About
Hi! I'm Zachary Kai: 20-something, queer (he/him.) I love reading, making, learning, listening to music, and traveling. I write fiction about a life in the stars.
I'm actively seeking new remote work opportunities! Here's my resume and CV. If I'd be a good fit for your organization or project, email me: hi@zacharykai.net
Table Of Contents
Official Bio
Zachary Kai is a queer writer and avowed generalist who creates with unwavering purpose. Between crafting science fiction about resilient souls in the stars, making zines, and collecting skills like trading cards, he sends letters to strangers who often become friends.
His work has been featured in the Bold Magazine, Dense Discovery, and Stark Reflections.
Though Australian by birth, he crafts tales with American spelling and British punctuation: a linguistic and world wanderer. He previously wrote as Leo Flynn. The internet remains his livelihood and lifeline, and he documents his existence on his site.
Photo Credit: Roberto Pettinau
More About Me
I run group workshops on drawing in company, creative writing, worldbuilding, and zine-making (which you can book!)
I refuse to die without making something useful.
If I choose one word to describe myself besides queer, it's 'generalist.' My many skills include:
- Amateur knitting in practice, advanced knitting in theory.
- Amateur gardening: repotting, watering, weeding.
- Backstage crewing for theatre productions: being a stagehand, bumping in/out, making props, microphone management, set construction, spiking, sound. I've done six shows, and hopefully will do many more.
- Encyclopedic yet hyperspecialized knowledge: in consumer technology history, pop culture, and the Star Wars universe.
- Recipe improvisation: I can create a meal with anything you have in the fridge and pantry.
- Shoddy hand sewing.
Timeline
- 2015: First fiction story: fanfic for an obscure webcomic.
- 2017: First novel, NaNoWriMo: One Moonlit Night (58k words.)
- 2018: Entered the Jolley Prize. Second novel: Chrysanthemum Throne (72k words.)
- 2019: Entered the Jolley Prize again.
- 2020: Published my first book: the first of The Mara Files.
- 2021: Sought reviewers for The Mara Files. Started rewriting + expanding it.
- 2022: Finished rewriting Mara's Awakening. Emailed previous reviewers.
- 2023: Rewrote + published Mara's Choice. Published Mara's Reckoning.
- 2024: Started this site, began Don't Burn Too Bright, and transitioned from publishing as Leo Flynn to writing under my real name, Zachary Kai.
Tidbits
- As long as I'm typing in text or markdown files, I'm happy.
- Adore the history, culture, and the art of making food. Still, I prefer subsisting on veggies, nuts, seeds, legumes, and tofu.
- Always listening to music. Despite listening to my favorite songs thousands of times, I hardly grow tired!
- I alphabetize (almost) everything when organizing.
- I'm fluent in English and speak intermediate (mostly Mexican) Spanish.
- I've visited Australia, Japan, Mexico, Moldova, Romania, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, The Netherlands, and the UK.
- Saw A New Hope in 2015 and it changed everything.
- Started sending letters, art, and ephemera to strangers in 2020, and I haven't stopped. Some of my dearest friends are penpals.
- The internet is my livelihood, friendships, joys, curiosities... Without it, who am I?
- Though I'm Australian, I write using American spelling, and British punctuation.
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