GreenHorns

Crusty Texan Cactus "Rip" Hays, the prized prisoner of the environmental utopia of Smart World, secretly plots a revolt against his captors. His enemies, the Lords of Smart World and terrorists who reside within the walls of Smart World's super-skyscrapers, came to power in the Green Revolution in the early 21st century. The only souls to have escaped confinement in the super-skyscrapers are Hays' fellow Texans, a few thousand hardy and fierce rebels who dwell in freedom in the Great Wilderness and vow to retake their land seized by the greenhorns.

Mention “going green,” and a crusty Texan chiseled from the old rock - Cactus “Rip” Hays - goes postal. Signed, sealed, and delivered to Smart World six years, six months, and six weeks ago, the aging journalist has no choice but to live every day as though it is Earth Day. Still, he delights in giving his captors the devil whenever he can. Using the black market as his delivery system, he taps the printer’s ink coursing through his veins to foment a revolution among his Old Testament people. These are the hardy Texans subsisting, against Smart World law, in the Great Wilderness. The Lords of the environmental utopia rule the remaining populace – 50 million brainwashed, docile subjects – who were cajoled, evicted and herded from their own land into sustainable super-skyscrapers during the Green Revolution in the early 21st Century. Terrorists, who are appeased by the Lords, also plot the downfall of Smart World from within. Their common interests of environmental religion - Gaia instead of God - and socialistic governance are tightly interwoven. But only one of them can ascend to the penthouses of the new world. Who will prevail? The Lords? The terrorists? Or will it be the Texans, whose roots remain anchored in the land?

Richard C. Wagner is a veteran, award-winning newspaper editor-in-chief, writer, and author. He has studied and written extensively on environmental matters, including the U.N.'s Agenda 21 and the Smart Growth movement in the United States. He is the former editor of a free-market think tank in Raleigh, N.C. and an avid supporter of private property rights. Wagner is a native of Bay City, Texas. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in journalism and business administration at East Texas State University (now Texas A&M University) at Commerce, Texas and pursued graduate studies at St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas. Wagner has conducted dozens of book signings at Barnes and Noble stores, other corporate and independent bookstores, schools, churches and at other venues in several states. He also has appeared on various TV and radio shows.