Who Party 14

The crew of my other blog, Carnival of Monsters, descended upon Who Party 14 in Toronto this weekend with righteous geekery.

Who Party was easily one of the best cons I've ever attended, due mainly to the fine programming of my pals Graeme Burk, Mike Doran and Rod Mammitzsch. The guests were also exemplary, with no traces of ego. Doctor Who directors James Strong and Colin Teague were very friendly, and I was fortunate enough to chat with Strong about his episode The Satan Pit, which I always liked for its mixture of Quatermass and Lovecraftian influences.

Other highlights included meeting up again with my friend Rob Shearman (who won a World Fantasy Award last November). We tried all day to get a picture together, but 'twas madness. When I passed him coming into the bathroom, I said, "Rob! Now we can take our picture together by the urinals!" He replied, "Yes, we could, Sean, but it wouldn't be canon."

I also got to co-host my first panel, which turned out to be rather fun: 'Saying Goodbye To The Tenth Doctor'. I co-hosted with Erin Deli, who is a new Doctor Who fan writer who will be a proverbial rising star in the years to come. She made me feel old, partly because she reminded me of how long I've been doing this fan writer thing,and how she would have been in grade school when I began. I felt like some battle scarred veteran around her and the other recent converts ('the Tennant babies'), withholding the urge to say "You think Love and Monsters was bad? You shoulda been in the trenches when Trial Of A Time Lord was around, missy!"

Still, they knew their shit, as we like to say. They've watched their DVDs, and have fed themselves only on Target novelizations and DWM. Their Basic Training has served them well.



But the highlight of my trip down was having an hour long conversation with one of my writing heroes, Lance Parkin. His Who novels are among my favourites, mainly because Parkin creates the kind of Doctor Who I adore, and because he adds an undefinable depth to his work. So many tie-in novels are thin storylines wrapped between a cover that cost more than the text itself, but Parkin's work is quality science fiction that just happens to be connected to a television show. His novel Cold Fusion opened my eyes to what the range was capable of, and he hasn't written a book yet that I haven't clutched to my chest and went Squeee! (For pure hardcore Doctor Who, Parkin's The Infinity Doctors will either melt your mind and leave you a drooling husk or make you start making obsessive notes in the margin while you surf the net to make sure you get all the references.)

All in all, a good day with good friends, celebrating a show we all love ever, ever so much.