Weather Data Speaks for Itself

I deeply care about the environment. Much of my career has been supporting the cleanup huge environmental messes. We must protect the environment but our resources are limited. We must make wise choices because we can't do everything. In order to make wise choices, we must honestly evaluate the available information. We must weigh the facts objectively. That's exactly what I do in my most recent book, Weather Data. May the data speak for itself!

Surprise and Delight

I aim to surprise and delight my readers by creating stories that are different from the same old narratives. The character (Ashley) in my angel trilogy is nothing like what people expect—no singing with harps, no glad tidings of great joy, just plenty of chaos that arrives at the good outcome along a circuitous path. The character (Kyle Cooper) in my detective novels is nothing like Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot but he does solve the crime, though stumbling along the way. The medical examiner (Doc Trout) is nothing like the ones on television, but she too succeeds in the end. Chelsea is no superhero but with the animals' help saves the Everglades. Safiya and Karim—two kids from Yonkers—prevent a world war by raiding the King Tut display. Jamie2 is no robot or android but a hormonal cyborg teen who unravels adults for sport. And there's Synergy if you're in the mood for short stores.

On Books...

Even as a child, I was never drawn to voluminous texts, though I did read through the Great Books series in middle school. I was especially fond of Aristotle, Euripides, Euclid, Archimedes, Copernicus, Kepler, Pascal, and Newton. Not so much Plato, Herodotus, Ptolemy, Plutarch, and Sophocles. Verne, Melville, and Tolkien put me to sleep and Herbert could induce a coma. I have come to appreciate that readers have very different expectations. To some, it's all about building a new world and filling it with interesting characters. To me, it's all about telling a story. Use the existing world if at all possible. If a world must be built along the way, make it brief and don't let it detract from the story. All of my stories begin with a character facing a challenge: Ashley wakes up with wings. Jamie realizes she's a computer. Erin and Edmund must save the Mill. Peter and Steven must undo history. Chelsea must save the Glades from Alex's dad. Cooper must stop the killing. Stick to the story and keep the pressure on to the very end. My goal is to write a story that would keep you up all night until you finished it.

Please Read the Forward

Two readers have posted harsh reviews of Monte Carlo Methods citing "undocumented C code". The code in question is clear, compact, straightforward, and does exactly what the function names imply, for example:
void Draw(gunslinger*man)
  {/* randomly set speed, lethality, and luck based on attributes */
  if(man->alive)
    {
    man->quick=(int)(man->speed*rand());
    man->lethal=((man->accuracy*32767)>=rand());
    man->luck  =((man->lucky   *32767)>=rand());
    }
  else
    man->quick=man->lethal=man->luck=0;
  }
This text is not the place to explain a bubble sort or pointers or the standard function rand(). All of the examples and code perform as stated. The primary motivation for this book was to avoid the usual esoteric details that never arrive at any useful outcome, which is why I don't discuss them. If you don't understand something, send me an email. I often provide examples and custom software for readers--all free, of course.

All Color Figures Now Available Online

A single color item within the text greatly increases the price of printing, placing an undue burden on some readers. The eBook contains color and can be printed with the right software and equipment. Lending and printing are enabled. All of the color figures are now available online. Follow this link and click on the cover to see the figures. http://djamesbenton.altervista.org Color printing through Amazon has recently become much more affordable; however, once a book is published, you can't change it from black-on-white to color; therefore, I am combining three similar books into one and making these sets available in color. New texts will all be in color.

Seminole Rain

Chelsea is bored out of her mind and stuck in Nowheresville. She talks to animals—and they talk back—but everyone at school thinks she's nutty as a squirrel. She has a most remarkable talent, but this seems pointless in her current circumstance. Chelsea must step into the greater context of her Native American roots before discovering just how very important she is. A misdirected vacation will plop her into the lap of destiny. If her father had checked the map, they would have gone to the beach instead of the swamp. Alex is wasting his life and headed nowhere fast. What he lacks is purpose. If his father hadn't needed a triple bypass, Alex wouldn't have set foot in the swamp. This unlikely pair stumbles toward the Land of the Seminole and is swept into a storm brewing for five centuries.

Programming for 3D

I just published a second book on 3D rendering, 3D Models in Motion Using OpenGL. This is a sequel building upon my previous book, 3D Rendering in Windows with and without OpenGL. These two draw upon a third book, Version Independent Programming: Code Development Guidelines for the Windows® Operating System. I will publish (probably in August) a third book in the rendering series, 3D Articulation, in which I will demonstrate how to make more lifelike objects and move them more realistically. This will include a human and an imperial walker, possibly more.