Happy Valentine’s Day (or Singles Awareness Day)! Seeing as the calendar reads February 14, we finally give up our pride, and our prejudice, and examine the idea of romance in fiction. In Story School, author Dawn Crandall shares experiences gleaned from
Read MoreGreetings, faithful listeners! This episode, Tim and Nick examine how belief interacts with fiction. How does God appear in stories? How do you tell the Truth when you’re making things up? Also mentioned: aliens, superheroes, and, as always, the Doctor. W
Read MoreThis episode, we muck around in the filth of humanity, in the deep mires of wickedness, in vile dens of…well, you get the idea. Why do we hang around in these places? We examine evil in fiction–is it psychological, a mistake, a cultural reaction, or so
Read MoreC-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
Read MoreThis 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
Read MoreWardrobes, 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 wit
Read MoreWe’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 “class
Read MoreJust 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 o
Read MoreA 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
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