Some people find their path early and walk it in a straight line.
Yeah, that was how I thought my life would be, but that’s not my story! I Zsolt Zsemba was born in Hungary, moved to Canada at nine, and spent decades crossing between industries, countries, and versions of myself. Through all of it, one thing kept showing up: writing.
Not because I planned it that way. Because I could not leave it alone.
It Started With Poems Nobody Ever Read
I was twelve when I started writing seriously. Poetry, short stories, ideas that went nowhere and everywhere at the same time. Growing up between cultures gave me an unusual lens on people, and I spent a lot of time trying to make sense of what I observed.
Nobody told me to write. I just did it.
That habit went quiet for years while life got loud. But it never disappeared. It just waited.
Indonesia Changed Everything
In 1999, I moved to Jakarta for two years and started working in the entertainment industry with my now ex-wife (Zara Zettira ZR.) for 17 years. I wrote scripts, worked on television productions, and got a real education in storytelling under pressure. That chapter eventually ended, and I returned to Canada and the family business. The family business was ingrained in me since I was 10. I have lived and breathed furniture all my life. Yet even there, design, production and quality control are what I specialized in.
Years later, in 2018, I came back to Indonesia as COO of MD Pictures. The entertainment industry pulled me in again, and this time, something shifted. The ideas I had been sitting on started turning into actual books.
The stories I had been collecting for decades finally had somewhere to go.
Someone Told Me I Was Not a Writer
At some point along the way, someone looked me dead in the face and said it. You are not a writer.
I did not argue. I just kept going.
Today, that moment feels less like an insult and more like fuel. The books exist. The blog exists. The audience exists. Sometimes the people who doubt you end up being part of the reason you push harder than you otherwise would have.
Gerobak 777 and Writing for Indonesian Readers
In 2024, I released Gerobak 777 in Indonesia. The launch took place at Gramedia Matraman in Jakarta, and it marked a real milestone for me as an author. The book explores themes of friendship, identity, and personal growth, and the response from Indonesian readers made the whole project feel worth it.
Writing and publishing in the Indonesian market as a Canadian author is not the obvious move. But bridging those two worlds has been a recurring theme in my life, so in a way, it made complete sense.
Horror, Human Nature, and Everything In Between
I do not write inside a single genre because I do not think inside a single genre. My books move between horror, suspense, psychological drama, and social commentary. My blog covers expat life, relationships, Bali, and the kind of observations that most people think but nobody says out loud.
One day, I am writing about a haunted cemetery. The next thing I am writing about is modern masculinity or the absurdity of influencer culture. That range is not an accident. It reflects how I actually think.
The readers who follow me across platforms tend to be people who are also navigating multiple worlds at once. That is the connection point.
Bali Without the Filter
Now, having a decent social media presence and living in Bali means I see both versions of this island. The glossy one that fills Instagram feeds, and the real one underneath it.
My writing tries to show the second version. Local culture, environmental realities, what tourism actually does to a place, and what expat life looks like when you stop performing for the highlight reel. Readers get perspective, not just recommendations.
Why I Keep Writing
I am not chasing a single outcome. The goal has never been to become one type of creator or fit inside one category.
I write because it is the clearest way I have ever found to think. Horror fiction, travel observations, personal essays, and social commentary, none of it feels like work in the way other things do. It feels like the thing I was always going to end up doing.
If you are following this blog for the first time, welcome. If you have been here a while, you already know what to expect: honesty, range, and no guarantee of what comes next. Oh yeah, also I guess I do a lot of TikTokking as well 🙂
That is exactly how I like it.
https://www.instagram.com/zsoltzsemba
