About

Written By: Zachary Kai » Published: 26 Jun 2024 | Updated: 3 Jul 2026

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Reading Time: ~3 min (at 238 WPM)
Word Count: 598

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

Zachary Kai, wearing a wide-brimmed black fedora and blue bandana around his neck poses in front of a wall decorated with his colorful artwork. He's wearing a light blue button-down short-sleeve shirt and has short, curly dark hair. The artwork behind him includes various drawings and collages featuring geometric patterns, landscapes, and abstract designs in bright colors like turquoise, orange, pink, and yellow. Some pieces aree circular while others are rectangular, creating an collage on a wooden wall.

Zachary Kai, holds a blue pen over an open notebook, in the middle of writing. The image is shot in shallow depth of field, focusing on the pen and written text while the background is blurred. The notebook is filled with handwritten text in blue ink, and he's wearing a blue, black, and white striped jumper, and a blue scarf.

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

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

Table Of Contents

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.

Avatars | Wants

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've taken, I'm a carrot and 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.
Love the smell of coffee, can't stand the taste.
My favorite city in the world is Melbourne, with Adelaide and Chiang Mai tied for second.
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.