LA Story

February saw my annual sojurn to the sun to join a pile of friends for the superb Gallifrey convention in Los Angeles ... this year was no different and I had a whale of a time running around LA with friends, buying too many DVDs, and catching up with all manner of people. Shaun Lyon, the convention organiser, as usual pulled out all the stops and the incredible guest list included Katy Manning, Nicholas Courtney, Terrance Dicks, Barry Letts, Elisabeth Sladen ... plus more writers, artists and other creative people than I have ever seen in one place together. The LA weather did it's best to dampen spirits - it was apparently the worst rain for 100 years - but undaunted, we braved the torrents dashing between the blocks in the hotel, and I even went on trips in the rain. One to Universal was especially fun where the place was unexpectedly packed out, everyone looked the same in canary yellow rain ponchos, and where we didn't mind how wet we got on the Jurassic Park ride as it was wet enough outside anyway ... Back at the convention, and the Telos panel was small but perfectly formed, with myself, Arnold T Blumberg, Shaun Lyon and Jill Sherwin talking about the forthcoming books, and my revealing the line up for the rest of the year, including covers and other snippets of information. With the exchange rate being favourable to us Brits, the annual DVD binge was undertaken, and I stocked up on several titles I had been waiting to get hold of, and several which were the usual impulse buys. Roll on next year ...