Location: United States
Member Since: Jan. 02, 2010

Joe Novara


Biography

Retired, living in Kalamazoo, MIchigan, I teach English at a local community college and write and travel and write and windsurf on Lake Michigan and write some more while I wait for my grandkids to get old enough to read my stories. I hope they don't resent me for that.

Where to find Joe Novara online

Website: http://www.novaraenterprises.com
Facebook: Facebook profile
Blog: http://joenovara.wordpress.com

Where to buy in print

http://www.pelicanpub.com

Books

Overheard at Posada del Sol    by Joe Novara
Price: $2.99 USD. 7430 words. Published on January 18, 2012. Fiction.
A sort of ‘Caribbean Canterbury Tales,’ Overheard at Posada del Sol has an ex-pat American recounting the stories and adventures his customers bring to his hotel on the shores of Lake Atitlan in the highlands of Guatemala.
WaTonka Camp Cowboys, A Study Guide    by Joe Novara
Price: $0.99 USD. 3540 words. Published on January 17, 2012. Nonfiction.
This Study Guide complements the novel, Wa-Tonka, Camp Cowboys by providing tools for boy and girl readers to extract themes, values and writing skills from this and other stories they read. This is the first book in the series followed by: Saving For Trace; Riding The Waves; Zan; Can Do, Zan; A Horse in My Kitchen; and finally, Mountain Rules.
Vern's Barbershop    by Joe Novara
Price: $2.99 USD. 11200 words. Published on September 16, 2011. Fiction.
Vern’s Barbershop, a series of character sketches set in a throwback barbershop, reveals the kind of humorous, earth shaking, work driven subjects men share in the closest thing to a ‘boys only’ tree house where a grown man can retreat for twenty minutes once a month.
Free Floating Stories    by Joe Novara
Price: $4.99 USD. 51580 words. Published on January 22, 2011. Fiction.
Free Floating Stories, a random grab bag of short stories, humorous send-ups, grampas connecting with grandkids, a fairy tale and one article on composting (go figure) has been culled from a lifetime of writing for myself, my family and many national magazines. If you like variety and frequent chuckles from your reading, this collection is for you.
Marathon Wimp...a radio play    by Joe Novara
Price: $0.99 USD. 5230 words. Published on August 15, 2010. Screenplays.
Based on my Young Adult enovel, Ragazzo Quest, this play follows an Italian girl as she runs a Chicago Marathon with her look-alike American cousin's boyfriend. Gina tries to prove she is as tough as her cousin but gets left behind at the wall only to discover another guy has her back. A study in cultural diversity, this story crisscrosses the ocean only to find that all's fair in love and races.
Four Read-Aloud Plays from Tales From the Drake House Outhouse    by Joe Novara
Price: $0.99 USD. 7110 words. Published on August 15, 2010. Screenplays.
These four read-aloud plays are based on my book Tales From the Drake House Outhouse. Students may read the ebook then dramatize what they have read. Used in many classroom presentations, the story and these plays explore the distinction between historical fiction and real historical facts while offering an enjoyable opportunity to play modern and pioneer roles.
My Two Years in the Priest Corps    by Joe Novara
Price: $4.99 USD. 30740 words. Published on July 13, 2010. Nonfiction.
(4.00 from 1 review)
My Two years in the Priest Corps is one insider’s answer to the question, ‘how do priests get that way?’ From elementary school aspirations, to theology studies in Rome during the Second Vatican Council to eventual disaffection with the Catholic Church, I focus on larger life lessons arising from my personal experience of the ministry rather than reminiscence for its own sake.
Wa-Tonka Camp Cowboys    by Joe Novara
Price: $2.99 USD. 20450 words. Published on May 17, 2010. Fiction.
Nick jumps at a chance to work at a summer camp away from his crowded family. He discovers horses, especially his favorite, Prince. But he still has to be a big brother when two campers ride their mounts over the lip of Deadman’s Bluff. This is the first book in the series: Saving For Trace; Riding The Waves; Zan; Can Do, Zan; A Horse in My Kitchen; Mountain Rules.
Time and Past Time    by Joe Novara
Price: $4.99 USD. 52800 words. Published on January 19, 2010. Fiction.
(4.00 from 1 review)
The victim of priest pedophilia, Ramon retreats to Mexico for thirty years of celibate piety and snorkel-guiding out of Zihuatanejo. Emily, a gringa customer and retired army nurse, jolts him from his quasi-monastic existence into a painful confrontation with his past trauma and a return to his home on Lake Michigan where an unconventional priest heals lingering scars and opens the way to love.
A Horse in My Kitchen    by Joe Novara
Price: $2.99 USD. 17220 words. Published on January 10, 2010. Fiction.
Luz, an eleven-year old Latina, finds a half-frozen newborn foal and gets her African American friend, Zan, to help keep it alive in her kitchen. Luz’s hard working mom directs all the affection Luz longs for onto the baby horse until Holly grows past the ‘cute’ stage. The costs and realities of keeping a growing horse bring mother and daughter together in a dramatic ending.
Ragazzo Quest    by Joe Novara
Price: $2.99 USD. 33420 words. Published on January 9, 2010. Fiction.
15-year old, Anne Marie, has boy friends but no boyfriend. A summer in Italy means a chance to snag a ragazzo. Born in the States of Italian parents she finds that the rules are different between men and women when she exports her made-in-America attitudes and co-ed soccer moves. Elena, a look-alike cousin in Sicily comes to live with Anne Marie leading to boyfriend troubles in two languages.
Mountain Rules    by Joe Novara
Price: $2.99 USD. 41790 words. Published on January 5, 2010. Fiction.
Thrown together in a wilderness boot camp, 3 teens work past first impressions while living in the world of mountain sheep, bears, wildfires, and a missing ram’s skull. Lazelle, black, 14, has a basketball scholarship waiting. Mackenzie’s parents want her to work. Creed, mixed black and Cherokee faces a jail-or-camp alternative. They all learn new rules, Mountain Rules, to bring back home.
Can Do, Zan    by Joe Novara
Price: $2.99 USD. 25600 words. Published on January 4, 2010. Fiction.
Can Do, Zan, Alexander chants to himself whenever he confronts a challenge. The intelligent, animal loving, African American 12-year old, works at a stable, learns to ride horses, connects with mounted police-horse training, goes to a summer camp in Northern Michigan, canoes in Minnesota’s Boundary Waters, deals with a bully, copes with his diabetes and discovers Native American artifacts. Whew.
Zan, City Cowboy    by Joe Novara
Price: $2.99 USD. 28870 words. Published on January 4, 2010. Fiction.
Zan, 12, from a rough part of town, is smart, a natural athlete and an immediate friend of any animal he meets including a foal he helps birth. Watch him fall in love with horses as he wedges into a circle of horse loving friends you’ve come to know from earlier books: Wa-Tonka, Camp Cowboys and Saving for Trace. Watch him make new friends and enemies in Can Do, Zan, and A Horse in My Kitchen.
Tales From the Drake House Outhouse    by Joe Novara
Price: $2.99 USD. 22890 words. Published on January 3, 2010. Fiction.
Based on a real pioneer homestead in Kalamazoo, Michigan, this story has two 12-year olds working back in time with each ‘find’ they dig up from an historian’s dream: a 180-year old outhouse. Zach uses his imagination to create a movie script about the Drake family. Maddy objects to Zach’s notion that, “all stories are true and some of them actually happened.”
From My Side of the Fence...a horsehusband's point of view    by Joe Novara
Price: $4.99 USD. 26560 words. Published on January 2, 2010. Fiction.
From My Side of the Fence…a horsehusband’s point of view is a collection of over-the- top horse tales originally appearing in Horse and Rider, Mother Earth News and Horse Illustrated. Alva and his menagerie of friends and neighbors indulge his vivid imagination and inventive genius in avoiding the care and maintenance of his wife Tug’s cow pony, Pachooky.
Riding the Waves...Lake Michigan Cowboy    by Joe Novara
Price: $2.99 USD. 34970 words. Published on January 2, 2010. Fiction.
At Lake Michigan with his aunt and uncle, Nick meets a girl riding a chestnut gelding in the morning surf . Bull riding, Cassidy the bareback surf rider, her jealous friend Roy, windsurfing, CPR at the beach, rounding up buffalo, Sara the migrant worker, Knuck the lazy border collie, team penning, Nick tries it all.
Saving for Trace    by Joe Novara
Price: $2.99 USD. 20490 words. Published on January 2, 2010. Fiction.
His father out of work, Nick helps the family by working at a stable. He finds Trace, a retired cutting horse. Nick finally gets the money to buy Trace, but his mother’s plans pose a difficult decision. Trace with all the moves of a sports car, a broken ankle, Mandy with her Tennessee drawl, driving a truckload of cattle, Nick tries it all.

Joe Novara’s tag cloud

adventure    african american boy    americans abroad    boot camps    bosses    boys adventure    boys reading    boys writing    bullies    bullriding    canoeing    cattle    central america    challenging catholicicsm    civil war    culture clash    culture clashes    diabetes    epublishing    expriest    family stories    family values    fishing    grampagrandkid    grizzlies    guatemala    historical    homeschooling    horse camping    horse care    horse in house    horse riding    horseback riding    horses    horses gymkhanas    hostorical fiction    indian artifacts    indian lore    indians    inventions    italian culture    italoamericans    italy    jokes    latina    learning to love    leaving ministry    life insights    living abroad    male humor    marathon    marathons    marital foibles    mayan    mexican girl    michigan history    migrant workers    mothers career    mountain sheep    mountains    mounted police    newborn horses    outgrowing religion    pioneer history    pioneers    police horses    priest pedophilia    read aloud plays    running    script writing    scrupulosity    semi driving    sendup humor    sheepdogs    short stories    snorkeling    soccer    stories    storytelling    team penning    therapeutic riding program    thugs    trauma healing    travel    travel stories    vocation formation    war reenactment    western riding    windsurfing    work    working moms    wyoming