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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I'm Back!
My name is Jack McDougal, the great, great, great, (maybe one more great) nephew of Phineas McDougal, one of the country’s first robber barons. Unlike the Rockefellers, Carnegies, and Melons, Uncle Phineas outlived most of his money. At the time of his death, all that was left of his fortune was a Victorian style mansion on twenty acres of land in Greenfield, Massachusetts. It was the house Phineas was murdered in. He was hit over the head with an iron fireplace poker on October 31, 1879, Halloween. He was not a popular man!
By Mark Gagnon7 months ago in Horror
How My World Has Changed
My life started in January 1945. I was ready to go the minute I rolled off the assembly line. The factory shipping department placed me on a train that transported me from Detroit, MI, to a dealership in Little Rock, AR, where I was parked and ignored.
By Mark Gagnon8 months ago in Wheel
From the Past to the Present
I imagine the first thing you think of as you gaze through this archway overlooking the fields below is what a beautiful view. Those were my thoughts as well the day I was locked in this room four-hundred years ago. After all, there are worse places to be held prisoner in this castle, the dungeon where many of my compatriots were held is first on my list. I’d love to share my story, but I know you can’t hear me. No one has ever heard my cries for help, not since that wicked wench cast her spell on me.
By Mark Gagnon8 months ago in Horror
Happy Birthday Mikey
Chance brought the three together, friendship formed a spiritual bond that would last throughout their lives. Dan, the son of a Boston factory worker; Mikey, whose family were Cajun shrimpers from Louisiana; and Luis, a first generation American from California, met at the Army’s AIT (Advanced Infantry Training) school. Even though they haled from different parts of the country the trio shared many similarities, including the exact same birthday. The primary reason the three had for enlisting was to create a better life for themselves and their families. If the road to accomplishing that goal wound its way through the jungles of Vietnam, then so be it.
By Mark Gagnon8 months ago in Serve
Romulus or Remus
Romulus (named after one of the mythical founders of Rome) went about his normal morning routine still half asleep. He apparently had a restless night, but didn’t remember anything out of the ordinary that would have kept him awake. Rom shrugged it off, finished his breakfast, and headed for the door. Stepping over the threshold, Rom almost tripped over a small package lying on the porch. He scooped it up and tore it open on the way to the car. The mystery package contained a pocket size notepad and a metal refillable pen. He took the package, tossed it on the passenger seat and headed for work.
By Mark Gagnon8 months ago in Horror
I See You
The congregation bowed their heads in reverent reflection as the Vicar droned on about the evils of sin and the ultimate reward for the righteous. His ability to preach about topics they had recently been thinking about baffled them. This week's sermon covered infidelity and the desires of the flesh versus chastity and faithful adherence to wedding vows. As he delved deeper into the subject, several women shifted uneasily on the church pew. Multiple men adjusted their gaze to the floor and refused to look up. They all felt as though he was addressing them directly. How could he sense what was on their minds?
By Mark Gagnon8 months ago in Horror
A Gift or Curse
We left the opulent dining room and retired to a small, well-appointed library. Small is a relative term, as Jack McCabe doesn’t own anything small - why should he? Jack has the dubious distinction of being the world’s first trillionaire. No matter how much money a person can amass in a lifetime, it still comes down to how much time you have before your personal clock runs down to zero. Jack is rapidly approaching that end. His body is a weak, gnarled shell that has to be transported by a powered chair. He has lost all his hair, and his senses of smell and hearing are fading fast. Jack’s eyes, although requiring glasses to see clearly, still show the fierce determination of a world-class predator. Solving the time problem is why McCabe had his men bring me, Michael White, to his estate.
By Mark Gagnon8 months ago in Fiction
My Spidey Sense. Top Story - May 2025.
Some places just put a person’s internal alarm systems on active standby. Alma Latinas was just such a place. Sure, Mike had visited this cantina before with several friends, but never alone. Actually, Gringos never visited this part of Nuevo Laredo alone, and he knew this, so what the hell was he doing there? When you’re twenty and bulletproof, in your mind anyway, no place is off limits.
By Mark Gagnon8 months ago in Journal
Chapters 36 &37 Unmitigated Greed
Chapter 36 Frank’s flight back to D.C. from Chicago felt smoother than his trip out was partly due to less turbulent air, but mostly because he had eliminated a potential problem without anyone getting hurt. Now he would have to wait and see if the pesky mechanical problems vanished. If they did, than Chicago was permanently good to go.
By Mark Gagnon9 months ago in Chapters
Look Through My Eye
Johnathan still wasn’t sure what he was seeing was real or a bizarre hallucination being projected into his brain by this magical space orb. Perhaps if he removed it from his normally empty eye socket all these peculiar visions of Earth being consumed by a cataclysmic war and their destination world, Terminus, fighting off unknown alien invaders would vanish as quickly as they had appeared. This was truly an enigma wrapped in a conundrum.
By Mark Gagnon9 months ago in Fiction
