'm pleasantly surprised by the event. I I didn't think I was gonna enjoy it as much as I did.

Ashley 32:14

Yeah. You had the best time, I think.

Jonathan 32:18

I had a blast.

Ashley 32:19

All of his favorite people were there except for Kelly. That was all we were missing.

Mari 32:24

Kelly was there in spirit.

Ashley 32:25

Kelly was there in spirit, and we had good food. I think not that the event was hosting food, we had a good food weekend. Yeah, it was uh it was a good time. I'm definitely excited for the next one. Like way more excited for the next one now.

Mari 32:41

Um, I think we covered it.

Subscribe, Follow, And Read Along

Mari 32:48

So thanks for listening to Absorbs and Soulmaids. Before we go, make sure to check out the show notes, rate review, and subtract subscribe to us on your podcast app of choice. It helps others to find us. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok at Episode Soulmaids, or check us out on our website, AbsorbsandSoulmaids.com. If you'd like to offer a suggestion for a future episode, book recommendation, or discussion topic, feel free to reach out to us on the DMs of any of those options. If you want to read along with us as we prep for a new episode and get chapter by chapter occasionally unhinged interaction, join our fable app at Book Club by searching for the Episode and Soulmaids Book Club on that app. And last but not least, we hope they'll join us in two weeks for our next episode where we'll we will be talking Sword Heart by T. Kingfisher Uh Friday morning, 1026.

Live From Day One Onsite

Mari 33:41

1026. We are here. Here we have done our registration. Yep, seamless. Registration, yeah, super easy. Super easy. Right?

Speaker 33:49

Very easy.

Mari 33:50

Yeah, we got pins and badge ribbons and swag. So much swag. It is a heavy swag. Like books and swag, multiple. Um I don't even bother these. So we are now figuring out what we're gonna be doing for the day with ticketed authors and with uh ballrooms and looking at people's stuff and everything. Yeah. Um yeah, so I guess we will check in throughout the day. Bye. Okay, so I'm here with DJ Russo. Introduce yourself.

DJ Russo 34:28

Hi, I'm DJ. Um I'm a lady monster author who writes about female monsters um basically falling in love with human men most of the time. And um, yeah, I would love to see more monstrous women in the genre. Here, here.

Mari 34:47

Alright, so we've done the first half of the first day, and now there's a break for lunch, which is like a tomorrow break. Like 122 break for lunch. So we're waiting on the reservations. Um, what do you guys think so far of the four?

Ashley 35:02

I definitely felt there was a lot more dark romance here than romantic of common. Um, not supposed. Um, I don't think we traveled as far as we normally would have at this point in the other one, which is a good thing. Like we're, you know, mingling and there's a lot of stuff to see, and everybody's so nice. Ridiculously nice.

Mari 35:26

Agreed, I definitely think unless we have a bunch of fun at the topic. Maybe we've just went into like the dark romance section. We wandered into the dark romance section. Jonathan, what do you think so far? I think everybody's kind.

Jonathan 35:42

I think it's an interesting, um, everyone's patient and kind at these events. And I think that my biggest takeaway from this is that they're just polite.

Mari 35:53

I agree. Nobody's been like super pushy um in terms of like the people selling stuff. Also, nobody seems to be very like frantic or in a bad mood as far as like congoers. Um, so it's been a pretty much good event. But uh alley, the alleyway, the walkways between the booths are nice and wide, so even with everybody with their cards. I don't think it's been too, too bad to get around. Um, yeah, so so far, so far, so good. We're gonna get some food and some caffeine and some park. And meet up with Sarah from Hissin and Kissin. Um, so hopefully she'll be on this next little uh part next time you hear us. We will be fed, maybe, or eating. We'll see. We'll see how it goes. All right, talk to you guys later. Bye. All right, so it is now hold on.

Sara 36:41

Uh welcome back to the podcast. You're listening to Of Swords the Soulmates, live from Villains and Vixens 2026 in Orlando, Florida. Remember, spit a little whimsy on the tip. Yes.

Jonathan 37:04

I don't have a response. Sarah, put your romance in me. Like, what did you do while I was away? And then everyone, baby.

Mari 37:23

All right, so this is uh us after day one this afternoon. Um we've done our our last rounds. And it is Sarah from Hissin' and Kissin, and Jonathan and I. Ash has gone off to do bathroom.

Jonathan 37:42

She's taking a no, she's doing the check in.

Mari 37:45

She's doing checking in. She's doing the adulting of the relationship.

Jonathan 37:52

We also have Sarah with an H. Sarah with an H, she must say V.

Speaker 3 37:56

Hello.

Jonathan 37:57

You might recognize Sarah with an H's voice from a very productive podcast, Once Upon a Time. About the show called the show called Once Upon a Time. Yeah.

Speaker 3 38:08

Podcast is called Once Upon a Captain Swan.

Jonathan 38:12

Did you say a Captain Spawn?

Sara 38:13

Captain Swan or the bird.

Speaker 3 38:17

Like a Swan?

Jonathan 38:18

Oh, I'm thinking about Elizabeth. Is it related?

Speaker 3 38:21

The character's name was Emma Swan.

Jonathan 38:24

Is that the same? Is that the same name?

Speaker 3 38:27

No. You're thinking of Elizabeth Swan from Pirates of the Caribbean?

Speaker 38:32

Arg. Maybe.

Sara 38:35

Have you guys seen Johnny Depp at Comic-Con? He's playing Ebenezer Scrooge. Yeah. And it was, and the tagline is before he was Scrooge, he was Ebenezer. What does it mean? He was always Ebenezer Scrooge. That's its full fucking name. That's his government name. I'm sorry, I don't know if you crushed me from it.

Speaker 17 38:51

I agree.

Sara 38:52

What are you doing?

Speaker 17 38:53

Also, it's chase that one.

Mari 38:56

It is not that long of a book. What do you think you're revealing? Like, if anyone has read the book, there's not anything new in that movie. Everybody knows that the best Scrooge is the Muppets.

Sara 39:07

And it's the most historically accurate, actually. The fashion of the Muppets is the most historically accurate Scrooge uh Christmas carol that you'll see. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

Jonathan 39:20

I'm gonna disagree.

Sara 39:23

It's actually it actually is. They actually made historically accurate costumes for the Muppets. It's actually totally correct. And Gonzo is the only person that says who did not die correctly in the emphasis that Charles Dickens wanted. So boom.

Mari 39:38

I'm gonna back summer up because I've also seen that YouTube and also I've read the book like a billion times. So I agree. But go ahead, Jonathan.

Jonathan 39:45

My point is not with the apparel, ma'am. I don't uh my my point is with the best Scrooge. I like when What About Bob played Scrooge.

Mari 39:56

Bill Murray. Bill Murray Scrooge. That's a good one. It's fun. But I don't think it's the best.

Jonathan 40:00

You think it's the best?

Mari 40:02

It's fun, but it's not the best. Do you have an opinion, Sarah with an H on what the best Scrooge is?

Speaker 3 40:07

No, I've seen none of these.

Sara 40:09

My favorite thing is I'm also Sarah with an H. So it's like my. No, you're still her from hissing and kissing. Sarah with an H. Because you're also Sarah with an H.

Jonathan 40:17

Yeah, no, you're Sarah.

Sara 40:19

My mommy.

Jonathan 40:20

No, Mimi. Your mummy, and then you're Sarah with an H. And I spell it with a capital H.

Sara 40:28

Mummy's pretty Sarah with an H.

Jonathan 40:32

Tell us maybe like, what is wrong with you guys?

Sara 40:36

What is wrong with you?

Mari 40:37

Okay, so running this back out, what do we think about the second half of uh today? Everything else we were able to see. We talked more of like what the monster romance authors were and sentient object people were. Uh so we went to the left rather than the right, so we called the other half of the vending area. We didn't do any of the panels because there's just not enough time. Um what do you think, Jonathan?

Jonathan 40:58

I, you know, I was surprised. Um the legally not the Animaniacs uh caught my eye. I'm really stoked on that one.

Mari 41:09

That's Nicole Nicole Parker. Hello Nurse. Hello, Nurse by Nicole Parker.

Jonathan 41:13

Hello Nurse. I like that one. Um I feel like there's gonna be an international version of that one. Um I can't sing the song, I don't know the song, but they sing like Panama, Peru, and Oh, the countryside. Alaska to, I don't know what the hell that's a state, but that works too. Yeah.

Sara 41:33

As I go, get in there. No. Get in, get in this bush. The microphone is very fuzzy.

Mari 41:41

Did you know that the microphone has a name? I'm afraid to ask. It's fizz gig. Besides what? Fizz gig. What is that? The dark crystal? I haven't seen that. Sarah!

Jonathan 42:01

Yes! Ashley, Ashley's back. Oh no!

Sara 42:08

What did you think of the second half so far, Sarah? It was good. We came in a little late to the game. Uh but good. I have a lot of books I'm coming back to buy tomorrow. That's why I have.

Speaker 3 42:22

Sarah, with an H, this is your first book convention, right? This is my very first one. I am very overwhelmed. But I did pick up two books from Silver Michaela that I'm really excited to read. It's like a rock band that she described as Sleep Token meets bad omens. Sleep token. Yeah, I'm here for this. They're they're devils, I guess. Um, they're each different.

Sara 42:49

Is it one's a devil and like one's something else? Yeah, one's a ghost. Yeah, they're like different.

Speaker 3 42:55

It sounds really good. I can't wait to you had me at Sleep Token. I don't know why I missed this. Yeah, they're all in a band. But each book is standalone. You can read them as standalone or you can read them all together.

Jonathan 43:08

What instruments do they what instruments do they play?

Speaker 3 43:12

That one plays the piano. Yeah, this one's definitely keys. There's a drummer, there's a guitarist, there was a singer.

Mari 43:19

Um this one that they're talking about is called The Devil and the Sparrow. The Devil and the Sparrow.

Speaker 3 43:26

Yeah.

Mari 43:27

Exactly called Didgerido.

Jonathan 43:28

Did Jerry Do, yeah. Um nobody's playing the skin flute, the um the pocket trombone, you know, nothing like that. Okay. That's important.

Mari 43:36

I would assume. I would assume as well. Now, Sarah with an H, what made you gravitate towards that author initially?

Speaker 3 43:44

The artwork of some really good looking guys in a rock band? That that called to me. You thought it looked K pop. It looked a little K pop. I thought it was K pop too. I'm not gonna lie, it looked a little K pop. So that pushed you in, that got you in. That yeah, that really Take a lot to draw me in. Straight kids, so hot right now.

Mari 44:05

Alright, Ash, what have you thought so far about the afternoon? Uh what all you looked at?

Ashley 44:10

Uh I thought the layout was very nice. It seems really organized. Everybody's been so friendly. Um, not that they haven't been in the past, it just seemed like really really more obvious this time. Um, I haven't purchased a ton. I've purchased a ton on behalf of Jonathan, which was a fun twist for me. Um but yeah, there's some there's some cool merch here. Everybody's been fantastic. I've the lanes are really wide. I think you said that earlier in the day, and so that's just we are we're a large group this time, so that was super nice. Overall, very impressed. I'm hoping that it's not insanely busy tomorrow, but I'm not delusional.

Mari 44:54

Right. Agreed. Alright, that's all we got for now. I think we're not gonna maybe do anything else book related today. We're gonna go to Universal and have some fun. Um, but if we do, I will get back on. Otherwise, we will see you guys uh tomorrow morning. Bye.

Saturday Author Spotlights

Mari 45:13

Okay, so we are here. It is Saturday morning with B Northwick, um, who we've read for the podcast, and we're gonna ask her to say hi. Hello. Have you had a good uh con so far? Oh, it's been amazing. Everybody's been so lovely. And so for people who don't know her, she wrote Cruel Dark and Lover, and then the most recent one is Black Wick It. Um, do you have anything else uh that you're thinking about coming up next?

Speaker 7 45:37

Yes, so actually my next book is gonna be coming out next year. It's called All the Unfortunate Dreamers. It's the What Dreams May Come, definitely Gothic Horror, Haunted House, all those things. Um, and heavily steeped in Scottish folklore.

Mari 45:50

And this is so completely different from the other worlds, right? Yes, completely separate.

Speaker 7 45:54

And the best way for people to find you is where like website, Instagram. Yep, beNorthwick.com is gonna have all my stuff. It's gonna have my Instagram, it's gonna have where you can get all the books, the newsletter, everything.

Mari 46:05

Alright, you guys follow her. We're gonna probably be talking about that new book when it comes out next year. Okay, so now I am in front of JD Neto. Um, his really pretty uh turquoisey book caught my attention. It's called Winterborn. So tell us about it.

Speaker 10 46:21

Hi, well thank you for having me. Uh Winterborn is a story of a lost winter prince who happens to dream of ice dragons and they end up being real. He's also the lost heir to the throne of bones, but he cannot rule because he's half men, half elf. And he also has a secret affair with his elf tutor, so things go really south from there. Slightly complicated, slightly complicated. Uh, and then his sister comes into play. She's young, but she's fierce, she's brave, and we have elf twins and different kingdoms and cultures. It's it's fantastic, yeah.

Mari 46:56

Nice, and then you have another series here. Tell us about that one.

Speaker 10 47:00

It's so this is my Fallen Angel Fantasy series. Lucifer's lost son finds out his father and the creator were lovers before enemies. And he goes to the underworld with his best friend, aka his ticket lover, to destroy his parents. So, yeah.

Mari 47:15

Nice. And in addition to being the author, you're also the artist. You do all the artwork for it. Have you had a good con?

Speaker 10 47:22

I have. Yeah, this has been fantastic. It's my first time at Villains and Vixen's. Uh, I can't wait to be back.

Mari 47:27

Awesome. And where can people find you if they want to follow you?

Speaker 10 47:29

Uh go to jdnetto.com. My socials are there, blog exclusives. You'll find me there.

Mari 47:35

And that's jdnetto.com.

Speaker 10 47:37

Correct.

Mari 47:38

Alright, thank you.

Speaker 10 47:39

Thank you.

Mari 47:40

So I am in front of Kara Reynolds' booth, has this gorgeous like Art Nouveau, leafy green print that caught my attention. And then it says on there with heroines over the age of 35, and now she's got me. So I'm gonna introduce you to her.

Speaker 8 47:55

Hi, nice to meet you. I love that you said art nouveau because that is the illustration style that I try to go for. And the um lady on my banner is Edie. She is the main character of Priestess, my first novel. Um, and that has a companion, Illuminator, and then Pilgrimus is the next one, and the last in the series, Pyrrhus, comes out this year, and I'm also working on an orc romantic that comes out in February. Nice. And where is the best place for people to find you if they want to look at your artwork you have and also like your books up? Okay, so my author Instagram is Kara Needs to Read, Kara with a K. And then my artist Instagram is Art by Kara Vorhees, and that's spelled Voorhees like Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13th. But if it's easier, you can go to Kara Needs to Read, and then my art is in the bio. Yeah, yeah.

Mari 48:47

And I'm gonna post a little video of some of her stuff because her booth is amazing, so you guys can see that.

Speaker 8 48:52

Thank you. Nice to meet you! Me too.

Sara 48:56

Coming back to you live from Villains and Vixen's. This is Sarah from your Monster.

Speaker 10 49:03

Up, please. Up, up more.

Sara 49:06

So sorry, that was our vodka martini order. Um, we are here coming to you live from latitude and longitude in the Marriott Hotel. Uh, eating again, and just a reminder to spit a little whimsy on the tip. Mari, back to you.

Mari 49:25

Alright, so we are done with the morning session for today, which is Saturday. How did Saturday? It is Saturday, right? Yeah, it is Saturday. Uh how did how did the morning session go for everybody?

Jonathan 49:41

Uh I thought it went really well. Uh, we got our steps in. Um I I got a new fidget spinner, and um I bought uh uh I bought oh I came across a new uh new to me uh modern sophic witch werewolf um Halloween type of book. I forget who wrote it, but it's like right up my alley right now.

Mari 50:07

The happiest time of the year.

Jonathan 50:08

Is that what it is?

Mari 50:09

Halloween.

Jonathan 50:10

Oh, crimas. Witches witches still be witching in crime.

Mari 50:15

Christmas witch. Yeah, witches are for life.

Jonathan 50:18

Word.

Ashley 50:22

Uh today was definitely productive. I was excited about the fidget spinners. That was a delightful find um for our anxious selves. Um, I certainly have done more damage in the 90 minutes that we were in there this morning than the entire day yesterday. Um so I'm a little nervous and excited about that. Also, there's a book coming in the mail later. That'll be fun. Yes.

Mari 50:46

Um surprised. Let me show for the record the look that Jonathan gave her, the speed with which his face whipped her side.

Jonathan 50:55

Uh well about the I mean books arrive. Our Amazon list uh oftentimes is just loaded with books like months out.

Mari 51:05

Now, let me add to evidence for the court. How many books did you get yesterday, Jonathan?

Jonathan 51:09

I lost track. I'm not gonna lie.

Ashley 51:12

It was a pile, like like inches, like that's how we measure.

Jonathan 51:16

Books are best measured in inches. It's a phallic uh it was it was a tall order yesterday.

Speaker 2 51:22

I'd say maybe a foot worth of books. I would say.

Jonathan 51:25

I would say yes, enough to enough, you could really get tied up in it. You can get knotted down in this in these types of things.

Ashley 51:33

There was there was some heft to Jonathan's list yesterday. And then I made up for time today, so good birth. Alright, Sarah.

Mari 51:45

Yes. What'd you get today? What'd you think? How was the morning?

Sara 51:49

Uh, it was good. I made uh effort to return to all the authors that I promised I would come back to tomorrow, and they held me accountable by finding me in my bright pink Lisa Frank-inspired cock corset. Um I love that pause. Yeah. Um it was good. I I got some Omega Verse, I got some monstas from some new authors I just met. Uh you want to pet the dog? Oh, I'm I mean, I'm gonna pet him with my eyeballs in my head. There's a very large book, is it? Large man. Large large man. His name is Rand. Rand. Right. Rand Paul? Okay, it's fine. Um Paul? No, his last name isn't Paul. I just said it's like Rand Paul. Anyway, um he was very large. I think he was like nine feet tall in real life. So we've got a real size difference king coming, and I'm real excited about it. It better be in there. That's all I'm saying.

Mari 52:54

And if uh you guys are interested in visually seeing what Sarah is talking about, the video I posted this morning does have a little snippet of this. Yeah, a very large, large dough. Yes. Um, one thing that I was talking to somebody about yesterday. No, I was talking to Kelly. Kelly and I were talking on the phone, he was asking me about it. He was asking, like, what kind of books and all over here, and I said that I thought it was felt like it was not just romanticity, it was like 30, 30, 30%. So I'd say 30% dark romance, 30% fantasy romance, and maybe 30% monster romance slash sentient object. What do you guys think?

Ashley 53:30

I mean, I think it definitely leans dark in all of those categories, actually. Like it's very heavy on the villain. In villains and vixens, is what I think my brain has processed. Very few things are just romance or just fantasy romance, truly. Um, I think everything has an undertone of darkness. And I'm not opposed, I just don't know that I had been emotionally prepared for that. Um, but you did find some not dark things.

Jonathan 54:01

I don't I don't think it's all dark. I think I didn't say I think sometimes the villains can be vixens.

Mari 54:09

Okay, so back to it. We were saying the percentage more or less mixed of what we saw.

Ashley 54:13

I mean, I don't think it's all dark, man, or all dark room, but I think it's predominant. Like there's probably only a handful of booths that didn't have like a like a dark leaning story, but a lot of it's quite dark, I felt. Yeah.

Mari 54:31

Oh, um what do you think as far as like the mix of the types of books that are here?

Sara 54:40

It's a lot of dark romance. Yeah. It's a lot of dark romance, which it's not always my thing. I like to have it a very specific way. So, like, for me personally, like mafia romance really isn't my thing, and like motorcycle guys aren't really my thing, but I understand they're everybody else's thing. I'm coming for my safe community of monsters and queer sentient objects and omega verse. Yeah. Yeah. Like like the uh sentient object romance with the uh drinks. Yeah, I'm excited for that one. I'm excited, and um I'm excited that I found some more queer representation today, which I think is really important. Yeah. But I will beat that over the head with a stick anytime anybody wants to talk to me about it.

Mari 55:23

So agreed. I saw today speaking up, I got to talk to uh a male male romance author that was written by a guy, and he does all the illustrations. Um I forgot his name because I'm hungry, um, but it'll be in in the uh the links and stuff. Um I think for me, like the the dark romance has to have an element of comedy in it for me to like it. Um if it's all dark and it's all serious and it's all brooding, it has a hard time like grabbing me. Um yeah. But that's just like it's all personal preference. It's like saying whether you like the color blue or the color purple or whatever, like it's not right or wrong. Um but yeah, I mean I think it's been so far a fun experience. Yeah, all we have to judge by is the day stuff. We didn't get any of the uh we do any of the afternoon activities, but like all the day stuff so far has been a fun experience and I think worth the the time and the money. Um it feels like it's been pretty well a well-run event.

Ashley 56:23

Yeah, it's definitely well run. It's still, I feel like, missing like stuff like jewelry or trinkets. There's like a few like vendors that aren't authors, yeah, yeah. Like I think even like the other con, romantical con had like five candle people. This one had maybe like two.

Sara 56:45

I think a way I would reorganize this is I would have one space for authors and another space for vendors. I agree. I think that would split things up a little bit better and people could kind of divide and copy a little bit more.

Ashley 56:58

I mean, there are definitely some, but I just it's not a lot, and while books are great, like don't get me wrong, I also want things to decorate my bookshelf or you know the earrings and shirts, shirts. There's no shirt, there's barely any shirts. It's wild to me. Yeah. Just the lack of of that kind of promotion.

Speaker 3 57:20

Um shirts.

Jonathan 57:24

Shirts, t-shirt, shirt.

Ashley 57:25

Things other than the books, things other than the books.

Jonathan 57:27

Oh, you want more merch?

Ashley 57:29

I want stuff. Ashley likes stuff.

Jonathan 57:32

Okay. We need more stuff. We can make stuff.

Ashley 57:36

I don't want to make it, I want to buy it. I'll make it. You buy it.

Mari 57:43

You're doing a great job at that, but it's working. Alright, so we're gonna wrap this up for now, and we will tag back in probably like after this uh this afternoon session.

Merch, Monsters, And More Interviews

Mari 57:58

Alright, bye.

Ashley 58:00

Bye.

Mari 58:01

Okay, I'm also 8 30, so yeah. Alright, so this is the afternoon portion. I am with KR Fryett. Um, and she has this really cool vibe on her stuff and and the ginormous stand-up character situation that you will see in the video.

Speaker 6 58:21

All right, KR Fryett, how's your day been going? It's been going pretty good. It's busy today, that's always good and nice and fun. Nice. So tell us about this giant you brought to the con. Um, so this is my first con, um, and I'm very nervous. I'm actually shy. So I was like, what could I do that was like sort of a big wow factor that would draw people in for me because actually like making the first move to talk to people is really difficult. And I was like, what if I made a true to size printout? So he's mission accomplished. So yeah, so he is his greater format brand, the greater, is 12 feet tall. So I got a 12-foot-tall banner. Nice, yeah, nice. So tell us about the book. Um, it's an epic fantasy romance. Uh it's The Witcher meets uh Jamie and Claire Fraser from Outlander meets the War of Lost Hearts trilogy. Um, it's a faded mate's Precious Idiots to Lovers, Found Family. Yes, uh Roller Coaster ride of emotions. And what's the name of the book? Of Moss and Stone. Yeah, that's probably important.

Mari 59:28

It's all good.

Speaker 6 59:29

And um, where can people find you or follow you? Um I'm on Instagram and threads mainly. Um I do have a website, which is just my name, krfryot.com. Um, I do also have an author store. That's the best place if you want to get my things. I'm on K U. Um and the next book in the series is coming out in October.

Mari 59:50

Very cool. That's what I was gonna ask you to take that out of my mouth. Awesome. No, you're good, you're good. Um anything else you want the readers to know or look forward to, or anything, um, a hook to look at your your works. How would you describe your vibe?

Speaker 6 1:00:04

Um, I would say these are a chaotic love letter to mental health and chronic illness rep. Um they're really mostly a journey of like radical self-discovery and self-acceptance without the like magical quote unquote healing at the end. Like they keep they keep their flaws, and that's a good thing. Yes.

Mari 1:00:28

You took those words like right out of my mouth. I've got this whole series going on this month where I've been um highlighting books about disabled people, and I've been doing the because July is Disability Pride Month and the whole 2026 uh thing for this year, the world works better with us. Like, I've got a whole series. So, yes, I haven't read her books yet, but I think that for next year's July series, she will probably be on it. So check her stuff out, guys. Bye.

Speaker 13 1:00:56

I saw your dress earlier and I was like, she's walking away, but I'm gonna go.

Mari 1:01:03

Okay, so I'm at Lauren Sinatra's booth. I got pulled over here because there is a gentleman in black with like tentacles all behind him in a beautiful array, and I was like, I need to see that. Yes, hello, hello, yes, we love tentacle monsters. Handsome ones too. Um, so uh he can be found in Tentacles and Tides, right?

Speaker 13 1:01:28

Tentacles and Tides is part of the Crescent Cove series. It's an eight-book interconnected standalone series of novellas with eight amazing authors featuring different oceanic paranormal creatures. You have Selkies, Kelpies, sharks shifters, you name it. Um, octopus shifters, uh, such as my friend Octavius over here. Um and it's a small town, but make it spicy.

Mari 1:01:47

Very cute. And then you also have over on this other side of the table some uh nice little gargoyle people.

Speaker 13 1:01:52

Yes, I've got some rock hard men for you over here with my gargoyle monster romanticisse, um, with my interconnected uh standalone series of the Tales of Tolero series. We have Bound by Hearts and Stone and Bound by Hearts and Wings.

Mari 1:02:04

Very nice. And where can people find you?

Speaker 13 1:02:06

You can find me on Barnes and Noble, you can find me on Amazon, and most of all, you can find me on Instagram at lawrenceinatra.author. I'd love to connect with my readers.

Mari 1:02:15

And do you have anything that is boiling that you're gonna be coming out with that you want to kind of push, have people look into?

Speaker 13 1:02:22

Sure. Um it's gonna be completely opposite of what I have out here, but it's gonna be a small town Christmas hallmark rom-com, but make it spicy. And then uh the book three of the Tales of Tolero series is gonna be a dark romanticy, very dark, and it's a tragic love story, so no happily ever after here.

Mari 1:02:39

Okay, okay. Sounds interesting. Sounds interesting. All right, well, thank you. Thank you.

Speaker 17 1:02:44

So sorry.

Mari 1:02:46

Okay, so I am in front of Jessica Lee's um booth, and I got drawn to this yesterday, but there were a ton of people here, so I didn't get a chance to talk to you. Um she has a book called The Hidden Gods of Appalachia, um, which sounds super interesting, and then right next to it there's a thing called Alchemy of the Damned, and it's got a picture, and at the top it says a Western Gothic romantic horror, which is everything I'm into right now. So um, hey, how are you doing?

Speaker 11 1:03:16

I'm good, how are you? Thanks for stopping by. Absolutely. If you had a good con. It's been amazing. I've loved meeting all the readers, it's been a great event.

Mari 1:03:23

Cool. So, um, what would you say uh Hidden Gods of Appalachia? How would you describe it?

Speaker 11 1:03:30

So it is a southern Gothic folklore horror. So it's like a romantic folk horror where a woman who's been away from home for 11 years has to come back. Um, after her aunt passes away, she has to come settle her estate. And she ends up um finding out that there are probably more things she left behind in her past than she realized. Things crawling out of the woods and taking people, and so she has to work with a private detective to figure out why. Um and discover some things about herself that maybe she didn't know. So, yeah, it's a little spooky, a little sexy, so it's got a little bit of everything. Very nice.

Mari 1:04:02

Um, and are there any other uh books that you have that you'd like to push or talk to us about in general?

Speaker 11 1:04:08

Yeah, so I wrote a series. Um, it has three books currently, it will have a fourth by next year, but it is an Irish and Scottish folkloric fantasy um with romance, and it's based on the origins of the Fae. So a lot of people write books about the Fae. Not a lot of people write about where they came from, which is a race of people called the Two Adanian. They existed in Ireland in the Bronze Age, and so in this series we explore a little bit about those myths and legends and a little bit of romance too. Very nice. And where can people find you? Um, they can find me on my author website, authorjessicale.com, on Amazon, a lot of indie bookstores around the country. I love supporting indie bookshops, um, as well as really anywhere you buy books. So very cool. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Mari 1:04:50

Okay, one second. Yes, yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2 1:04:52

Otherwise, I'm likely to like spell it wrong. All good. Okay, so you want me to say hi, I'm Jenny Hickman. Yeah, I'll introduce you and then I'll substitute questions. Okay, so I thought I had to like do that. No, okay, yeah, no, we're gonna see what comes out. We just don't know.

Mari 1:05:12

It's fine, it's the end of a long weekend. It's all good. It is. Um, so I am at Jenny Hickman's booth and I walk by. I've walked by, I think, a few times today, but there's been some people here. Um, and there is a gorgeous green, what is this, an orc or is it a it's uh unsealy fee. Unsealy fee. So of course that that caught my monster loving heart's attention. Um so I'm here at uh Jenny Hickman's booth. Um how's your how's your con been?

Speaker 2 1:05:39

It's been really good. Really warm, but really good. Yeah. So you're not from Florida, I assume? No, I live in Ireland. Oh my gosh, yeah, this is really hot for you.

unknown 1:05:48

A little bit different.

Mari 1:05:49

Wow, yeah, you're you are melting. Um so tell me a little bit. It says, Welcome to Willowhaven. Is Willowhaven the name of the series? Okay, tell me a little bit about the series.

Speaker 2 1:05:57

So it's Cozy Cottage Core. We like to say it's monsters. Adjacent. So everything is normal, just big and green and sharp teeth. Very nice, very nice. And what other series or books do you have here? So I also have uh the Bound and Free series, which is Faded Mates and Forbidden Love. It's high angst. And so after I wrote that, I needed to write Willowhaven for my hug. And then my most popular series is Steeped in Irish mythology. It's The Mists of Erin. It's a cursed hiss, a cursed kiss, a cursed heart, and a cursed love. And I also write rom-coms under Jenny Fife.

Mari 1:06:31

Very nice. Do you have any books coming up that you're wanting to kind of talk about, have people look forward to?

Speaker 2 1:06:37

So they're not, it's not fantasy. My next release is uh November 3rd. It's called Snow in Love. It's a Christmas day rom-com. I like to say it's like hallmark, but with spice, and I'm not talking cinnamon. So you said Snow in Love? Snow in Love.

Mari 1:06:50

Okay, and that's gonna be under the Jenny Hickman name. Jenny Five, yeah. Jenny Five. F-I-F-E.

Speaker 2 1:06:54

F-Y-F-E.

Mari 1:06:55

F-Y-F-E. Jenny Five. Okay, so I will probably be looking forward to that one. I do love a Christmas read.

Speaker 2 1:07:00

Um and where can people find you? Uh you can find me at author Jenny Hickman and Jenny Hickman.com. Awesome, thank you.

Mari 1:07:12

Okay, so I am in front of Kelsey Lee's booth. It's a dark romance fantasy. How's your con been? It's been absolutely fantastic. Very nice. And and I just noticed your tattoo. It's really pretty. Thank you. Oh, I love it. It's a fox with like mushrooms and flowers and colorful and feathers. Okay, back to books.

Speaker 17 1:07:33

Um, tell me about your books. What do you write? I write Dark Vampire romances and dark small town and cowboys.

Speaker 8 1:07:40

Very nice.

Mari 1:07:41

And um with your dark romance, would you say it's like dark and broody? Is your like comedy aspect?

Speaker 17 1:07:47

Like, or is it a variety? Like, how would you describe your dark romance? I like to say it's kind of like dark morally gray, but not too black, but pretty, pretty dark. But we still have comedy in there. We're still we're still lighthearted and joking. We're just light stalking and a little bit of unhinged possessiveness. Just a sprinkle here and there. Just a sprinkle, you know, a lot of red flags, but we're still green. We're still we're still bold and retriever vibes. We're just a little unhinged about it, you know. And where can people find you? I am on Instagram, I'm on TikTok, all my books are on Amazon. We're on audio, paperback, and Kindle Unlimited. Very nice. Thank you. You're very welcome. Thank you. Do you also do a video?

Mari 1:08:30

Um, we do we do audio, but um, I started doing a few videos. It probably doesn't really need Facebook. I don't know.

Speaker 3 1:08:36

I saw yeah, I saw yours on Instagram like of you talking. He does.

Mari 1:08:39

He pops up.

Sara 1:08:40

He'll be like, have you talked about something?

Jonathan 1:08:42

If you want to send me some more, more unhinged ones on my thing.

Sara 1:08:45

Yeah, send them whenever. I like that your head sort of appears out of nothingness and then disappears back into nothingness. What are we talking about? Really funny.

Jonathan 1:08:53

I try like the Let's see here. I'll tell you which one's like, yeah.

Deals, Hotel Notes, Final Thoughts

Sara 1:08:59

Welcome back to the final round table with the Of Swords and Soulmates crew featuring Sarah of Hissin and Kissin. And Sarah with an H.

Jonathan 1:09:12

You should tell them that it's two different Sarah's.

Sara 1:09:16

It's two different Sarah's.

Jonathan 1:09:18

Thank you. Like collectively, Sarah squared. It's true. It is.

Sara 1:09:21

Did you tell her that? Did she tell you that?

Jonathan 1:09:24

Who?

Sara 1:09:24

Did she tell you that?

Jonathan 1:09:25

Did she tell you that? I heard it somewhere.

Sara 1:09:27

Oh. Hold on. I'm not done yet.

Jonathan 1:09:30

Jeez, don't bite.

Sara 1:09:33

I thought you were gonna get back to the side. Just remember, spit on the tip. Wait. Spit a little whimsy on the tip. I got there in the end, as do we all. Did you say Sarah Squared? Did you say that? No. Did he just pick that up from somewhere? Yeah. That's what we used to go by. Sarah Squared.

Jonathan 1:09:52

Regulation and with an H.

Sara 1:09:55

Why am I regulation?

Jonathan 1:09:57

You're the first one.

Sara 1:09:58

You said the same.

Mari 1:09:59

You're the original Sarah. You're the oldest.

Jonathan 1:10:05

So for some of my own time with Sarah, right?

Mari 1:10:08

Okay, so we're back. This is uh the end of the last session. So we did the last day, last session. Basically rounding it up. Um so Sarah with an H. What did you think of your first book convention?

Speaker 3 1:10:28

I loved it. I had the best time. I have enough books to last me for the next two years. Um, I went in knowing nothing, not knowing any of these authors, and everyone was so nice, um, and just so like willing to just tell you everything about what they do. Um, I'm so excited to read all these books.

Mari 1:10:47

Nice. Jonathan, how's your uh day and second day been?

Jonathan 1:10:52

My back hurts uh from carrying around all this awesomeness all day. Um it's a heavy burden. I like to accept it on behalf of society.

Mari 1:11:03

Um Mind you, Ash has been carrying your book cart all day, but go ahead.

Jonathan 1:11:09

I pay for that.

Mari 1:11:10

Um, Ash has been paying for the books all day. Go ahead.

Jonathan 1:11:14

Uh I'm a kept man. Uh trophy husband, as you might say. Um it's one of my favorite parts of being me. Um I had a good day. I think uh I think uh we we've well we've identified um uh linear pathways for success within uh the convention zones. Um I'll never look at carpets the same way again. Um there's definitely And why won't you look at carpets the same way again? Um you're gonna have to read about that.

Mari 1:11:49

Uh in a and who who would you read about that from?

Jonathan 1:11:53

Uh Pop Quiz.

Mari 1:11:56

Pop Quiz.

Jonathan 1:11:58

I I don't know.

Mari 1:11:59

Uh the author of Unhinged.

unknown 1:12:02

Right?

Jonathan 1:12:03

Uh is it uh Fleming is not the name. I said that out loud because Vera Valentine, right?

Mari 1:12:09

It's Vera Valentine.

Jonathan 1:12:11

Wait, did she write? Did she write? Uh wait.

Mari 1:12:13

She wrote uh is pattern recognition. What's the name of the what's the title? Pattern recognition is the title of the book. Sentient object romance. Go ahead.

Jonathan 1:12:20

I thought it was about my autism. It is not about my autism, so I bought it and I thought this is gonna be great. It's gonna be about Excel sheets getting freaky. Vera, if you're listening, um maybe you should write a sentient cyber romance about Excel spreadsheets, but legally they're not Excel.

Sara 1:12:38

Kelly, cut that out. It's going into card game.

Jonathan 1:12:41

Okay, Kelly, yeah, cut that out, Kelly.

Sara 1:12:43

We're gonna You're gonna have to remind him to cut that out. Shit.

Jonathan 1:12:46

All right. Uh note for bread daddy. Yeah, hold hold for editing. And we're back. Okay. Um, I think that's all I got right now. Ash.

Mari 1:12:57

Let me let me set the scene here. Ash is uh set up like a billionaire in a contemporary romance sprawled in her chair in her throne.

Sara 1:13:12

Two nickels. Two nickels today. Like corner spot on the water.

Ashley 1:13:16

Uh today was a good day. Um we were very productive. I definitely did some damage today in a way that I didn't for myself yesterday. We got some presents for some other people. Um I had a great time. Everybody again was super nice, and that's really the what we ask for as a baseline. Um, the breakdown of the hours were was a little weird. I I understand that the authors need breaks um for sure, but it felt like a an extremely long time to me. Um also I learned that in the last 20 minutes of the event you might get a book sale. So uh sorry to have my wallet there. There was a bargain? There was a bargain. Several. I don't even know how much I saved. She was just like two for 35. And I said, that sounds like a deal.

Speaker 1:14:14

Yeah, you did it. I got sucker packs.

Ashley 1:14:17

I got sucker packs. Well, because she was like one for 25, but two for 35. Yeah, good. And they were not small books. So um, anyway, I might look for more 20-minute minutes of the day sales in the future, because that's smart. We tend to, I don't think we close down romantic book con. So that might be something to consider. Um, but great event, great people. Everybody was super friendly um and accommodating, and um they spent time with us, we never felt rushed, so I thought I think that's really important. Yeah, good time, Sarah.

Mari 1:15:00

What did you think of uh today?

Sara 1:15:04

Sorry, I was getting candy. It was good. I think it's good. I think there could be more air conditioning. Sorry. More there are a lot of women in there that are pre-menopausal or about to be pre-menopausal.

Speaker 1:15:21

Can you be pre pre-menopausal?

Sara 1:15:22

Yeah, yes.

Speaker 1:15:23

What is that called?

Sara 1:15:24

Perry.

Speaker 1:15:25

Perry?

Sara 1:15:26

Perimenopausal.

Speaker 1:15:27

Perrymenopausal is pre-premenopausal.

Sara 1:15:29

Yeah, it's like inconsistent and yeah, it like happens, and then you don't get it again, and then it happens. It could be months. Took my sex line.

Jonathan 1:15:39

That could also my sex line.

Sara 1:15:41

Anyway, uh, I thought it was pretty good. Um, found some good books, and did not have a good martini on day two.

Ashley 1:15:51

So we'll fix that later.

Sara 1:15:52

Yeah.

Ashley 1:15:53

Or a die coat. Oh, I never got my fucking die coat.

Jonathan 1:15:57

I was not with that for a lot of time.

Sara 1:16:00

No.

unknown 1:16:01

No.

Sara 1:16:02

Yeah, it was good. I enjoyed it. Not all the authors from my scene, but it was great seeing the ones that are.

Ashley 1:16:07

Yeah.

Mari 1:16:09

I agree. Um, there's definitely more dark romance than I expected, but there's still a lot of really good, interesting finds um that I hadn't expected to see. I bought way too much, which means that Kelly needs to come to the next book convention and save me from myself.

Ashley 1:16:28

I don't know. Please an enabler, though, too. At least on day one, he is an enabler. I remember last there was one book con where he was just like carrying it by the arm load for you, and he just had the biggest smile on his face. He was in heaven because you were in heaven. It was the first romantic book. It was like a contact high.

Speaker 2 1:16:47

Yeah. Um, maybe Kelly's the best.

Ashley 1:16:50

Yeah. No, he just Miss Chikeli.

Mari 1:16:55

Yes, we do. Um, I would say I've stayed off site. Um, Sarah, you're you're local-ish. Um Ash, you guys big feelings. You guys stayed on site. Um, do you want to talk about your feelings?

Ashley 1:17:13

We'll keep it high level. So we are um we stayed at the event hotel. That's easy to look up. I don't want to, it's not my intention to bash anybody, but uh there were definitely some concerns with the hotel room. Um I there there's like a I was explaining to Mari, there's a gap at the bottom of the door, and it just bothers me. And maybe this hotel feels safe enough in their security and their 40-year history or whatever that there hasn't been an incident. Um, but I think the gap at the bottom of the door is substantial. Like you can fit whole fingers through and out. You can see feet walking on the other side. Um, so I think for what we paid and the and the cost of this whole adventure isn't is not worth what I received when we got in the room.

Jonathan 1:18:04

I the room layout was interesting. I do also wish that there was a a barrier between um the bathroom sink and the rest of the unit.

Ashley 1:18:16

There was like that you could So there's a sliding door in front of the toilet.

Jonathan 1:18:20

You can poop in peace, but you can't wash your hands in peace. And as a couple that wakes up has different um awakening times, so I get up at like 4 30. And so when I woke up to go for um to go for my my workout this morning, it was it's challenging to do that without disturbing her. Um so and then also I will say this like I started out to walk, to come downstairs and go to the gym, but then uh halfway to where I thought the gym was, I detoured into the game room, and it's like I'll just take the pathway, and a mile into this journey, I found the gym in a separate, unattached building. But I was like, I'm committed now to this loop. Let's go find out where this loop takes you. And boy, is it a it's a a uh um a multitude of fantasy worlds that you go on. So you start on a winding path that turns into a construction zone sidewalk, and then you have to take a journey across a parking lot. No barriers, just painted lines that cars totally respect. Um and then you go behind the parking garage off the beaten path into a sandy trail. If I was here to smoke weed, that's where I would go. Um and then onto a golf path, golf cart path, and then they warn you if you're you can't go past this point, if you don't have a golf registration, which I didn't know was a thing. Um, and then past valet, up a flight of stairs, which is an interesting thing to put in the middle of a walking path, um, and then back around. It is if you uh if you're gonna use the lazy river, you need energy to get to the lazy river. So just heads up. Yeah.

Ashley 1:20:11

So that's a pass for me next year. Yeah. If I if if this event came back and it came back to this hotel, I would not elect to spend the night at this hotel. Yeah. I would do the traveling and figure it out.

Mari 1:20:24

I stayed off site and it's been it's been not bad at all to like come in from offside. Um it was close by um come in to the park, um, and I'd just take in the little shuttle to the actual from the parking to the actual um hotel or whatever, and it's it's not been an issue like to be up here all day. So I would um if there's an event at this hotel again, I would do the same thing. I would stay off site. Um anything else as our energy levels uh slowly deplete.

Ashley 1:20:54

Oh, the food was good here. The food was good.

Mari 1:20:58

Yeah, we ate at l latitude, well latitude and longitude. Latitude and longitude. Um first day was good. Yeah, today not as good. Yeah.

Ashley 1:21:12

But was it because he the waiter wasn't really listening to our news? Yeah.

Mari 1:21:16

Yeah, I wasn't paying attention.

Ashley 1:21:18

Yeah. I agree. So not necessarily like fine.

Mari 1:21:22

Yeah, it was a service, it was a service issue. So like I think the food itself was fine, but there was like no refills on anything, no refills on water. Some people didn't get their actual drinks at all.

Sara 1:21:31

He just came back to to bring us our bills while we were still eating.

Mari 1:21:34

Yeah, bills while we were still eating, and my bill was way wrong. Hundreds, hundreds of dollars wrong. Where if I had not, you know, looked at it and just kind of assumed that it was right, I would have had to deal with this after the fact, I guess. Um, so yeah, I would say check your check her stuff. Yeah, it's been a little all over the place. The con itself has been fine. Like I think it's been the volunteers have been great, the you know, authors have been great, vendors have been great. Um, when we did registration, they like asked without it you having to say anything. They asked if you needed any ADA um accommodations. So, I mean, they were like aware of the things they needed to offer. I didn't do any of the quiet room stuff or the bookstore stuff or any of the other stuff. We just did like the vendor area.

Ashley 1:22:25

I passed through the bookstore. What do you think? Which was a a local vendor, right? New romantics. And it was nice. It was it was literally just tables with books, and a lot of the author, I think all of the books were authors that were in the event space. Um, some of them were special editions, some of them were. There wasn't any signage about prices or anything, so I didn't feel inclined to really hang out. Yeah, they didn't as I didn't go on day one, I went on day two, and it was after lunch, so half the day in, right? Um staff like were they friendly? They didn't talk to me, which was fine though for me. Like, I don't need attention until I need it. Does that make sense? I didn't need them hovering and trying to like pitch something to me because I'm a sucker. Yeah. Um but they didn't say, like, hey, welcome into the room. No, not at all. Not at all. But they were like still setting up and stuff because it it was lunch time, so I don't I thought they were halfway through their were they halfway through their day at that point? I mean, we were halfway through our day at that point. It was between 12 and 2. We were waiting for the event to open back up.

Jonathan 1:23:25

So they should have been warmed up, right?

Ashley 1:23:27

Uh they should have been warmed up. Maybe they were tapped out. I don't know. Maybe there's any people in the afternoon. Maybe they were just restocking. I don't know. Um, but there weren't any knickknacks, there were a few stickers, maybe some keychains, but again, no signage. Um, I like signage. I don't want to have to ask somebody how much something costs. Right. I'm just gonna um especially after spending so much money all weekend. Um, but it was a nice option because Romancy BookCon's done that the last couple of years too. Well, they'll they will bring a bookstore vendor in so that if and when the authors sell out, you have an option.

Speaker 17 1:24:02

Yeah.

Mari 1:24:09

All right, so I will say I think this is gonna wrap it up.