todd brugmans | Phil Giunta – Award-Winning Writer of Fun, Frightening, and Fantastic Tales

As I write this on the final Sunday evening of September, I dread going into work tomorrow even more than usual. A critical software upgrade that should have finished successfully on Friday afternoon went awry and kept me at the office until 7:30PM with no solution. Even the vendor’s tech support claimed that they had never seen the situation we encountered, leaving us with unusable software and no recourse. I suspect we’ll need to rollback to the previous version tomorrow morning. It will be misery.

To make my Friday night even more interesting, the contracting company that we hired to replace our first floor shower stall ordered the wrong doors. Had the installer arrived with the proper doors on Wednesday, the job would have been completed in one day. Instead, the installer had to arrange for the correct doors to be delivered from upstate PA and installed two nights later. He arrived at 9:15PM on Friday night and was finished in about 20 minutes.

As a funny aside, part of the shower stall renovation on Wednesday included replacement of the fixtures and plumbing inside the wall. This required me to turn off the main water valve for about 30 minutes. The following morning, when I stepped into our second floor shower and pulled the faucet to send the water up to the shower head, the pressure jettisoned the ballcock in the toilet, knocking the lid askew. I had to rush out of the tub to turn off the valve at the toilet and dry up the water that had sprayed out of the tank.

So, after work on Thursday evening, I purchased a new ballcock from the local ACE hardware and replaced it only to find that the supply line had been damaged in by the sudden burst of water pressure. Fortunately, I had two supply lines in stock and the repair was finished within reasonable time.

These events, as irritating and inconvenient as they were, are insignificant when compared to two far more distressing events that occurred on Thursday. Approximately five hours apart, I lost a friend to heart failure in a New Jersey hospital and an acquaintance to a massive stroke in a Maryland hospital. Both men were prominent in the SF fandom community along the east coast.

Todd Brugmans was a remarkable young artist with a zest for life. He and his wife Annie were active in STARFLEET (the international Star Trek fan club) and ubiquitous at many SF conventions along the east coast such as Farpoint, Shore Leave, and others. Todd created the cover art for well over a dozen convention program books as well as novels written by pals Diane Baron and Lance Woods.

Todd’s final book cover art was for The Fandom Fifty by Diane Baron, a chronicling of the rich history of the Baltimore SF convention scene through interviews with many longtime organizers, guests, and attendees, myself included.

At 10:15PM on Thursday, 9/26/19, Todd succumbed to heart disease after five trying days in the hospital.

Lew Aide was a veteran SF convention attendee and volunteer in the Baltimore region for decades. After suffering a massive stroke last weekend—and spending days on life support—Lew passed at 5:01PM on 9/26/19. A few of Lew’s closest friends noted that 5:01PM in military time is 1701, the registry number of the USS Enterprise from Star Trek. Lew, they said, was a true fan to the end.

As if those losses were not devastating enough, there was a third. Ken Giroux, owner of Next Generation Toys, is one of the most popular dealers at SF conventions. If you like action figures, Ken is your guy. For many years, his wife Kathy attended the cons with him. We learned on Saturday that Kathy departed this plane of existence on 8/22/19.

It goes without saying that I hope never to see such a horrible week as this ever again.

My trek to Shore Leave last weekend was much different from any previous year in that I arrived at the con directly from a marvelous week’s vacation in Rehoboth Beach, DE. Clear skies and sparse traffic made driving through the bucolic town of Denton, MD simply serene.

For a fisherman like me, traversing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge was indeed a religious experience. Looking right and left, the view was blue straight to the horizons. Gorgeous.

Then I reached the 695 Beltway right at the beginning of rush hour. Let the road rage begin! Ugh. Nevertheless, I finally reached the Hunt Valley Wyndham Grand, checked-in, registered for the con, unloaded my car in the blistering heat, took a shower, and missed my 5PM discussion panel.

After dinner at Noodles & Company with friends Sharon and Cyndi Van Blarcom, Lance Woods, and Renfield, we met up with fellow scribe and Firebringer Press publisher, Steven H. Wilson, with whom I had spent the aforementioned week in Rehoboth Beach along with his family and several friends (click here to see vacation pics!).

Friday night at 10PM brought the traditional Meet the Pros book fair where all of the con’s writer guests gathered to sell and sign books. It also celebrated the release of two new books for Firebringer Press–Steven H. Wilson’s fourth novel, Sacrifice Play: A Tale from the Arbiter Chronicles, and Elsewhere in the Middle of Eternity, the second installment in our speculative fiction anthology series. Seven of nine (pardon the obvious pun) anthology writers were on hand to sign copies including Daniel Patrick “Renfield” Corcoran, Michael Critzer, Susanna Reilly, Stuart Roth, Steven H. Wilson, Lance Woods, and myself. The night was so busy that it’s all a blur to me now and I did not have the time to take too many pics…

Special thanks to Ethan Wilson, Christian Wilson, Jessica Headlee, Jill Mardesich, Tim Marron, and Cheyenne-Autumn Christine Reilly for volunteering to shlep boxes of books from Steve’s car to Meet the Pros and then from there to my hotel room afterward!

Saturday and Sunday brought about a myriad of discussion panels on writing and publishing. My panel schedule was lighter than usual this year. On Saturday morning, I was a panelist on “The Whole Package” with Richard White, Glenn Hauman, Aaron Rosenberg, Mike McPhail, and Jim Johnson. We discussed all that goes into quality editing, layout, and cover art.

Afterwards, I made my way down to the lower lobby to meet actors Michael Forest and Barbara Bouchet who each guest-starred on episodes of classic Star Trek. They were both very friendly and I picked up an autographed photo from each of them.

While there, I was stopped by an attendee and asked to sign a Shore Leave trading card with my picture! I was honored, because after all, as Lucy Van Pelt said in the 1965 Charlie Brown Christmas Special, “How can you say someone is great who’s never had his picture on bubblegum cards?”

I then sat in on the Crazy 8 Press panel as several of the authors, including Peter David, Russ Colchamiro, and Michael Jan Friedman read excerpts from their latest books.

At 4PM, I had the pleasure of sitting in on John Noble’s talk in the ballroom. Mr. Noble is known for such shows and films as Fringe, Elementary, Lord of the Rings, and much more. He is an eloquent and engaging speaker.

The “Firebringer Press Presents” panel occurred at what has become its traditional timeslot, 5PM. Of course, this is opposite the con’s official autograph lines for the celebrities and the dinner hour which often results in the panelists outnumbering the audience. Nevertheless, it was a fun and lively discussion about current and future projects as well as our brand new aforementioned anthology, Elsewhere in the Middle of Eternity.

After the panel, a few of the anthology writers gathered in my room for a book signing party, including Steven H. Wilson, Stuart Roth, and Lance Woods. Once all of the Kickstarter books were signed, it was time to gather with friends for a delightful dinner at Joe’s Crab Shack.

Back at the hotel, it was another round of book signing with Susanna Reilly. We chatted for a few hours with Stuart and his wife, Maria, before turning in for the night.

Sunday morning saw me finally participating in Shore Leave’s Writers Breakfast in the Cinnamon Tree restaurant. Every year since becoming a writer guest, I committed to attending and every year I failed to do so. I sat with Stuart Roth and Shore Leave Co-Con Chair, Dr. Inge Heyer. Inge is a longtime friend who has been involved with Shore Leave as a magnificent writer liaison for many years.

By 11AM, I was in the autograph line for John Noble and Michael Trucco (Battlestar Galactica, Castle, Big Bang Theory). The lines moved quickly and both gentlemen were wonderful to meet and chat with. Afterward, I had about an hour to relax in the comfy chairs that line the hallway near the elevators. I was joined there by veteran writer Aaron Rosenberg. We chatted for about 30 minutes about writing, vacations, and life in general before it was time for my final panel of the con.

At 1PM, I joined Joshua Palmatier, Mike McPhail, and Michael Jan Friedman for “Building an Anthology”. We had no official moderator, but questions from our audience members guided the discussion, much of which was spent on the topic of how to use Kickstarter to fund anthologies.

Near the end of my day, I once again crossed paths with artist Todd Brugmans who created the artwork for several Farpoint program books as well as Heroic Park, the debut novel of Lance Woods. For Star Trek‘s 50th anniversary, Todd was commissioned to create cover art not only for Farpoint’s program book, but for Balticon and Shore Leave’s as well. Combined, the images create a triptych and I happened to have all three with me for Todd to autograph!

Alas, it was then time for me to say my goodbyes to every friend I could find in my final patrol of the hotel before beginning my voyage home. All told, it was yet another enjoyable, albeit frenetic, Shore Leave filled the typical cast of colorful characters.