The Eagle Diaries Project: Story Outline and Book Structure

Green Wing Press
Green 

Tradition dictates that not too much is spoken about a story in progress as this detracts or takes energy away from, metaphysically, that work. It is the same belief applied to the work space which encourages the creator to not even clean the dust from that area as the energy of the work accumulates in this and adds to the work itself. Not that all writers are filthy, their homes hotbeds of fermentation and gestation or the wordsmiths afraid to enounce out loud the growing system of ideas and thoughts to be presented through a story's architecture and characteristaions. To adhere to these superstitions and the myths and substance they must stem from, short paragraphs of what is becoming 'Eagle Diaries' are offered here. This hopefully gives and overview of the process which allows any storys' bones to acquire flesh..

The Eagle Diaries is told through a succession of Australians, both male and female, and from all classes and creeds, who are the diarists. It begins after the Second World War in a season termed 'Autumn'. The 1950s' to early 1960's are called 'Winter', the 1960s to mid 1970s' are 'Spring' and so on and so forth until a season that occurs outside of recognised annual tides, and currently, that is named ' Mystic Spring'. A part of their story is the environment and our lack of awareness and then growing knowledge that all is interconnected here.

Although, frankly, how anyone can disregard that TREES are making the air by which we breathe, that WATER constitues 70% of our crystal beingness and physicality, that EARTH is the pure stuff we walk on, as well as the mix (chemical elements) to fire up the clay of all human forms, is beyond this pretty bad poet.

Eagles live for thirty plus years. They are monogamous, choosing or happily finding a mate in the third or fifth year of life and staying with them for the duration of their own life. It is rare for one of the partners, should they lose their 'spouse' through death, to take another mate. This length of a few decades makes them ideal subjects to show our own shifts over a few decades, and especially the handing over of eagle watching duties between characters who have been strongly affected by the events they have lived through. Generational legacies and historical events, whether wars or humankind expanding its mind and attitude, towards gender roles, towards people, towards environment, although told through indidvidual perspectives, has marked them all.

The eagles I have been watching, since it is best to practice what you are going to eventually write about (although obviously I didn't know thirty years ago that this work was coming), have flown over the Pittwater region, Northern Beaches of Sydney, Palm Beach, and the Hawkesbury River since I first saw them at age 17. I am now watching a second generation of adult birds.

There are also a pair of falcons who live at Palm Beach, and kites, and I have seen their chicks, their juveniles, and their seasonal rituals. Through all the decades I have watched these birds, or found them watching me, a sense of their personalities has grown. 

The sea eagles fly as far south as Warriewood and Narrabeen. There are wetlands and a lake there; good for fishing! One I saw two years ago at North Newport headland was close enough to touch.

An Overview of the Characters, timelines of historic events that may have shaped their lives, even though each is constructed to be an epitome of their generation and their generations experience, follows. This, without giving away too much... as explained above, weaves their threads into one discourse.

Also a  few more hyperlinks though, to store and access researched Timelines for the eras explored;

Timelines for Australian History; 1950 – 2005
1950's 1960's 1970's 1980's 1990's 2000's


The Characters who tell the story by telling their stories:

1955 Autumn: Beverly, recently widowed, and freed from the constraints of what expectations of women during the 1950's were, reads a newspaper article requesting 'amateur' birdwatchers contact those conducting a study on sea eagles for sightings of these birds. As Beverly, retired, living in Palm Beach reguarly sees a pair who frequent the estuary and hills, she embarks on an adventure of becoming a bird-watcher and keeping a bird-log for the researchers that also becomes a cathartic self-exploration and self-development experience. The development of a human soul, the mass building of houses in what was a holiday house area and the consequent degradation of the environment, and the development of human beings, particularly women in this pre-feminist decade, collide to reshape Beverly and her world. As such she transforms herself from what was deemed the best characteristics of a 'lady' to define Feminism and becomes what is now termed an 'environmentalist'. She has entered the eagle's world and their noble quality transfers to her life and being.

1960 Winter: Richard, returned soldier from the Korean War, who suffers, still, from
 Battle Fatigue  and being labelled 'strange', cannot adjust to being among people, applies for a job as a Park Ranger . He has decided he may become 'sane' again if he can have enough peace, and non-judgemental days, amongst the green spaces. These are pre National Parks and Wildlife days. The bush, and his sought isolation in it, causes flashbacks for him. The Australian bush seems to embrace him one moment and become filled with the dead soldiers he fought beside and even against during other dark days. Taking on the task of being a sea eagle bird-watcher, and his more personal entries in his bird-log, create salvation for him. He begins to think he can understand what the birds, drawn to him by becoming familiar with his presence among their days and seasons, are singing. His record of their language, even while he wonders if this is some new manifestation of his psychosis, reminds him of all the varying peoples and their songs. A correlation between the two, matching people types with bird species, not only expands his world and draws him into a pure bird realm, it also enables him to re-enter society, if only at its fringes; where he perches like an Australian raven, a keeper of knowledge symbolically.


1967-1977 Spring: The Hippie age, and love of nature is in full swing! George, escapee from this alternative lifestyle, still believes this development in his peers is valid, he just wants to contribute to it in a more conservative way. He meets Richard prior to taking over his Park Ranger duties and spends a few months being introduced to his duties and territory. He hears, one eerie night, about Richard's 'bird-song language' theory. As his months of initial isolation progress, he too finds himself drawn in and embraced by the strong essence of the Australian Bush. He too notices how the birds in his area accustom themselves to his presence and draw nearer to him on his walks to check their status. He finds sulphur cockatoos, the juvenile delinquents of the bird world, seem to be drawn to him more then any other avians. The eagles he monitors treat him with disdain. Soon loneliness drives him to town where he meets Sarah, who is ready to leave hippydom behind and join him in the bush. Romance, rehabilitation of bush areas, and a child born beneath the gum trees follows, until Sarah, his child, and the birds all disappear in one day... what does this augur...apart from a return to loneliness...

1977-1982 Late Spring to Summer: Margaret, vetinarian, and divorcee who has been much abused since birth (environment as well as society statistics) continues the quest and the Healing. Her bird; the Australian White Ibis. As an emotional creature she notices how runoff is killing the rivers and waterways.
(I had a juvenile white ibis visiting me at home, on balcony, in July 2010 for days in a row, while working on this book. On investigation, to check the metaphysical undercurrents, I found this bird is associated with writers, sacred writing, a protector of scribes and means successful transmutations. All good 'augurs' for a story you would think. He was followed by circling pelicans, also meaning transformations.)

1982- 1990 Summer: Harold, computer programmer with a malfunctioning shoulder due to this line of work (yes folks, this character was concieved years prior to even thinking of taking this course) regains his self outdoors and the return of his wing (arm). His bird; urban sparrow. As a former ethernet verser he notices how all the citified sparrows are disappearing.

1990-1995 Indian Summer: A series of keepers expand the flocks and bird stories. Their totemic birds are all endangered species.

1995-2020 Mystic Spring: Final bird-watcher whose totemic bird is, yes, a Sea Eagle.


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