Tokens & Spheres: Neurodiverse Natural History and Queer Science Fantasy Micro Fiction Now In Print!

• Two boys first encounter the unfamiliar: a mysterious sea creature… and summertime first love.

• A pair of young male dinosaurs abandon the aggressive mating rituals of their flocks for each others’ company.

• Superhero goats and outcast kids join forces to survive clandestine operations in the fringes of suburbia.

• Having outlasted the militarized nation-states of the world, two gigantic sea reptiles and a Cthulhu-being sleep peacefully at last.

Two sentences, one illustration- just what is possible with these limited ingredients? As it turns out, a multiverse of micro fiction: one of kaiju, dinosaurs, superhero goats, and warpings of space-time- one that celebrates the strength, beauty, and flaws of the queer, sensitive, and neurodiverse.

This volume of the first twenty Tokens & Spheres stories, originally published on Patreon in the years 2022 through 2024, is now published on Lulu.com!

What is this Tokens & Spheres anyway?

Tokens & Spheres is a queer and neurodiversity-affirming micro fiction series in which the characters are animals of different geologic eras and evolutionary histories. This is no accident. As queer, highly sensitive folk of many abilities, our diversity in sensory, emotional, and cognitive experience not only reflects but is one with the very story of life on Earth.

T&S is a way to write stories, build worlds, and test ideas I am not yet able to explore and write in a longer format. At the time of its conception in 2021, I had a tendency to be carried away by new ideas- and before I knew it, they had become too long and complicated to execute while working on pre-existing projects. With this in mind, I devised a simple formula with countless possibilities: a story of two sentences, accompanied by one of my best illustrations- a prime example of "micro fiction", as I would later learn.

Micro fiction allows me to bring a story to life on the page in a way that encourages both fine craft and efficiency in myself as an author. As a reader, it is a way to continue enjoying story in a hectic and cluttered world- especially for those of us with disability-related challenges to our energy, time, and focus.

After publishing a story per month for nearly two years on Patreon, I realized I was poised to reach what has been a dream and goal since a tender age: publishing my first print book!

A childhood goal realized

The Tokens & Spheres series itself began as a result of a breakthrough: I realized I did not have to write (or draw) a novel! Publishing a novel was the only model of author/entrepreneurship I'd encountered as a child, but the short story turned out to be the friend I needed all along.

After a summer of compiling, editing, and formatting the twenty stories (plus prologue), I self-published Tokens & Spheres on Lulu on September 18th, 2024!

As often happens with authors, I discovered additional needed edits upon receiving the first sample copy- but those I made in short order. Full-color art on # 70 glossy paper, matte finish softback cover- I could hold the stories in my hands! I could turn the pages! T&S may not be what that child from long ago would have expected, but I daresay he still would be proud!

Stay tuned: new worlds are coming!

It bears mention that this first Tokens & Spheres volume is itself a beginning: these micro fiction tales are ecological pioneers, weeds in many-formed leaf and flower, spreading through cracks in concrete. These short tales prepare the way for a forest of diverse stories and characters. Many who debuted in T&S will return in later works.  

Those who seek to comfort and defend queer, neurodiverse youth in your life- including yourself- Tokens & Spheres is for you. These short tales, by turns subversive and sweet, tell of vulnerable, resourceful beings who flower and roam free- often despite horrors, injustices, and trauma. In these pages, may deep time and hidden worlds be your solace, refuge, and home.

~august primeval

You can buy this first Tokens & Spheres softback volume from my Lulu bookshop.

Be sure to subscribe to monthly Tokens & Spheres stories on Patreon, where you can also subscribe to queer-affirming creature design zine August Beasts.

You can also buy the debut episode of August Beasts from my Patreon shop.

To find out more about both, visit the storyworlds page of the august primeval Home site.

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Mammoth Snows audio now on YouTube!

Isolated in the American suburbs, eight-year-old Brennan finds unexpected connection with another boy while waiting for mammoths.

On snowy days, there would be mammoths. The songbirds, scratching crooked sentences with identical four-toed letters no creature could read (though Brennan swore he nearly had it), would flush at the first noiseless footfall. It took keen senses and rapt attention to notice the towering forms through great swirls of flakes, looming, loping, sloping.

An audiobook of my short story Mammoth Snows is now available to listen to on YouTube.

Curl up with this cozy, yet refreshing short story of deep time and wild places- an homage to the resourcefulness of queer and neurodiverse folk in creating spaces of freedom and vulnerability, however small or fleeting.

You can read more about Mammoth Snows in the august primeval March 2024 Newsletter and buy the illustrated e-book on Lulu, Creator Spring, or Patreon Shop.

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natural-history-based science fantasy stories and art for queer and highly sensitive youth and young adults that addresses trauma while grounding itself in life, wonder, and expansiveness

so they feel safe, loved, and powerful.

about the creator

august tian

he/him/they

August Tian is a queer author and illustrator of Taiwanese descent. He makes his home in places seen and unseen where dwell plants and dirt, birds and books, clay and colors, wild creatures, other worlds, and various combinations thereof. One can find traces of their presence in ink and graphite, wax and pastel, sketches and prose, clips, comics, and other curious craft. As they roam deep time, they haunt the Pacific Northwest.

Join them at augustprimeval Home.

© 2024 August Tian