Contributing writer

Diya Chacko

Diya Chacko is a New Orleans native with degrees from USC Annenberg and Columbia University’s Earth and Environmental Science Journalism master's program. She had stints at the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab and the California Center for Health Reporting before becoming the Digital Production Manager for NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune in New Orleans. She started at The Orange County in 2017 as the Digital News Editor.

The author TJ Klune, whose new novel, “Somewhere Beyond the Sea,” is a sequel to “The House in the Cerulean Sea,” says he aims for this new book to celebrate the trans community and hopes we can “be kinder to each other.” (Courtesy of Tor Books)

TJ Klune says ‘Calvin & Hobbes’ inspired a ‘Somewhere Beyond the Sea’ character

September 5, 2024 at 6:01 a.m.

The author, whose new novel is a sequel to 'The House in the Cerulean Sea,' aims to celebrate the trans community and hopes we can 'be kinder to each other.'

Crowds of Comic-Con attendees walk the street in front of the Hard Rock Hotel San Diego covered in a Yellowjackets building wrap in 2023 (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

What ‘Bright Sword’ author Lev Grossman loves about Comic-Con

July 23, 2024 at 1:46 p.m.

Best known for "The Magicians," the Brooklyn-based writer is a featured speaker at this weekend's mega-convention in San Diego

Gabrielle Korn is the author of the new novel "Yours for the Taking."

SoCal author hopes her new dystopian climate change novel makes readers think

January 6, 2024 at 2:01 p.m.

If you had the chance to escape the ravages of climate change by permanently ing a community separated from the outside world, would you take it? You’d be safe from...

U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón is seen at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. on Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023. Limón wrote a new poem for an NASA mission to Jupiter's moon Europa. "In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa" will be engraved on the Europa Clipper spacecraft. NASA expects to launch the mission in October 2024. (Gregory M. Waigand/NASA via AP)

Comic-Con 2023: JPL’s Europa Clipper will carry your name to Jupiter

July 23, 2023 at 11:02 p.m.

Attendees at Comic-Con International in San Diego this week got the opportunity to write their name in the stars — or at least near one of Jupiter’s many moons.As part...

San Diego, CA - July 20: Caitlin Beards works the runway during The Her Universe fashion show as part of Comic-Con International at the Manchester Grand Hyatt on Thursday, July 20, 2023 in San Diego, CA. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

San Diego Comic-Con 2023: Her Universe fashion show celebrates young artists’ cosplay-inspired designs

July 21, 2023 at 4:06 p.m.

A Minnie Mouse-inspired, red-and-white polka dot dress and a flowing, black, pearl-studded ankle-length gown inspired by the X-Men character Storm were the winners of the 2023 Her Universe Fashion Show...

PACIFICA, CALIFORNIA--JAN. 20, 2019--On Pacifica Esplanade Dog Beach, the remains of an apartment building that fell off of the cliffs can be seen along with one still standing. Most of the building was removed, but some debris remains on the beach. The town of Pacifica, just south of San Francisco, is ground zero for the issue of coastal erosion. On Jan. 20-21, the combination of ocean surge and a king tide caused high waves. Some homes and apartment building have already been lost to the forces of nature. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times)

California’s coast is disappearing, and the debate over what to do about it is in full swing

July 11, 2019 at 7:18 p.m.

Even as quakes, wildfires and drought have taken up most of our focus, the slow-moving disaster of rising seas has paralyzed Californians, and left us with “both too much and...

Sick of those long paper receipts? California lawmakers are weighing a bill to ban them

March 26, 2019 at 9:02 p.m.

Reporting from Sacramento — Those glossy paper receipts that are often trashed before a shopper even leaves a store could become a relic of the past under a bill that cleared its...

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Appeals court temporarily blocks judge’s ruling to return control of National Guard to California