Uncharted

by Mark Mills, Shannon Mills (Illustrator)

Ed Crumm is living a life that has come to him by default, not by conscious choices. Late for work, he unwittingly stumbles into events that will change his life forever. This sci-fi short story is fun, witty, and poignant, especially for anyone who has realized that they are not living the life they imagined, or is skeptical about those software "usage agreements" we never read.

10 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 16, 2012

About the author

Obviously one has to read before one can write ... right? My parents started teaching me to read when I was four years old, at home, with posterboard flash cards. When I started Kindergarten, I could already read paragraphs and when I started first grade, I had read all the Dr. Seuss books in the house. There were many. I got bored with most books, though, and mostly enjoyed reading about our nation's fledgling space program and a few juvenile fiction works about life in space. I guess that was around the third and fourth grades. Then, in high school, my mother handed me The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings and said, "Try these, I think you'll enjoy them." She had already read them all. As far back as I can remember, my mother worked the entire New York Times crossword on a Sunday afternoon. She was brilliant. My early favorite authors, in addition to J.R.R. Tolkien, were Roger Zelazny and Philip Jose Farmer. I had the rare opportunity to meet both authors at a comic con in the early 1980s and got a tiny bit of 1-on-1 encouragement! Still not believing I could write professionally, I went home and kept at short stories, children's stories, and whatever else seemed fun to write about.

I took College Prep English in my senior year of high school. We had to write a short story. I had never written one before but I wrote what I could come up with the night before it was due. My ADHD, undiagnosed because in 1977 nobody knew it was a thing, caused me a lot of frustration. I scratched through and edited thinking I was turning in the final thing. The next day, Ms. Bowers said, "We have one person who turned in a final draft when only a rough draft was due." She then called me up and had me read mine in front of the class. I was a little embarrassed but excited because of a huge compliment. Since then, I knew that at some point I wanted to be a writer.

Reviews

[Twobookworms · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ed Crumm's whole world is turned upside when he ends up "on the wrong side of the tracks". If you ever watch the news and think about where modern society is headed, this very well could be the future we face. Whether or not it was the author's intent, I don't know, but this is definitely written in the spirit of Orwell's "1984", except this comes across as being a much darker future we could face. I found "Uncharted" to be extremely interesting and as an avid reader, I thoroughly enjoyed reading "Uncharted" and can't wait to see where the Author goes with this story. As a fan of books on conspiracy theories, Sci-Fi, aliens, Dystopian scenarios, and all things futuristic I would highly encourage people to read this story; once you do, you'll be awaiting the next installment with me!