An Inspiring Journey into our Better Natures
Literary/Eco-Fiction
Date Published: 10-01-2025
Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group Press
Earth’s animals are fed up with humanity’s mindless damage
to our common home. Will a young girl and her family heed their call?
Ten-year-old Luz sets out on an overnight camping trip, accompanied by her
spiritual mentor. Peering through a canopy of California redwoods, Luz
witnesses a council of animals confronting the menace of climate change. Led
by a lustrous—and talkative—American Crow named Koro, the animals
weigh their options. Some, like Koro, want to collaborate with humans. Others
doubt humanity’s good intentions. The conversation compels young Luz,
innately in tune with the natural world, to fight passionately in its defense.
At once a work of fact-based activism and a moving coming-of-age, Crows
Calling immerses the reader in a richly-drawn family and community who,
despite their differences, decide to dedicate their lives to the care of
Grandmother Earth. They are not alone. Rather, they are accompanied by a
colorful cast of savvy planimals—bears, coyotes, trees, and even
chickens—with long memories and ancient ways of healing. However, some
damage cannot be undone. Natural disasters, public apathy, and greed threaten
everything that Luz and her friends are working for. Can the cross-species
alliance find unity and resolve the climate crisis?
Excerpt
Chapter 1
Before we go any further, I really should introduce myself. I am Koro—a
lustrous female American Crow. Surely, when strolling in woods or along an
urban lane, you have admired my family’s elegant, iridescent plumage and
thrilled to our melodious song. You know of our prodigious memory, of our
cleverness spearing hapless grubs from sodden logs with a favored twig.
The glint you see in my ebony eye is a tear shining for my
grandmother—the earthly incarnation of generosity, whose bounteous lands
and waters make room for every new arrival. Of late, however, one
family—relative newcomers—has been pushing her limits, leaving
their garbage everywhere and abusing the other guests. They run their noisy
engines at all hours. Noxious smoke belches from their cooking fires. Every
day, more and more of them come, crowding into other families’ spaces,
destroying the homes of many of my friends.
Recognizing our Crow persistence, Grandmother Earth called us to help her get
those inconsiderate tenants to clean up their act. Peering into the chasm of
the coming Meltdown, I am proud to be on precious Grandmother’s team. My
cawcus is responsible for majestic Northern California. The land we cover is a
patchwork sprawl of asphalt and forest, garlic and strawberries, oranges and
avocados, cattle and sheep raised sustainably and otherwise, bears guttering
in their occult tongue, sweet jasmine brandishing her shameless perfume, and
sixteen million busy humans.
Through wildfires, drought, floods, extreme heat, even earthquakes,
Grandmother is pleading directly with humans. Some hear her message. Take
Makah Andrews, professor of International Environmental Policy at Monterey
University. Makah’s one of the good ones, trying to use the system to
turn itself around. That’s the aim of “Team
Grandmother”—a successful turnaround.
What’s that I hear? Ah, please allow me to introduce my most trusted
teammate, Ursula, a beautiful California Black Bear who lives around here.
Ursula, tell the folks what we’ve been hearing from other nonhuman parts
of the natural world, from other planimals, as we call ourselves. Our fellow
creatures are getting nervous. Some are angry. That’s why we’re
organizing a Congress. …
About the Author
Bruce McConnell is an agile and accomplished shapeshifter, having
flourished as a poet, roofer, artist-blacksmith, mechanical engineer, tenor,
business consultant, national security official, non-profit executive, and
peacemaker. A collection of his poems, Living from Here, was published by
Anvil Press (US). He recently moved to Ashland Oregon to feel closer to his
relatives in the natural world. Crows Calling is his first novel. He is
working on a second novel set in Southern Oregon.
A leading player on global peace and security issues at the intersection of
governments, business and civil society for over thirty years, McConnell is
the former President and CEO of the EastWest Institute. He serves on the board
of The Stimson Center, in support of peace, security, justice, and prosperity
for all living beings.
From 2009 to 2013, McConnell served in the U.S. Department of Homeland
Security, where he was Deputy Under Secretary for Cybersecurity. He was a
member of the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Team. From 2000-2008, he
created, built and sold two consultancies that provided strategic advice to
clients in the technology, business and government sectors. In 1999-2000,
McConnell led the International Y2K Cooperation Center, which was sponsored by
the United Nations and the World Bank.
McConnell holds a Master of Public Administration from the Evans School for
Public Policy at the University of Washington and a Bachelor of Sciences from
Stanford University. He serves as a business advisor to various technology
companies.
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