Hey guys!

A lot of you have been writing in to say how much you miss the show and wondering when it’s coming back – and it’s really great to hear from you and to know we’re missed! The short answer is: Book 2 is coming – just not yet. We took a break after Book 1, and now we’re getting back into it. That said, making The Once And Future Nerd to the level of quality you’ve come to expect requires a big metaphorical machine with lots of moving parts, so we can’t responsibly commit to any kind of release date at this point, but we can promise that the show is moving forward!

What can you do to contribute to Season 2? We have some ideas:

• Keep sending us positive messages – that really encourages us!
• Draw some fan art and put it on Tumblr (we’re looking at you, artsy people!)
• Tweet about us and the awesome fuck-yeah-once-and-future-nerd.tumblr.com (also – a huge thanks to whoever made that!)
• Get redditing! Participate on the subreddit, discuss your theories about season 2, tell your friends, and get them to start listening and discussing too.
• And last but not least, if you haven’t yet, please consider buying some merchandise or pledging on Patreon. The truth is, so far we still lose money in creating each episode – and our brilliant actors are still by and large compensated in pizza. Any money we receive from Patreon will go towards offsetting the production costs of the show, and if we ever were to break even on production, it would go towards compensating our cast and crew. And if you are not in a position to contribute, don’t worry, we pledge that our podcast will always be free to listen. But if you are in a position where you could comfortably contribute, each dollar pledged (or piece of merchandise purchased) will help to grease those big machine gears and smooth the process towards creating Book 2. And as a reminder, no matter what you pledge on Patreon you won’t be charged for it until we put out an episode.

So do we have anything for you in the meantime? Well, many of you have been nice enough to tell us how much you liked the song that Arlene and Gwen sing to each other, and you asked whether we could make it available as a standalone release. Consider yourselves heard – we went into the studio with an improved arrangement and real instruments. We’ll need a little time for pickups and mixing, but as soon as that’s ready, the song will be available for sale, and a making-of featurette will be available for free on our feed!

Also want to call out a few great iTunes reviews we’ve had since the last episode. Deepschwag says “Kind of Vincent Price meets Buffy.” High praise indeed. User Thousand Things says “I emerge, after a weekend that started with thinking “hey, this looks like an interesting podcast…” and ending with having binge-listened to the entire series. Considering forcing my husband to sit and listen to the whole thing again while I enjoy it a second time through. In other words, AMAZING. YES. LOVE. Listen to this podcast!” And Jesse W Jackson says “Found this through a search and I’m very pleased. A nice story with a just the right amount of naughtiness. I like the characters and the story is easy to follow. My only suggestion, more titles based on Bruce Springsteen songs!” Noted, Jesse, and thanks. Glad someone caught that. So those are all greatly appreciated.

That’s all we’ve got for now. Thanks for your love and support and patience, and keep subscribed to this feed for all future updates.

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Thanks so much to everyone who voted in Round 1 of the 2015 AudioVerse Awards. Thanks to you, we are now FINALISTS in EVERY CATEGORY for which we were eligible.

Best Original Composition in an Original, Short-Form Production – Tom Lee
Best Audio Engineering for an Original, Short-Form, Serial Production – Brian Forbes, Sam Palumbo, Christian Madera, Josh Perault, and Sandra Ramirez
Best Writing of an Original, Short-Form, Serial Production – Zach Glass & Christian Madera
Best Actress with an Ensemble Role in an Original Serial Production – Rhiannon Angell
Best Actress with an Ensemble Role in an Original Serial Production – Lily Drexler
Best Actress with an Ensemble Role in an Original Serial Production – Anya Gibian
Best Actress with an Ensemble Role in an Original Serial Production – Julie Reed
Best Actor with an Ensemble Role in an Original Serial Production – Garrett Armyn
Best Actor with an Ensemble Role in an Original Serial Production – Dan Dobransky
Best Actor with an Ensemble Role in an Original Serial Production – Ian Harkins
Best Actor with an Ensemble Role in an Original Serial Production – Frank Queris
Best Ensemble Cast in an Original, Short-Form, Serial Production
Best Original Short-Form, Serial Comedy
Best Original, Short-Form, Large Cast, Serial Production

But there’s still one more round of voting to determine the winners. So please head to www.audioverseawards.net any time before November 9 to cast your vote.

Thank you as always for your support. And be sure to follow this feed for some exciting announcements coming up around the New Year!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:51 — 2.4MB)

We’re so pleased to be nominated for the 2015 AudioVerse Awards amongst an extremely wide and formidable field of contenders. We’re up for:

• Best Original Composition in an Original, Short-Form Production
• Best Audio Engineering for an Original, Short-Form, Serial Production
• Best Writing of an Original, Short-Form, Serial Production
• Best Actress with an Ensemble Role in an Original Serial Production (x4!!)
• Best Actor with an Ensemble Role in an Original, Short-Form, Serial Production (x6!!!)
• Best Ensemble Cast in an Original, Short-Form, Serial Production
• Best Original Short-Form, Serial Comedy
• Best Original, Short-Form, Large Cast, Serial Production

The Awards are open to a public vote, and voting for the first round (which determines Finalists) closes on October 20, so head over to audioverseawards.net to cast your votes!

And don’t forget to check our sweet, sweet merch.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 4:57 — 3.7MB)

Update: The holiday bonus period is now closed. Check here for more info.

From everyone at TOAFN, we’d like to wish you a happy holidays and beginning of 2015!  We’ve got two big announcements to share with you all for the holidays.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:16 — 3.0MB)

FIRST, for a limited time only (between now and January 1st) each chapter of TOAFN is available in a binge-able, full-chapter format!  That’s one single audio file containing all 4-5 episodes strung up in a row, with the theme music only once at the beginning, and the credits only once at the end.  This is a great way to pass the time over the holidays, whether you have a long car or plane ride, or just some time off from work or school.

To access these binge chapters, head to http://onceandfuturenerd.com/rewards/
There, you will see a field to enter a download code.  The download codes are:

Chapter 1: holidaybonus01
Chapter 2: holidaybonus02
Chapter 3: holidaybonus03
Chapter 4: holidaybonus04
Chapter 5: holidaybonus05
Chapter 6: holidaybonus06
Chapter 7: holidaybonus07

So basically, you type in lowercase “holidaybonus” and then the number of the chapter you want to hear.  Please share these codes around! Tweet them, facebook them, tell your friends and family.  Anyone you know who has a long holiday travel, let them pass the time listening to TOAFN!

SECOND, we are setting up a raffle!  For each tweet/retweet, Facebook like, iTunes review, and Stitcher review you make in the next week, you will get one entry into a drawing. Prizes will include free access to certain tiers of Patreon rewards for the rest of the season, as well as some more cool prizes which we will talk about in the near future.  Notice how well this works with the binge bonus episodes!  Tweet about the full-chapter bonus content, and get an entry into the raffle!  Tweet and Facebook, and you get two entries!  Tweet and Facebook and review on iTunes…you get the idea! Just make sure we know about it so that your entries will be counted! If you do something on Facebook or Twitter, you can tag/mention us and we’ll see it. If you’re leaving us an iTunes or Stitcher review, email us at iordic.princes at gmail dot com so that we’ll see that too.

Happy Holidays, and thank you, as always!