Gold Award recipient for best thriller, The Water Factor is a confronting eco-thriller about corporate that will surprise and engross readers until the final page.

Under the sun of the Oregon High Desert, members of the West Spirit Reservation struggle to survive. As global warming intensifies, their lives become so fragile that the elders feel they have no choice but to allow outsiders to bail them out. That's when the trouble begins. The novel opens dramatically in 2039 with James Hokama Byrne, grandson of Chief Tahoma-Kiche, leading a team to steal water trucks and take them to the reservation where his grandparents live.

The plot engages readers in the manipulations and crimes of water cartels, drug lords, and utility companies operating openly and with little oversight. It chronicles James's journey from Oregon to Ethiopia, following his growth from a naive high school graduate to an environmental activist Challenged to make access to clean water a human right, not a commodity exploited by private corporations. The story is exciting, radical, and urgent, involving love affairs, murder, and kidnapping.

"Future big wars will not be over oil or land; they will be over water. Access to free, clean water is losing its place as a human right. Across the globe, international corporations are taking control of water. Reading this book is like drinking a cool glass of water on a hot day," says Michael (Two-Feathers) Ray, Potowatami, Filmmaker, and Storyteller.