My Story
My name is Mark French. I love losing myself in stories crafted from the inner recesses of my mind, almost as much as I love sharing those stories with others.
I've been writing since I was a kid, but only seriously working toward publishing for about 3 years. I grew up on Stephen King, and some of my early work is grounded in that style of horror. As I grew I fell in love with the Noir Mystery genre, and now a lot of my work marries the two styles.
My column, Second Saturday Stories, featured a lot of these works and I am thrilled to transition to offering the same quality stories on my own website.
I was recognized in high school with an english scholarship and I have also received honorable mention in the NYC Midnight Short Story Challenge.
I write horror fiction and am in the final stages of finishing my debut novel titled Skeleton Unburdened.
Take a tour of the site and enjoy the many free stories available. Don't forget to sign up for my newsletter and follow me on Instagram to keep current on updates and see some great bonus content @markfrench_fiction
Welcome to Mark French Fiction, Foster Curiosity.
-Mark
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Blog
Ink & Shadows: A Professional Horrorist's Journey
Free horror lives here. Readers will also gain insight into questions like where do I get my ideas from? What kinds of problems have I overcome? And what inspired my character creations? Writers will gain tips I've used to polish my writing and tell a better story. Plus you can find out what a Horrorist actually is.
Books
Skeleton
Unburdened
Available soon
Autumn 1922. In the shadow of World War One an evil is growing in North Bay, a small northern Ontario town nursing scars leftover from the Great War.
Percy Slate, once a sharp private eye, now wanders through life haunted by the spectre of his late wife Louise and a past steeped in regret. Percy is hounded by his brother-in-law Harry who gives Percy a choice: exile from the city or a jail cell for murder.
Percy escapes into the labyrinth of the city, embedding himself in one final case. Tasked with finding a missing doctor, Percy must channel the detective he used to be while out running Harry Clemens and his legion of police, the mob debt tied to his wife’s death, and the ghost of Louise, who refuses to leave him in peace.
As Percy spirals further into the dark underbelly of North Bay, he becomes the target of a plot masterminded by a sadistic army Major hellbent on creating a living weapon used to ignite racial hatred, fanning flames of fear that threaten to engulf the city.
As the case wears on, Percy spirals further into a private hell that he may never turn away from.
In Skeleton Unburdened the present is shattered by the echoes from the past, and the line between friend and enemy is blurred in a wash of blood and torment. When ghosts of the past won’t stay dead, everyone is burdened by the skeletons in their closet.
