Reading, Writing, and Plate Tectonics

I made more progress yesterday with the Plate Tectonics simulator, almost finishing it.  I tweaked the variables and all worked well at a 256x256, 512x256 and 512x512 resolution.  Alas, I discovered that when the resolution is increased to 1024x512, certain parameters that are currently constants need to be changed, otherwise the results look clunky.  So I need to go back and turn six constants into variables, expose them, and update the UI so they can be altered by the user.  Probably another few days for release, because I'll want to run a lot of simulation cycles to be able to set decent defaults and provide recommendations for different setting levels.

My writing of The Forbidden Valley bogged down temporarily, but as I sit drinking hot cocoa, I think I know how to resolve the problem in the scene I'm working on.  I'd written ahead of that point, but hadn't been able to resolve the problem in that scene.  I think I have now, though, so snippets may be forthcoming again soon.

I read three novels yesterday: Loose Ends by John van Stry, and Scout's Law and The Fugitive Heir by Henry Vogel.  All three were a lot of fun and I intend to write reviews when I have a chance - including brief ones on Amazon.  I am also continuing with reading Lincoln Paine's The Sea & Civilization, a non-fiction maritime history, and have made it to just short of the one-third mark.  This is a long but engrossing work, but is definitely a slower read than the romps provided by the novels I mentioned at the start of the this paragraph.