About

Hi! I'm Zachary Kai: 20-something, queer (he/him/él) and neurodivergent. I love reading, making, learning, listening to music, and traveling. I write fiction about a life in the stars.

I'm seeking remote work! Here's my CV. If I'd be a good fit, contact me.

I'm Australian, and oscillate between living there and overseas. Now? I'm in Kosovo.

Photo Credits --- Left: Gizem Akkaya | Right: Roberto Pettinau

For my official bio, links elsewhere, offerings, press, and publications, visit Lunaseeker Press.

Avatars

I've created these to represent myself with picture makers: for fun's sake. After all, why else?

More About Me

I refuse to die without making something useful and I aim to make a positive difference in the life of creative queer folk through words.

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.
• According to various quizzes, I'm a carrot, a section element with a nested p element.
• 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 Albania, Australia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Moldova, Romania, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, The Netherlands, Turkey, and the UK.
• Love the smell of coffee, can't stand the taste.
• 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.

Wants

A list of intentions, desires, and dare I say goals. Inspired by the lovely Keenan and Katherine.

• To write indiscriminately, often, and with my whole self.
• To travel to Central and South America.
• To cultivate friendships a little longer than fleeting.
• To email everyone about everything I've ever loved.
• To see a beloved band live, in all their human glory.
• To fall in love with the world (over and over again).
• To make poetry without succumbing to a terrifying fear.
• To help make the poetic web.
• To read everything beautiful I can get my hands on.
• To wonder at existence and all within it.
• To live without shame.

•--♡--•