Vapor Trails
A Novel by R.P. Siegel & Roger Saillant
www.vaportrails.org

Vapor Trails charts the gradual awakening and transformation of Mason Burnside, a tough-minded executive at Splendid Oil, whose commitment to his work, his country and his customers has made him a very wealthy man, but at the same time, laid waste to the environment as well as his personal life. It gives us an in-depth look at the energy business and the looming climate crisis, through the eyes of the many different characters that get caught in the path of the story. We meet the young vegetarian cyclist Jacob Walker, and Ellen Greenbaum, an idealist who works in Splendid Oil’s token sustainability department, and we feel the passion for global cooperation in service to nature through the crusading voice of Diana Mars.
All of these characters are thrown together at a sustainability conference in New Orleans. Jacob has come to pay homage, Ellen to find common cause and ease her distress over the mysterious disappearance of her boss-- the charismatic and committed John Pennington. Burnside has come to scout the enemy. When a huge storm hits the city, these four find themselves stranded together in a flooded house. Challenging conversations ensue. Jacob and Ellen find each other; Burnside finds himself enthralled with Diana’s moral clarity and the power of her vision. At the same time she hits him between the eyes with the blind hypocrisy that has been his life.
The book culminates in the dramatic rescue of John Pennington, who is being held hostage at the site of a carbon sequestration site in Java, having stumbled upon an internal intrigue so damaging, that Jack Masterson, the company’s diabolical CEO will stop at nothing to keep it secret. Burnside agrees to lead the rescue party, but only after he has faced his demons in a secretive and dangerous trip to Ecuador, where a fateful decision he made years earlier doomed thousands of acres of pristine rainforest and the indigenous tribes that subsisted there for millennia. In the end, Masterson’s corrupt regime falls, Ellen and Jacob become a couple and Burnside decides to resign and pursue other interests, including Diana Mars…
Vapor Trails is a fast paced page turner, a compelling and cinematic story with all the elements, peopled with engaging three dimensional characters. At the same time it contains a wealth of knowledge and insight about sustainability, drawn from the authors’ extensive experience. The authors felt that a highly entertaining story could introduce the subject to a wide audience that might not otherwise be exposed to it. As the book’s title suggests, there are sometimes consequences that lie in the wake of our actions that we might not be aware of.

Author bios.
Roger Saillant has spent his entire life as a fearless change agent, an environmental advocate and proponent of personal empowerment—whether it was tearing down roadside billboards at the age of seventeen or tearing down organizational barriers as a senior executive at the Ford Motor Company-- Roger has always done what he felt needed doing with little regard for meaningless rules. Labeled as a “tempered radical” by Fast Company, he was later featured in a book by the same title. A highly successful businessman, Roger’s method was to acquire the credibility necessary to put his ideals into practice. Dr. Saillant is a recognized authority in renewable energy and sustainability and has been featured on WGBH public television. He is a frequent speaker at leading colleges and universities including MIT, Cornell, University of Michigan, and many others, always in high demand for the plain-spoken clarity with which he addresses complex issues. He has broad international business experience, is a member of the Hydrogen Fuel Technology Advisory Committee for the US Department of Energy and has testified before congress on energy policy matters. Roger is also on the board of directors of the Cloud Institute for Sustainability. He recently retired as CEO of Plug Power, a fuel cell company in Latham NY and is ready to continue the journey.

RP Siegel is an author and inventor who has pursued both literature and engineering as lifetime passions. In a nutshell, he has pursued creativity in whatever form presented itself. He currently holds 44 US patents. Some of his technological innovations were the subject of an article in Red Herring. A frequent traveler and a great lover of nature, Robert has hiked extensively through Central America rainforests, cycled through Europe, and paddled the Zambezi River in an overloaded canoe. His publications include business and technical articles featured in a wide range of venues including Mechanical Engineering and Strategy+Business. Robert has also written extensively about sustainability for several organizations including the Society for Organizational Learning Consortium where he and Roger first met. His poetry has been published and anthologized, most recently in Knocking on the Silence by Foothills Press. He has been active in the upstate NY literary community both as a student and a teacher and has been featured in readings of his poetry, previous works of fiction and a biography in progress.

Vapor Trails the Novel (Book and film rights)