Virtually no phase in the history of our planet's civilizations has so many unanswered questions, and attracts so many theories, as the Egyptian "Amarna Period" when the heretic Pharaoh Akhenaten turned away from the traditional gods and embraced his one god, the Aten Sun Disk.

Why did he turn his back on the existing gods and close their temples and turn out their priests? What was the relationship between Akhenaten and Tutankhamen? What was the real reason for the apparent massive anti-Atenist backlash that followed his death and Tutankhamen's, which included the leveling of their magnificent new City of the Horizon and its White Pyramid? Why did Tutankhamen die mysteriously at only eighteen years of age?

What was the true nature of Queen Nefertiti, considered to be one of the most beautiful women of ancient times, rivaling even the fabled Helen of Troy? Who was the mysterious man named Smenkhkare who either ruled with or after Akhenaten for a brief period of time? Why was what purports to be Smenkhkare's mummy found buried in a woman's coffin as if he were of the female sex?

I have endeavored to answer these and other questions in a science-fiction novella which draws conclusions that may be as true as any other conjectures. Although these are conclusions based upon archaeological evidence extant in the early 21st century, "The Amarna Secret" is written for entertainment only and is frankly pornographic. I have long believed that the veil of bourgeois morality should be lifted from all historical study if we are to gain an unfettered perspective of our planetary antecedents as living, breathing human beings who were as real in their time and place as we are today.

Having classified "The Amarna Secret" as a work of fiction, I should add that such is only partially true. The framework on which I hang the story, i.e. its beginnings in Argentina when I was 23, the voyage across the South Atlantic, my work in South Africa, my overland journey by Lambretta from the Cape of Good Hope to Middle Egypt, the fate of the couple on the Ducati, and the disposal of the Road Angel at Luxor, are true, almost exactly as they are written. I wrote a two-part article about my sojourn in Africa for the magazine "Cycle World" in, as I recall, the summer of 1963 when I was living in Mexico. It was entitled, "The Road Angel in Africa."

Speaking of portents of the future found in fragments of the past, the African portion of the adventure began when I arrived in Capetown from Buenos Aires on October 4, 1957, which happened to be the day the Russians (the former Soviet Union) launched Sputnik I, the first earth-orbiting satellite—now acknowledged as the date when the Space Age began.

Enjoy the story! I offer you an eerily modern sentiment which was found on a stela (or "stele," an upright stone slab or pillar bearing an inscription or design and serving as a monument or marker) from the Amarna Period: "Have a nice day amongst your townsmen!" The ancient Egyptian inscription was not accompanied, however, by a "smiley-face" icon.

DEDICATED TO "R"