Click here to play this episode. Gweek is Boing Boing's podcast about comic books, science fiction and fantasy, video games, board games, tools, gadgets, apps, and other neat stuff.

My guest this week is Ned Vizzini, an award winning author and television writer with a new young adult novel called The Other Normals. He’s written for the New York Times, Salon, and the L Magazine. In television, he has written for Season 2 of MTV's Teen Wolf and currently writes for ABC's Last Resort. He is the co-author, with Chris Columbus, of the forthcoming fantasy-adventure series House of Secrets. (The drawing above is from Ned's Flickr account. It was drawn by his wife, Sabra Embury, and is in the set "Art from and Inspired by 'The Other Normals.'" Ned says: "This is a fish-monster (or batrachian) in the book drawn by my wife. In the book they actually have legs. My wife says, 'That was my attempt to help you visualize one of the characters.'")

In this episode, we talked about:

The Other Normals, by Ned Vizzini. "It's about a 15-year-old role-playing game geek who goes to summer camp and falls into an actual fantasy world and has to put all his gaming knowledge to the test against monsters."

Be More Chill, by Ned Vizzini. "It's about a kid who gets a pill in his brain that tells him how to be cool all the time."

Stranger Magic: Charmed States & The Arabian Nights, "a new nonfiction overview of the 1,001 Nights. I took a lot from 1,001 Nights in writing The Other Normals. I love the John Payne translation which Sir Richard Burton is alleged to have plagiarized -- one of those cases where the flashier author who was better at self-promoting got the credit."

Last Resort "It's about a nuclear submarine captain who gets questionable orders to fire Pakistan. When the caption asks to have those orders clarified he is fired upon. He has to take his nuclear submarine to a South Pacific island and take refuge there and set himself up as the world's smallest nuclear nation."

"One of the books we have in the 'Last Resort library': The 48 Laws of Power. Really scary must-read for anyone who wants to get ahead -- or understand sociopaths. (Last Resort is a political thriller, so it helps)."

Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks: An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role Players, Online Gamers, and Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms

"I got Johnny Ramone's Commando on Kindle (released this year) and I think it's an interesting example of a book that some claim MUST BE enjoyed as a hardcover which is actually just fine on digital."

Slash, by Slash

And much more!

Past episodes of Gweek: 001, 001, 002, 003, 004, 005, 006, 007, 008, 009, 010, 011, 012, 013, 014, 015, 016, 017, 018, 019, 020, 021, 022, 023, 024, 025, 026, 027, 028, 029, 030, 031, 032, 033, 034, 035, 036, 037, 038, 039, 040, 041, 042, 043, 044, 045, 046, 047, 048, 049, 050, 051, 052, 053, 054, 055, 056, 057, 058, 059, 060, 061, 062, 063, 064, 065, 066, 067, 068, 069

Gweek is Boing Boing's podcast about comic books, science fiction and fantasy, video games, board games, tools, gadgets, apps, and other neat stuff. My co-hosts for episode 45 are Ruben Bolling, the celebrated cartoonist whose comic, Tom the Dancing Bug premieres weekly on Boing Boing; Michael Pusateri, a lifelong tinkerer and former television tech executive for Disney; and Matt Haughey, author, web designer and founder of MetaFilter.

In this episode:

Gweek is giving away a PlugBug! Listen to the podcast to learn how to enter.

Matt Haughey's presentation at Webstock on New Zealand.

Ruben and others filled in for Richard Thompson's comic strip Cul de Sac while Thompson was getting treatment for Parkinson's disease.

Aziz Ansari's $5 online special.

Mike Daisey's talk in Georgetown, his first public speaking gig after This American Life. (Daisey's blog post on Sunday is pretty close to an apology.)

Ruben reviews an extraordinary young adult novel called Wonder, by R.J. Palacio

Mark reviews the newMoleskine Lego Notebook.

John Carter has lost $200 million, but the Gweeksters like the movie. Matt likes the movie, Boy and Mark likes A Separation.

Michael mentions his self published edition of A Princess of Mars.

Matt recommends two albums: Miike Snow's Happy To You and fun's Some Nights.

Mike talks about the funny website, Out of Context Science.

Michael has been enjoying the alternate reality game for runners called Zombies, Run!. Matt's pick is a recipe app called Appetites, and Mark has been playing Match Panic.

Matt got a Nike+ Fuelband before they sold out. They are beautiful.

Also mentioned:

Rick Steves' Iran, Miike Snow video, Rdio blog for finding new music, MattBites mentioned in the cooking app segment

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Gweek is a weekly podcast where the editors and friends of Boing Boing talk about comic books, science fiction and fantasy, video games, board games, tools, gadgets, apps, and other neat stuff.

My co-hosts on episode 043 are Dean Putney, Boing Boing’s coding and development wizard, Michael Pusateri, a lifelong tinkerer and former television tech executive for Disney, and Veronica Belmont, the co-host of three great shows: Tekzilla, Sword and Laser, and Game On!

Below are the show notes for Episode 043.

Dean recommends so cool indie games he checked out at the Game Development Conference (Proteus, Uprok, Joust, and Chicken Bandit)
Veronica and her friends, Bonnie Burton, Felicia Day, and Kiala Kazebee, have a new monthly book club podcast about the latest in paranormal romance called Vaginal Fantasy Hangout
Veronica says her Kindle has been committing acts of violence lately
Veronica says that Mass Effect 3 is the first game to tear her away from Skyrim.
Mike's made his first batch of moonshine!
Mark shares Myshkin Ingawale's amazing TED Fellow presentation at TED2012.
Dean went to the Image Comics Expo in Oakland and said his two favorite discoveries were Reed Gunther and Street Comics.
Mike reports that the creators of the comic Atomic Robo (which was John Hodgman's pick when he was on Gweek a while ago) have a Kickstarter to produce a video short.
Mark's Audible pick this week is the literary thriller, The Book of Air and Shadows, by Michael Gruber.
Veronica recommends the dramatic science fiction story, Another Earth.
Mark and Veronica talk a bit about Reamde (Veronica liked it, Mark liked it except for the end) and 1Q84 (Veronica said she "slogged through it" and Mark is probably not going to read it now)
Mark enjoyed the science fiction movie Chronicle, about three teenagers who gain the power of telekineses. It's like a A Simple Plan for high schoolers.
Dean invites you to click on omfgdogs.com at your peril, but if you don't visit cashcats.biz, you will miss out on something amazing.
Mark shares one on his longtime favorite music sites, Bedazzled.
Veronica likes an iPhone apps called CatPaint, which lets you add all kinds of cats to your photos.
Mike shares a useful and free shopper's price comparison and unit conversion calculator called Apples2Oranges
Dean says Superfeet insoles are his "secret weapon."
We have a discussion about the new iPad. Verdict: we all want one.
Mike likes the functional bike stem caps at Stem Captain. I'm disappointed they didn't call it Stem Cap'n, though.
Mark explains why the Clevercat Litter Boxis a gopodsend.

If you enjoy Gweek, please rate it in the iTunes Store -- thanks!

Gweek is a weekly podcast where the editors and friends of Boing Boing talk about comic books, science fiction and fantasy, video games, board games, tools, gadgets, apps, and other neat stuff.

My co-hosts on episode 41 are Dean Putney, Boing Boing’s coding and development wizard, and Michael Pusateri, a lifelong tinkerer and former television tech executive for Disney. Visit his blog, cruftbox.com.

Below is a list of the things we talked about in Gweek episode 40. (Sure, you could just click on the links below to learn about them without listening to the podcast, but then you will miss out on our discussion about whether or not Tarzan shrank in Tarzan and the Ant Men or not.)

If you enjoy Gweek, please rate it in the iTunes Store -- thanks!

Dean went to the Rineke Dijkstra exhibit at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Mike talks about a new TV-to-any-device-you-want-service called Aeero.

Mark and his daughter Jane went to a at Arts ReFoundry in Los Angeles to make bronze mini-sculptures. Even if you don't live in LA, you can order a bronze buckle kit for $110, which includes pouring.

Mark announced the winner of the Gweek Secret contest. Congratulations, Eric Z. Goodnight!

Mike recommends Under the Moons of Mars, a book of contemporary short stories that place in Edgar Rice Burrough's Barsoom. Mentioned: Philip Jose Farmer's Tarzan novels: Tarzan Alive, A Feast Unknown, Lord of the Trees and The Mad Goblin and ERB's Tarzan and the Ant Men

Mark recommended Baby's in Black a graphic novel love story about photographer Astrid Kirchherr and Beatles bass player Stuart Sutcliffe in the early days of the band.

Mark also recommended the stunning new graphic novel by Tom Gauld, Goliath, the biblical tale told from the giant's perspective.

Mike's soundtrack while he worked this week was Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians

Dean likes Command Line Fu to find neat commands.

Mike scared me with a personal information search site called Melconcard.

Mark is enjoying the Kameoka Diaries, a webcomic about Lars Martinson's experiences teaching English to students in Japan.

Mark likes Timehop, a web service that sends you an email each morning with your Tweets, Facebook postings, Foursquare, and Instagram activity from a year ago today.

Dean has been enjoying Super Going, a site where your friends send you on fun missions.

Dean bought two "indispensable" low-priced accessories for his phone and computer: the Wrapster and Power Curl, both by Quirky.

Mike explains why One Good Earbud is a good idea for people who like to run or ride bikes and listen to music at the same time.

Mark enjoys play with the HDR and tilt-shift functions on his Canon S95 point-and-shoot camera.