Derailed Trains of Thought

A new year brings new beginnings...like a new podcast about beginnings! That's right, after starting with endings way back in Episode 1, Nick and Tim come full circle to the beginning of things. Whether it's how best to start a story or why audiences like origins so much, your premiere storytelling podcast has you covered. And don't miss as Tim and Nick give their obligatory two cents about who should direct Star Wars in What IF? and share a very important Project Update. So, hang up your new cat calendar, sign up for that gym membership, and listen in to the latest episode of Derailed Trains of Thought. After two years, we're just getting started. Download Show Notes Loading the player ... jwplayer('mediaspace35').setup({ 'flashplayer': 'http://www.worksofnick.com/player.swf', 'file': 'http://www.worksofnick.com/wp-content/uploads/podcasts/Derailed_Trains_035_Formless_And_Void.m4a', 'controlbar': 'bottom', 'width': '470', 'height': '24' });

A new year brings new beginnings...like a new podcast about beginnings! That's right, after starting with endings way back in Episode 1, Nick and Tim come full circle to the beginning of things. Whether it's how best to start a story or why audiences like origins so much, your premiere storytelling podcast has you covered. And don't miss as Tim and Nick give their obligatory two cents about who should direct Star Wars in What IF? and share a very important Project Update. So, hang up your new cat calendar, sign up for that gym membership, and listen in to the latest episode of Derailed Trains of Thought. After two years, we're just getting started. Show Notes

Just in time for the holidays, the celebratory 2nd Anniversary Derailed Trains of Thought podcast! So...instead of working ourselves to the bone (you know, as we usually do, trying to get out one episode every 9 weeks or so), we compiled a collection of our favorite segments from the last year. I mean, who can forget our discussion of feminism and story, or the history of punctuation, or our treatise on the theological meaning of Looney Tunes? But, if for some reason you have, that's what this clip show is all about. Sit back and bask in an hour's condensed glory of your premiere storytelling podcast. Also, listen to Nick and Tim nearly break into fisticuffs. Download Show Notes Loading the player ... jwplayer('mediaspace34').setup({ 'flashplayer': 'http://www.worksofnick.com/player.swf', 'file': 'http://www.worksofnick.com/wp-content/uploads/podcasts/Derailed_Trains_034_Total_Recall.m4a', 'controlbar': 'bottom', 'width': '470', 'height': '24' });

Just in time for the holidays, the celebratory 2nd Anniversary Derailed Trains of Thought podcast! So...instead of working ourselves to the bone (you know, as we usually do, trying to get out one episode every 9 weeks or so), we compiled a collection of our favorite segments from the last year. I mean, who can forget our discussion of feminism and story, or the history of punctuation, or our treatise on the theological meaning of Looney Tunes? But, if for some reason you have, that's what this clip show is all about. Sit back and bask in an hour's condensed glory of your premiere storytelling podcast. Also, listen to Nick and Tim nearly break into fisticuffs. Download Show Notes Loading the player ... jwplayer('mediaspace34').setup({ 'flashplayer': 'http://www.worksofnick.com/player.swf', 'file': 'http://www.worksofnick.com/wp-content/uploads/podcasts/Derailed_Trains_034_Total_Recall.m4a', 'controlbar': 'bottom', 'width': '470', 'height': '24' });

Just in time for the holidays, the celebratory 2nd Anniversary Derailed Trains of Thought podcast! So...instead of working ourselves to the bone (you know, as we usually do, trying to get out one episode every 9 weeks or so), we compiled a collection of our favorite segments from the last year. I mean, who can forget our discussion of feminism and story, or the history of punctuation, or our treatise on the theological meaning of Looney Tunes? But, if for some reason you have, that's what this clip show is all about. Sit back and bask in an hour's condensed glory of your premiere storytelling podcast. Also, listen to Nick and Tim nearly break into fisticuffs. Show Notes

We're alive! Tim and Nick emerge from their summer hiatus with an instant classic! It's a modern masterpiece! A genre-setting podcast! The best audio entertainment since "War of the Worlds"! ... Or, at least, we discuss what makes a work of fiction "classic," and that has to be worth something, right? We follow up with A Bit of Story from the "so-unknown-it-must-be-classic" Story Project and finish with a mini Take on Tales. So, if you've been pining for some Derailed Trains of Thought, we've got you covered. It might not be Shakespeare, but who wants to read that ancient fuddy-duddy stuff anyway? Download Show Notes Loading the player ... jwplayer('mediaspace33').setup({ 'flashplayer': 'http://www.worksofnick.com/player.swf', 'file': 'http://www.worksofnick.com/wp-content/uploads/podcasts/Derailed_Trains_033_How_To_Be_Timeless.m4a', 'controlbar': 'bottom', 'width': '470', 'height': '24' });

We're alive! Tim and Nick emerge from their summer hiatus with an instant classic! It's a modern masterpiece! A genre-setting podcast! The best audio entertainment since "War of the Worlds"! ... Or, at least, we discuss what makes a work of fiction "classic," and that has to be worth something, right? We follow up with A Bit of Story from the "so-unknown-it-must-be-classic" Story Project and finish with a mini Take on Tales. So, if you've been pining for some Derailed Trains of Thought, we've got you covered. It might not be Shakespeare, but who wants to read that ancient fuddy-duddy stuff anyway? Download Show Notes Loading the player ... jwplayer('mediaspace33').setup({ 'flashplayer': 'http://www.worksofnick.com/player.swf', 'file': 'http://www.worksofnick.com/wp-content/uploads/podcasts/Derailed_Trains_033_How_To_Be_Timeless.m4a', 'controlbar': 'bottom', 'width': '470', 'height': '24' });

We're alive! Tim and Nick emerge from their summer hiatus with an instant classic! It's a modern masterpiece! A genre-setting podcast! The best audio entertainment since "War of the Worlds"! ... Or, at least, we discuss what makes a work of fiction "classic," and that has to be worth something, right? We follow up with A Bit of Story from the "so-unknown-it-must-be-classic" Story Project and finish with a mini Take on Tales. So, if you've been pining for some Derailed Trains of Thought, we've got you covered. It might not be Shakespeare, but who wants to read that ancient fuddy-duddy stuff anyway? Show Notes

This episode we discuss colorful language, and we're not talking purple prose. (And unless you're Sergeant Snorkel from "Beetle Bailey," @!&%#$! probably isn't going to cut it.) So, while Nick tries to avoid swearing like a sailor, we come to the question: when, if ever, is swearing appropriate in fiction and film? Afterward, join us for a Take on Tales where Tim discusses immortal alchemists living as 1930s gangsters (really!) and Nick actually finishes a video game. All this and more in episode 31 of Derailed Trains of Thought, your premiere storytelling podcast. Great Odin's Raven, what more could you ask for? Download Show Notes Loading the player ... jwplayer('mediaspace31').setup({ 'flashplayer': 'http://www.worksofnick.com/player.swf', 'file': 'http://www.worksofnick.com/wp-content/uploads/podcasts/Derailed_Trains_031_You_Kiss_Your_Mother.m4a', 'controlbar': 'bottom', 'width': '470', 'height': '24' });

This episode we discuss colorful language, and we're not talking purple prose. (And unless you're Sergeant Snorkel from "Beetle Bailey," @!&%#$! probably isn't going to cut it.) So, while Nick tries to avoid swearing like a sailor, we come to the question: when, if ever, is swearing appropriate in fiction and film? Afterward, join us for a Take on Tales where Tim discusses immortal alchemists living as 1930s gangsters (really!) and Nick actually finishes a video game. All this and more in episode 31 of Derailed Trains of Thought, your premiere storytelling podcast. Great Odin's Raven, what more could you ask for? Download Show Notes Loading the player ... jwplayer('mediaspace31').setup({ 'flashplayer': 'http://www.worksofnick.com/player.swf', 'file': 'http://www.worksofnick.com/wp-content/uploads/podcasts/Derailed_Trains_031_You_Kiss_Your_Mother.m4a', 'controlbar': 'bottom', 'width': '470', 'height': '24' });

Wardrobes, Deloreans, looking-glasses, ter'angreal, blue phone boxes, linking books...if you want to enter a new realm, there are ways. But, of course, someone has to make the world first. Hence, world-building. We start this episode with an interview with Dr. Pamela Jordan-Long, Chair of the Department of Professional Writing at Taylor University and Director of the Center for the Study of C.S. Lewis and Friends. (How's that for a title?) We talk secondary worlds, the act of creating a world beyond this one. In the second half, Tim and Nick have a go at impromptu worldbuilding. So, if you ever have a longing for Faerie-land or perhaps a world reached by stepping just left of this one, listen in! We're sure you'll come back refreshed. Download Show Notes Loading the player ... jwplayer('mediaspace32').setup({ 'flashplayer': 'http://www.worksofnick.com/player.swf', 'file': 'http://www.worksofnick.com/wp-content/uploads/podcasts/Derailed_Trains_032_Another_World_Awaits_You.m4a', 'controlbar': 'bottom', 'width': '470', 'height': '24' });

Wardrobes, Deloreans, looking-glasses, ter'angreal, blue phone boxes, linking books...if you want to enter a new realm, there are ways. But, of course, someone has to make the world first. Hence, world-building. We start this episode with an interview with Dr. Pamela Jordan-Long, Chair of the Department of Professional Writing at Taylor University and Director of the Center for the Study of C.S. Lewis and Friends. (How's that for a title?) We talk secondary worlds, the act of creating a world beyond this one. In the second half, Tim and Nick have a go at impromptu worldbuilding. So, if you ever have a longing for Faerie-land or perhaps a world reached by stepping just left of this one, listen in! We're sure you'll come back refreshed. Download Show Notes Loading the player ... jwplayer('mediaspace32').setup({ 'flashplayer': 'http://www.worksofnick.com/player.swf', 'file': 'http://www.worksofnick.com/wp-content/uploads/podcasts/Derailed_Trains_032_Another_World_Awaits_You.m4a', 'controlbar': 'bottom', 'width': '470', 'height': '24' });

Wardrobes, Deloreans, looking-glasses, ter'angreal, blue phone boxes, linking books...if you want to enter a new realm, there are ways. But, of course, someone has to make the world first. Hence, world-building. We start this episode with an interview with Dr. Pamela Jordan-Long, Chair of the Department of Professional Writing at Taylor University and Director of the Center for the Study of C.S. Lewis and Friends. (How's that for a title?) We talk secondary worlds, the act of creating a world beyond this one. In the second half, Tim and Nick have a go at impromptu worldbuilding. So, if you ever have a longing for Faerie-land or perhaps a world reached by stepping just left of this one, listen in! We're sure you'll come back refreshed. Show Notes

This episode we discuss colorful language, and we're not talking purple prose. (And unless you're Sergeant Snorkel from "Beetle Bailey," @!&%#$! probably isn't going to cut it.) So, while Nick tries to avoid swearing like a sailor, we come to the question: when, if ever, is swearing appropriate in fiction and film? Afterward, join us for a Take on Tales where Tim discusses immortal alchemists living as 1930s gangsters (really!) and Nick actually finishes a video game. All this and more in episode 31 of Derailed Trains of Thought, your premiere storytelling podcast. Great Odin's Raven, what more could you ask for? Show Notes

C-3PO. Short Round. Dr. Watson. That funny guy from National Treasure. Just because a character isn't the focus of a story, it doesn't mean he can't make an impression. So, Timothy Deal, with sidekick Nick (or is it Nick Hayden, with sidekick Tim?) take a look at what makes good supporting characters and why they're so essential. Also with us is our own supporting character, Brian Scherschel, who presents Frank Capra's Lost Horizon, a movie that takes the viewer to Shangri-La and back. What more can you ask from the 30th(!) episode of your premiere storytelling podcast? We've been gone awhile, but one listen, and it'll be like we've never left. Like riding a bike. Or something. Download Show Notes Loading the player ... jwplayer('mediaspace30').setup({ 'flashplayer': 'http://www.worksofnick.com/player.swf', 'file': 'http://www.worksofnick.com/wp-content/uploads/podcasts/Derailed_Trains_030_The_Droids_Youre_Looking_For.m4a', 'controlbar': 'bottom', 'width': '470', 'height': '24' });