The LA Wildfires: An Opinion

Fueled by dangerous winds, changing directions and incredibly dry conditions, wildfires were kickstarted across various parts of Los Angeles last week. The Eaton and Palisades fires are still actively raging through greater Los Angeles, and a new onslaught of Santa Ana winds is expected to bring extreme wildfire danger to Southern California.

Santa Ana refers to a strong hot dry foehn wind from the north, northeast, or east in southern California(Merriam-Webster).

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Girl Made Of Stars

For readers of Girl in Pieces and The Way I Used to Be comes an emotionally gripping story about facing hard truths in the aftermath of sexual assault. Mara and Owen are as close as twins can get, so when Mara’s friend Hannah accuses Owen of rape, Mara doesn’t know what to think. Can her brother really be guilty of such a violent act? Torn between her family and her sense of right and wrong, Mara feels lost, and it doesn’t help that things are strained with her ex-girlfriend, Charlie. As Mara, Hannah, and Charlie come together in the aftermath of this terrible crime, Mara must face a trauma from her own past and decide where Charlie fits into her future. With sensitivity and openness, this timely novel confronts the difficult questions surrounding consent, victim blaming, and sexual assault.

  • Girl Made Of Stars, by Ashley Herring Blake
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The Ticketek Trauma

I have always been, am and will be a pure Swiftie. I HAVE BEEN LISTENING TO HER SINCE I WAS BORN.

No, I haven’t, I’m not that old.

TAYLOR SWIFT ISN’T OLD EITHER, THAT’S NOT WHAT I MEANT, I PROMISE.

I had been hoping she would somehow, miraculously perform close to where I lived since the moment I shifted to Australia, it being an influential music industry and all. And when my phone tinged with a promise of her landing on Sydney’s sunny shores in February 2024, I was ecstatic. I was bouncing off the walls, so very, very sure that we’d get tickets because I had signed up to whatever membership required to be able to access presale and general sale tickets. I even briefed my father on his mission, and he cancelled all his work calls on both days. My mum promised to log into Ticketek at her workplace, because according to the news, about a minimum of 4 million people would pounce on a ticket availability of only 450,000.

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C is for Climate Change

I had submitted this piece of writing to the Ocean Awareness Writing Contest a few months back. Hope you enjoy reading it!

The mother glances fondly at her children, a pod of three slate-grey, white-patterned teenage whales, a smile materializing on her snout. Her smile fades though, as she contemplates their skinny bodies and starved faces. Their eyes are devoid of joy, and any happiness that they had blissfully enjoyed before had simply disappeared like those times had never existed.

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Positive

Yes, I know what my readers should be anticipating after reading the title of this blog, but right now, during this infernal pandemic, it’s a sin to be positive. It’s a perfect example of situational irony. Unfortunately, I received a harsh dose of this recently☹.

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