Word

	Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me....I once was lost but now am found, was blind, but now, I see. T'was Grace that taught...my heart to fear. And Grace, my fears relieved. How precious did that Grace appear...the hour I first believed. Thro' many dangers, toils and snare, I have already come; 'Tis grace has brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home. ~ Amazing Graceland – Fall and Rise of a King (1982), Elvis Aaron Presley.

In 1983, Elvites were shocked by the relevations of the King's autobiography. Of course only people on the Dark Side of the Moon during the late sixties could be unaware of Presley's sharp decline during that traumatic period. Fortunately, a religious awakening had lifted Presley from the nadir of his career and personal life. Revealed for the first time however was some real shockers. The Las Vegas rape, addition to prescription drugs and a near death experience on August 17, 1977. It was revealed for the first time that the King was found on the floor of his Graceland bathroom by fiancee, Ginger Alden, having 'stumbled or crawled several feet'. CPR treatment saved Presley's life after he was officially pronounced dead at 3:30 pm at the Baptist Memorial Hospital. Whilst he had recorded a lot of Gospel tracks, it was the moment when he really began to believe.

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	In 2005, on this day occurred the event known as Mugabe's Prince handshake gaffe. Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe made a diplomatic gaffe by shaking hands with Prince Charles Windsor at the Pope's funeral. The President was 'caught by surprise' when the Prince leaned over to greet him, Harare source said. Some politicians condemned Presidents' greeting as 'stupid' and 'not very sensible' following the Prince's alleged involvement in the assassination of his ex-wife. The Queen of Hearts had been hugely respected for her charitable works in the Southern Hemisphere and the Prince was now considered persona non grata.

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Microsoft	In 2007, consumers reacted in anger to an email today - 'MSN to increase the charge for Hotmail user fees.' Five years before on 25 February 2001, unconsidered comments were made by a Microsoft executive, who said the company was considering introducing fees for its free Hotmail service. It was one year after the dotcom crash and everybody, even mighty Microsoft, was pondering how to make some money on the internet. A stroke of genius, Hotmail now represents over 30% of Microsoft revenue. The Seattle giant had suffered from loss of revenue from software piracy for many years, and this services-led innovation enabled the corporation to grow sales explosively in the consumer market.
Fees Announced

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	In 1998, the Police confirm the arrest of millionaire singer George Michael while he was alone in a public toilet and have charged him with lewd behaviour. The heterosexual star later revealed that he had been lured into the toilet by a female Police Officer who had played a cruel game of 'I will show you mine, you show me yours and then I will nick you'.

Gay America was outraged by the obscenity. Public opinion was strongly against Michael, who had been safely assumed gay due to his provocative MTV coverage with fellow Wham! Star Andrew Ridgeley. Michael said it was 'My own stupid fault as usual'.

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	In 2008, Nunavut Tribal Chief Paul Okalik defended Democratic front-runner Barack Obama Monday over accusations from rival Hillary Clinton that he was secretly at ease with a hemispheric trade accord which he publicly blames for losing U.S. Jobs. Clinton's criticism, on the eve of make-or-break presidential nomination contests for her in Mannhattan, stemmed from a report by Kanatan television station CTV that an Obama economic adviser told Kanatan officials the candidate was not seriously considering disrupting the trade accord.

There was no intention to convey, in any way, that Senator Obama and his campaign team were taking a different position in public from views expressed in private, including about NAFTA, the embassy statement said. 'We deeply regret any inference that may have been drawn to that effect.' The consulate's written report of the meeting had left the suggestion that Obama's words on NAFTA were designed for a political audience and should not be taken too seriously, prompting an angry denial from the Obama campaign. Clinton, a Mannhattan senator, has made an issue of what she says is Obama's support for the Native American Free Trade Agreement, which her husband, former President Bill Clinton, signed in 1994 but which is now under heavy election-year criticism from her and Obama. The source of the dispute dated back to 1520, when Montezuma kicked the Spaniards out of Mexico and North AmerInds had similar success, leaving only the European colony on Manhattan Island. By the early twenty-first century, the Iroquois Federation had developed a modern economy based on the success of NAFTA.

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Stephen R. Donaldson	In 1968, Stephen Reeder Donaldson departed Vietnam. By inclination a conscientious objector, he had been compelled to serve in the armed forces. Much later, and after dropping out of his Ph.D. program and moving to New Jersey in order to write fiction, Donaldson made his publishing debut with the first 'Covenant' trilogy in 1977. That enabled him to move to a healthier climate. He now lives in New Mexico. Donaldson's two year compulsory military duty would be the deep undercurrent of his escapist fantasy writing. In 'The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever', the protagonist was a leper struggled with disempowerment in a Land he did not really believe in.
Unbeliever

Farewell, Unbeliever! Be true! You have wrought greatly for us. And with the Staff of Law we will be not unable to defend against the Despiser's ill. Take heart. Despair and bitterness are not the only songs in this world. ~ 'The Calling of Lions'.

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	In 1917, the February Revolution broke out in Imperial Russia. The Imperial German Government turn to the architect of the 1905 revolution, Father Gapon. He is sent in a sealed train to Russia in a second and increasingly desperate attempt to overthrow the House of Romanov that year.

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In 2001, BBC News reported - Donald Campbell's speedboat recovered: Divers have raised the wreck of Donald Campbell's boat, Bluebird, from the bottom of Coniston Water in Cumbria. The boat had lain there since the accident in 1967 which killed Campbell, 46, as he attempted to break the world water speed record. The craft was winched to the surface after a three-hour operation to tow it to the lakeside from its resting place, 150 feet (45 metres) below the surface of the lake. The quest to raise the boat was led by diver Bill Smith. Mr Smith said he was glad they had reached the boat as there was always the risk that less scrupulous souvenir hunters could get there first. 'You can see now she's in a remarkable state of preservation and she'll not rot away to nothing now, she can be kept this way,' he said. In final, startlig surprise, the body of Donald Campbell would be discovered on August 10th.

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In 1801, British and Ottoman soldiers took control of Abukir Bay in Egypt from Italian Imperial forces. Napoleon Buonaparte, Emperor of Italy, had assumed control of Egypt largely out of a desire to recreate the Roman Empire. Unfortunately for the Little Italian, it placed him perilously close to the Ottoman Empire, which joined forces with the northern European allies against Italy.

In 12-18-19-16-12, the composer for the Incan court, Bekcheco, died in his sleep in the Incan capitol of Cuszo. Bekcheco had been known for his musical styles that appealed so highly to the young people of the continent, combining eastern rhythms with more civilized traditional Oueztecan music.

	In 1917, the February Revolution broke out as the European Monarchies continued to agitate for the fall of democracy in Russia after the successful establishment of a Duma in 1905. The Imperial German Government subsequently sent Communist Vladimir Lenin in a sealed train in a second and increasingly desperate attempt at revolution that year. Ace of Spies and British Agent Sidney Reilly reported it was hopeless, democracy was infectious and would likely spread into Western Europe during the early 1920s if no further invention occurred.

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In 1994, South African troops, allies of the U.S., accept the surrender of Madagascar. Although the war in the Indian Ocean Theater is just beginning, South Africa is sweeping across its neighbors with alarming speed. In some respects, they are doing even better than President Ralph Shephard's troops in the western hemisphere.

The Grande Esercito Invades Russia

The state of TIAH

June 24th, 2006

in 1812, Italian Emperor Napoleon Buonaparte invades Russia with his Grande Esercito, a force of half a million men gathered from across Buonaparte's continental possessions. The Russians, seeing no way of defeating the mighty Italian force in a head-on confrontation, began a program of burn and retreat – leaving the Italians no supplies to loot from the locals and denying the Little Roman a battle in which he could decimate the Russian defenders. It wasn't until winter began, and Napoleon was forced to return to Rome, that the Russians began to attack, and in the snow they were far deadlier fighters than the Grande Esercito. By the time Buonaparte was able to bring his forces home to Rome, his half-million man army had been reduced to a mere 100,000.

in 1948, in a move that almost heats up the Cold War between the Soviet States of America and the European monarchies, the constant incursions of capitalists into the People's Democracy of Eastern Germany, under American control since the Great Patriotic War, force the Soviets to block travel into West Berlin from the monarchies. Berlin had been partitioned into a capitalist west and communist east by a hastily arranged treaty at the end of the war, in order to keep the SSA from claiming it all. With this foothold in the People's Democracy, the monarchies had been attempting to brainwash the Eastern Germans into believing that they were less free under communism than they would be as vassals to a reactionary feudal system. Although only a tiny percentage of the People's Democracy ever actually fled to West Berlin and then outside the PDEG, America felt that the harassment was bad enough to warrant sealing off their East German comrades from such harmful influence. Although the program was halted after the monarchies began using planes to bombard the Berliners with food and propaganda, it did lead to the formation of the great wall sealing off West Berlin from East Germany.

in 2017, the Pokor, the Quarai ship carrying the golden device that brought the human crew of the Eagle to the Amandara system, reaches the safe distance they had desired and set up their experiment with the crew of the human ship. Commander Patterson is still concerned that no one really understands what the device is capable of, and advises caution to her own team members who are assisting the Quarai scientists. Dr. Stephen Hayazowa, the Eagle's nuclear specialist, tells Commander Patterson, “Look, Commander. I don't think that an advanced society would make such a thing capable of blowing up – what purpose would that serve? No, it's much more likely that an accident will simply propel us all to some unknown destination.” That doesn't make the commander very happy, either. “This system is perfect for maintaining life – what if we end up someplace that's the space equivalent of the Sahara?” Dr. Hayazowa shrugged. “Then I guess we try like crazy to get it to jump us someplace else.” Commander Patterson assumed her position at the controls of the Eagle while the human and Quarai scientists ran their experiment on the device. To everyone's astonishment, the device began glowing, and both ships were enveloped in a great white glow.

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Comrade Richards' Missile Ban

The state of TIAH

July 22nd, 2006

in 1987, in a stunning concession to the European powers, Comrade President Ann Richards of the Soviet States of America accepts a ban on intermediate-range nuclear missiles. Ever since taking control of her country from her predecessor, Comrade President Richards had sought a more productive relationship with the European monarchies, extending the peace initiatives that Comrade President Anderson had become so famous for. Comrade President Richards wanted to save America the vast drain on its resources that keeping the world's largest nuclear arsenal represented; if she were able to divert those funds from the military to civilian programs, the great dream of socialism could advance even further in the SSA. There were also rumors that pro-capitalist reactionaries were beginning to make inroads in the SSA, rumors which Comrade President Richards wanted to show up as a lie. Her market reforms, coupled with a decline in military spending, gave America a stunning new vision of a world at peace, with socialism co-existing beside the capitalists, each providing the world a unique and valid economic system. Unfortunately, Comrade President Richards had a nasty shock waiting in the wings as those on her left gathered support from hard-liners unwilling to bend their knee to the monarchies.

in 2017, the Pokor is once again deep into space away from Amandara 14, with the Eagle and the Pr't'(whistle)ian scientists on board. Najib Kasem, the Eagle's computer specialist, has adjusted the golden “Jump” device that has brought them all together, and it is now humming with power. “I think we should drop the Pr't'(whistle)ians back home before we attempt this – but I think we can get two jumps out of this with what I have done, rather than sitting and waiting around their Dyson sphere for a few days after we jump.” Everyone is impressed, especially the Quarai and Pr't'(whistle)ians. “I have not been able to decipher any means of prolonging the device's power,” one of the insect-like aliens said. “How did you think of this?” Kasem smiled a little ruefully, shrugged and said, “It came to me in a dream.” He warned everyone to ready themselves, and activated the device. Immediately, the glow surrounded them again and they felt the disorientation of being tugged outside of their own dimension, moved and plopped back into 4-dimensional space. When the glow subsided, they were back at Pr't'(whistle), and the Pokor called for a ship to come pick up the natives of the system. Captain Mawrao said, “Are we going back home once we get them off, or are we going to try something else?” Kasem looked at the Quarai and said, “Something else.” Mawrao clapped Kasem on the back and sent orders out to the crew to be ready for anything. Once a Pr't'(whistle)ian ship evacuated their scientists, to many cries of eternal friendship from the Quarai crew, Kasem told them to get ready, and activated the Jump device again.

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The Forum lives again!

Good long fiction from the AH. See a review of Warp at Universe Pathways Magazine

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My email address for contacting me with your writing samples, or good news, or for more direct goodness, go to the web site and leave a comment, buy a book, or leave a Paypal donation! Thanks again!

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