The typical author introductory post

Hello everyone!

I’m Zoya, a Fijian and Canadian of South Asian descent (Telugu and Tamil), aspiring author from upper Turtle Island. For the reason creeps exist, I won’t specify whose unceded lands I reside and work on. However, I don’t take my privilege to live on these lands for granted. My gratitude to the stewards of this space; without your Nation, I doubt my town and adjacent areas would be what it is today.

For years, I have worked in a non-rewarding environment. I appreciate it in some ways:

• I’ve refined intersectional advocacy.
• I’ve met some absolutely amazing people.
• I have the joy of helping some colleague transitioning into anti-colonial ways of being.

In late 2025, I decided to plunge into the creative space. It’s been both fun and stressful with the amount of A.I.-based scams, but overall, I haven’t regretted entering the space.

My logo, as shared in this post, is a combination of my South Asian and Fijian identities. I’m a 1.5 gen, which means that my formative years were in Fiji, and I immigrated to Canada in my childhood. I wanted a fusion of a hibiscus and a mandala, so I commissioned Kei (coffeemuffinart) via VGen, an anti-A.I. site for commissioning artists. She created a beautiful fusion with a bold gradient.

The boldness came from the genre I chose to write in: Dark Romantasy hybrids. As much as I’ve tried, I cannot have my stories fit nicely into the Dark Romance (DR) framework. Kudos to those authors who can!

I enjoy writing about morally gray and immoral characters. They spark discussions that I enjoy, and having both a psychology, coach and advocacy background, those discussions progresses equity in non-binary way.

I’m always happy to connect with open-minded individuals. My peers aren’t always DR writers, but we respect what the others doing. That is the beauty of diverse art. From a selfish perspective, I find that I learn a lot about the world from my peers. I haven’t come across the audience part of writing just yet, and I’m looking forward to what that brings, even the harsh parts.

It’s just great to return to the creative space. I don’t expect to be a bestseller by any means. At this point, it’s been fun connecting with writers and artists worldwide.

When I initially started a Medium account, it was a consideration for my primary author website. As much as I like it here, I find myself having to split my work between Medium, Substack, and Patreon:

• Medium for my non-fiction and SFW fiction.
• Substack for NSFW free stories and content, and subscription for access to development of my stories and characters.
• Patreon for serialized fiction.

Like many creatives, I’m anti-A.I. in the creative space. Simultaneously, I educate myself on its development, uses and news since it’s such a large part of our world now. When I commission art, it’s from artists who don’t use A.I. As a writer, I don’t want my work to be fed into any A.I., whether propriety, public, or otherwise.

In terms of social media, I’m most active on Threads. Instagram is next up. I’m in the midst of searching for better alternatives.

If you end up reading my work, I hope you enjoy :)