Mark Gagnon
Bio
My life has been spent traveling here and abroad. Now it's time to write.
I have three published books: Mitigating Circumstances, Short Stories for Open Minds, and Short Stories from an Untethered Mind. Unmitigated Greed is do out soon.
Achievements (1)
Stories (451)
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Mitigating Circumstances
Chapter 1 Day 1 – New York City “It will be a great place if they ever finish it.” - O. Henry Mike Gulf arrived at Best-Ride’s shop in North Bergen, New Jersey, at 6:00 a.m. and said good morning to several of his fellow drivers. He proceeded to replenish supplies required for his tour and performed a routine safety check. Mike grabbed a cooler and filled it with ice to load bottles of water and various flavors of soda he planned on selling to the passengers as the trip progressed. By 6:30 a.m. he was headed for the Lincoln Tunnel and downtown Manhattan.
By Mark Gagnon4 years ago in Fiction
Mitigating Circumstances
Prologue Geneva, Switzerland Andrew Buchanan surveyed the lavishly appointed conference room his newly acquired international pharmaceutical corporation, World Wide Cures, had leased for its semi-annual board meeting. The company’s main office on the other side of town was equipped with a conference room, but he wanted his first meeting as chairman to impress his fellow board members. The room, with its floor-to-ceiling windows, high-backed leather chairs, and mahogany conference table, should accomplish that nicely.
By Mark Gagnon4 years ago in Fiction
Central Park to Central Booking
Walter’s outgoing personality instantly puts everyone he meets in a relaxed, open state of mind. This is important because, as a carriage driver in New York City, his primary function, besides controlling rather docile horses, is to put all his customers in a good mood. The passengers are normally from out of town. No local would pay $35.00 for a half-hour buggy ride. “Fuhgeddaboudit!” The happier the customer, the bigger the tip, and the more they would talk about their plans. Plans Walter would covertly record on his phone.
By Mark Gagnon4 years ago in Criminal
Stairway to Discovery
I stood at the foot of a staircase that piqued my curiosity. A sign on each riser proclaimed where the contents of the room above had originated: Barns, Estates, Cellars, and Attics. Best of all, everything is “half off.” Half off, what exactly is a mystery? By striding to the top of the stairs, would I be entering a treasure trove of unique antiquities or a room full of other people’s castoffs? Only one way to find out—I climbed.
By Mark Gagnon4 years ago in Horror
The Invisibles
The Invisibles Horace stood in a corner of the airport terminal watching travelers hustling from gate to gate urgently trying to make their next flight. A young boy around the age of four looked up at him and smiled. The encounter quickly ended when his mother pulled on her son’s arm, attempting to hurry him along. She never acknowledged Horace standing there with his trash cart and cleaning tools. The mother and son had a plane to catch and no time to exchange pleasantries with a man holding a broom. However, she had time to look over the jewelry at the Duty-Free shop.
By Mark Gagnon4 years ago in Fiction
The Gift of Time
People imagine time travelers winking out of the present and into a past or future century. The person is normally transported by some mechanical contraption that can bend time to the traveler's will, depositing him or her in the middle of an ancient battle or future discovery. In either case, a heroic act is performed that forever alters the course of humanity.
By Mark Gagnon4 years ago in Fiction
Gone Phishing!
“Gone fishin’ instead of just a wishin’ was playing on my alarm clock as I awoke to another beautiful and hopefully profitable day. It’s surprising how a song written so many years ago could be relevant to a person in my line of work. I know some of you are thinking, “Work! How can you possibly call scamming people out of their life savings work? Simply sitting at a keyboard all day is not work. All you do is send out email blasts, the computer does the rest.” True, what I do really isn’t rocket science. Greed, guilt, and fear are the tools I use against my willing victims.
By Mark Gagnon4 years ago in 01
Kitchen Conundrum
Lieutenant Baskins was in charge of the investigation. It wasn’t her first murder investigation, far from it. Since transferring to homicide ten years ago, it felt as though she had a fresh case every week. Most of the bodies she inspected were in back alleys, bedrooms, or cars. This one was different. The body lay face down in the middle of a restaurant kitchen.
By Mark Gagnon4 years ago in Criminal
The Saboteur
I have to assume they finally found the Titanic, or you would not be reading this. Before my death, I left explicit instructions with my barrister to leave this letter sealed until the remains of the old girl had been located. Now I, Patrick Callahan, saboteur extraordinaire, will tell you how the ship sank, and it wasn’t done by a bloody iceberg.
By Mark Gagnon4 years ago in Fiction
If Only
Jake is a busy guy. Every time he starts a project, or just thinks about starting something, he gets interrupted. Most of the time they’re annoying minor interruptions: phone calls, a knock at the door, text messages from work, the list goes on and on. If only he had a little alone time, he could complete some half-finished projects. No phone calls, texts, or people, for one day. Is that too much to ask? Unfortunately for Jake, his unfinished business list just came due all at the same time.
By Mark Gagnon4 years ago in Fiction
Click on Accept. Top Story - March 2022.
It was one of those nights when there was nothing on TV and it was too early to go to bed, so I was web surfing. I had heard about a site that was like Amazon but all their items were pre-owned (used). They sold everything from houses to hose clamps, vacation packages to vacuums — you name it, they had it for sale. I eventually found the site and started exploring a virtual cornucopia of items for sale. Why someone would buy slightly used shoelaces is beyond me, but there they were for 25 cents per lace. As I was scanning other items, an information box popped up on my screen informing me that, after reading the Terms and Conditions, I would need to click the Accept button if I wanted to continue using the site. I had 10 seconds to click Accept. No one, me included, ever takes the time to read the 25 plus pages of legalese that are usually included in the conditions box. I clicked Accept and continued browsing. About an hour later, I called it a night and went to bed.
By Mark Gagnon4 years ago in 01
