was rebaptized, telling the church's leadership that he would be a "totally queer Mormon, but celibate." For many years Pugmire worked various jobs in cafés owned by old-time punk rockers, who would let him "dress in my Boy George makeup and mini-skirts as I bussed tables and washed dishes." In March 1995, Pugmire's long-time lover, Todd, died in his arms from a heroin overdose. In the early 2000s he became the live-in caregiver for his mother, who was an invalid due to epilepsy and dementia. Pugmire described himself as an eccentric recluse, "the Queen of Eldritch Horror," and a "punk rock queen and street transvestite". In 2011, Pugmire nearly died from congestive heart failure. While Pugmire recovered after being hospitalized, these medical issues slowed down his writing. He continued to suffer from heart issues in the following years and, after treatment in a cardiac unit, died in his home in Seattle on March 26, 2019, prompting numerous eulogies and career retrospectives. Writing Pugmire first began writing fiction during his Mormon mission in Northern Ireland, but grew discouraged with his work and stopped until the mid-80s. Returning to Seattle, he became a figure in the local punk rock scene and launched an influential zine, Punk Lust, in April 1981. Called "one of the more interesting characters in the history of early 1980s punk," Pugmire filled the zine with his own gothic and grotesque drawings. His zine also published letters, including a number of them written by Mark Arm. "Punk has shown me that I should be angry," Pugmire later wrote, "and that I can express my anger in the way I look, as well as the way I think." Pugmire's time in Ireland led him to discover the works of H. P. Lovecraft, and eventually Henry James, Oscar Wilde, and Lovecraft would become his strongest literary influences. Many of Pugmire's stories directly reference "Lovecraftian" elements (especially Nyarlathotep). A self-described "obsessed writer of Lovecraft horror", his stated goal was to "dwell forevermore within Lovecraft's titan shadow", claiming that "being Lovecraftian is my identity as an artist". Pugmire was quoted in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer as saying that his writing was "a form of personal exorcism". When Pugmire visited Lovecraft's birthplace of Providence, Rhode Island, "he walked the streets from College Hill to Federal Hill with a diary in hand, scratching impressions as he went." Pugmire used these notes in his book Bohemians of