Remember the weird kid in grade school who picked at every part of his body except his nose? You know, the one witht he homemade clothes junior high? The weirdo who was into Star Trek? The guy who sat alone at lunch? The one who never went on a date? The first person you thought of when you saw that drawing of the Unabomber? Well, that kid grew up. He grew up, he convinced someone to marry him, purchased a home, wrote a few books, and even became a step-grandfather (if that's a thing). Goats Eat Cans is his story. In Volume 3, Steven Novak continues to recount the mostly woeful tales of his life in the uniquely peculiar way only he can. There are even more inappropriate bodily functions, a load of awkward mishaps, and a whole lot of obscure pop culture references that only the nerdiest of the nerds will recognize. Goats Eat Cans features 50 stories, 50 illustrations, a cartoon rendering of him pulling a woman from a car wreck. So that's pretty cool.

With their backs to the wall the children of the Fillagrou prophecy are forced to fight against seemingly impossible odds. Questions will be answered and mysteries revealed. Lives will be lost, friendships will be tested and the bonds of family stretched to the limit. If the universe is to survive, the ultimate sacrifice must be made. Endings and Beginnings is the final installment in an epic trilogy that follows an unlikely group of children turned heroes and their adventures in a world that seems, on the surface, to have very little in common with their own. Pitted against a tyrant king hungry for vengeance, the fate of the universe rests in their hands.

Travel back in time to late Ninth Century Anglo-Saxon Britain where Alfred the Great rules with a benevolent hand while the Danish King rules peacefully within the boundaries of the Danelaw. Trade flourishes, and scholars from throughout the civilized world flock to Britannia's shores to study at the King's Court School at Winchester. Enter Concordia, a beautiful noble woman whose family is favored by the king. Vain, willful, and admired, but ambitious and cunning, Concordia is not willing to accept her fate. She is betrothed to the valiant warrior, Brantson, but sees herself as far too young to lay in the bedchamber of an older suitor. She wants to see the wonders of the world, embracing everything in it; preferably, but dangerously, at the side of Thayer, the exotic Saracen who charms King Alfred's court and ignites her yearning passions. Concordia manipulates her besotted husband into taking her to Rome, but her ship is captured by bloodthirsty pirates, and the seafarers protecting her are ruthlessly slain to a man. As she awaits her fate in the Moorish captain's bed, by sheer chance, she discovers that salvation is at hand in the gilded court of a Saracen nobleman. While awaiting rescue, Concordia finds herself at the center of intrigue, plots, blackmail, betrayal and the vain desires of two egotistical brothers, each willing to die for her favor. Using only feminine cunning, Concordia must defend her honor while plotting her escape as she awaits deliverance, somewhere inside steamy, unconquered Muslim Hispania.

Remember the weird kid in grade school with a mouthful of paste and britches full of waste? You know, the one that still had an imaginary friend in junior high? That creepy oddball with the belly that made it impossible for him to run a mile in under thirty minutes? The one you knew beyond a shadow of a doubt would one day get caught with a severed head in his freezer? Well, that kid grew up. He grew up, he convinced someone to marry him, he bought a house in the suburbs, he wrote a book, and he even stopped eating paste Goats Eat Cans is his story. In Volume 2, Steven Novak continues to recount the mostly woeful tales of his life in the peculiar way only he can. There are more inappropriate bodily functions, more awkward social mishaps, and a heck of a lot more obscure pop culture references that only the nerdiest of the nerds will recognize. Goats Eat Cans features 56 stories, 56 illustrations, and a carton rendering of his buttocks in a thong. If that's not worth the price of admission, nothing is.

Dr. Gwyneth Franger, a renowned expert in early medieval England, is set upon learning the truth about the death of Lord Erik, the last descendant of the powerful House of Wareham. Her quest becomes an obsession, a condition that began with the discovery of a portrait of the tall and valiant warrior. Digesting troves of mildewed scrolls and source documentation only enhances her belief that Lord Erik was brutally assassinated by a cabal of traitors in the pay of William the Bastard, shortly before the onslaught of the Norman Invasion. On an archeological dig in Southern England, Dr. Franger finds herself transported back to the Dark Ages and at the side of the noble Lord Erik who commands an army of elite Saxon warriors. Witnessing the unrest firsthand, Gwyneth senses that her instincts had been right all along, and she is determined to learn the identities of the treacherous blackguards hiding in the shadows, villains who may well be posing as Lord Erik's friends and counselors. Gwyneth knows it is wrong to stop the assassins, but isn't sure she can find the strength to walk away and watch her beloved Erik die. Will she intervene, change the course of history and wipe out an entire timeline to save the man she loves?

For Tommy Jarvis, life has never been simple - quite the opposite, in fact. It is, however, about to become decidedly more difficult. Moments after stumbling through a doorway to another world, Tommy and his friends discover they are the key to ending a war in which the casualties are too great to count and their chances of survival are almost nonexistent.
After stumbling through a doorway hidden at the base of their tree fort, the brothers find themselves caught in the middle of a war that has raged for years and left behind more causalities than numbers dare count. Along the way they'll encounter creatures both bizarre and terrifying and find friends in the most unpredictable of places.
Fathers and Sons is the first in a trilogy that follows an unlikely group of children turned heroes and their adventures in a world that has nothing in common with their own, against an army of war mongering creatures led by a tyrant king and a young prince that will stop at nothing to see them dead.
The Forts series continues with Forts: Liars and Thieves, and Forts: Endings and Beginnings

Praise for Fathers and Sons
5 of 5 Stars
"No one should miss out on this series. It sticks with you long after the final page is turned." - Completelybooksessed
"What you don't expect are those singing moments of poetry, of beauty, and the life lessons woven behind every chapter. Novak isn't just trying to tell you a fantastic adventure story. Novak is trying to teach you something about himself, and, by extension, something about you." - MJ Heiser, Author of Corona
"There are moments along their journey, and even before it starts, where you simply want to cry for these children and what they go through. There are also those moments where you will find yourself cheering them along." - Moonlitreviews
"Novak skillfully spins his tale in a manner that allows the reader to understand and empathize with his protagonists and keeps the reader engaged in the narrative from the opening paragraph to the final lines." - UJA Greater Toronto
"What struck me about Fathers and Sons is that each character, hero and villain, human or otherwise, is so clearly drawn (Mr. Novak is an illustrator of exceptional talent)that I was able to connect with them. Family is an important theme in this action-packed story, with both good and bad aspects getting equal share." - James McShane, Author

Whispered by the wise and the learned. Talked of in hushed tones round luminous firesides. Engraved by awestruck scribes in the scriptoria of the Chronicles. Against all the odds, great King Alfred defeated a vastly superior Danish army outside Chippenham. This victory, the sages prophesied, would guarantee peace throughout the land. Or so they thought. Two years later, Rigr the Bastard, vengeful and seeking to claim his birthright, was defeated in the wilds of East Anglia. His blood smeared berserker warriors vanquished; no quarter asked for - no quarter given. Now, a further two years later, the Vikings return. Noble Prince Sven instigates a seaborne invasion, fuelled partly by blind rage when he discovers that his brother, Prince Erik, has sworn fealty to the Anglo-Saxon king. His own brother: A traitor and a fool. Erik's love, Lady Gwyneth, attempts to stop the invasion before it starts by uniting the two estranged brothers, but her scheming only succeeds in making matters worse. Indeed, her interference guarantees the death of thousands of warriors in the freezing, tumultuous North Sea. So when the horns of Sven's monumental fleet of warships are heard off the fogbound coast of Britannia, King Alfred - outnumbered, outshipped and weary of the fray - must rouse his jaded Saxon warriors and lead them to sea, to repel his most formidable enemy yet. For a host motivated by the spilled blood of the fallen, the spirit of black vengeance, and the delights of a warrior's reward in Valhalla, is the most fearsome opponent of all. Alfred. Sven. Erik. Gwyneth. Amidst the ferrous reverberation of a battle royale - one or all must die, and the fate of a nation hangs in the balance, one final time.

Two years have passed since Alfred the Great successfully defeated Guthrum, King of the Vikings. The fair land of England is at peace. That is, until the harmony is threatened by Guthrum's angry, vengeful, illegitimate son, Rigr, who is hell-bent on usurping his father's throne. Rigr demands his Birthright - an acknowledgement that he is the sole heir to the Danelaw, but his father refuses his claim. Rigr assembles his army; a motley, but formidable, cohort of disenchanted warriors. Fearsome Guthrum, ruler of everything from Kent to Northumbria, is made aware of the threat and conjures his forces, meeting the rebellious host on the field at Thetford. Thousands upon thousands of bloodthirsty warriors confront each other on the sunlit, windless plains of East Anglia. The victors will rewrite the course of history, and the fate of England is in the hands of the gods of war.

King Alfred the Great has thwarted the Viking threat against his kingdom of Wessex. Signing a treaty with the formidable Danish King Guthrum, he succeeds in pushing the heathen army back to the rolling fens of East Anglia. An uneasy peace holds sway: The King establishes a standing army under Lord Richard, who takes command of the citadel at Wareham. Richard and his army are accompanied by his daughter, Gwyneth, an impetuous and reckless young woman - at once striking, intellectually gifted, but dangerously vain and imprudent. While Richard broods on the Viking threat, Gwyneth falls in love with an enemy prince - only to discover that she has been betrothed to a Saxon warrior twice her age. Refusing to countenance her grim fate, she flees the fortress, but is soon kidnapped by a Viking warrior and taken to the camp of King Guthrum while Saxon search parties scour the land. In captivity, a hostage to fortune, and the focus of political intrigue, Gwyneth is submerged in a world of expediency, betrayal and black treachery. Slowly, she realizes the truth is suspect, nothing is what it appears and her reality cannot be trusted. And all the time, against this background, she desires nothing more than to be reunited with her dashing Danish prince.

Remember the weird kid with the greasy hair and the odd smell you went to school with? You know, the one who never talked to anyone? That creepy little jerk who sat alone at lunch? The oddball who never took a shower in gym class? The one you imagined might one day go on a shooting spree? Believe it or not, that kid grew up. He grew up, he got married, he never shot a single person, he wrote a book, and he even started taking showers after his workouts - most of the time. Goats Eat Cans is his story. Follow along as Steven Novak recounts the sometimes hilarious, sometimes hilariously painful, and sometimes painfully hilarious moments that have made his life so wonderfully frustrating. You'll laugh, you'll cry, and you might even vomit. No matter what, you won't be able to stop reading. Goats Eat Cans features 55 stories, 55 illustrations, 99 luftballons and enough nonsense to keep you chuckling and giggling for days on end - or hours - or at the very least a few minutes.