COVID-19 Archives - It's A Go Publishing

20 August 202129 October 2021

Links To All Works Offered By It’s A Go Publishing

Issues Of Second Draft Journals (scroll for links)

Second Draft Journals are created by A.F.S. Green (writer) and Dixie Roach-Foxton (artist), a mother-daughter duo in Ontario, Canada. This series of paperbacks is titled Second Draft Journals because those who will remember the COVID-19 pandemic will likely think of their life in two parts: what happened before the pandemic (our first draft) and what happened after (our second draft).

At the time of writing, the COVID-19 pandemic continues but there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Whatever you desire from a journal, I’m confident that we have an issue for you!

Issue 5 of Second Draft Journals: A Dignified Collection

This is a celebratory issue that includes all of the original art and short stories featured in the previous four issues. Printed in vibrant colour, complete with goal-setting and lined pages (white and tinted pages), this journal is perfect for you and your loved ones.

Available on all Amazon marketplaces, including Canada, the USA, Australia, the UK, and Japan.

Issue 4 of Second Draft Journals: For The Child In You

This is our first black-and-white issue. Enjoy the original works of art as printed or colour them in. (Which is great for stress relief!) It has lined pages, goal-setting pages, and blank pages (in case you like to doodle).

Enchanted Outlines (the short story in this issue), explores the secret world of colouring books as the characters in little Easton’s colouring book come to life! It’s for the child in all of us and is great for kids.

Available on all Amazon marketplaces, including Canada, the USA, Australia, the UK, and Japan.

Issue 3 of Second Draft Journals: Fly In The Face Of Fear

This issue is available in two sizes (8.27″x11.69″ and 6″x 9″). Printed in colour, it is the first one that has both white and tinted lined pages! With lots of lined pages, goal-setting pages, and original works of art throughout this issue, it’s one of our favourites.

Take Flight, the short story offered in this issue follows human and avian characters as they face their fears and an unlikely friendship forms. Fun for kids and adults alike!

Available on all Amazon marketplaces, including Canada, the USA, Australia, the UK, and Japan.

The Storytellers’ Compact Size (6″x9″) is available on all marketplaces, including Canada, the USA, Australia, the UK, and Japan as well.

Issue 2 of Second Draft Journals: A New Beginning

This issue is available in two sizes (8.27″x11.69″ and 6″x 9″). It is printed in colour with original works of art, goal-setting pages, and lined pages for you to journal, brainstorm, and take notes as you please. It’s perfect for the serious writers in your life!

The short story included in this issue reminds readers that Looks Can Be Deceiving (which is its title), as a group of friends examine the snap judgments that they make when they see an elderly lady sitting at a bus stop in their community. Heartfelt and hopeful, you’re sure to enjoy Looks Can Be Deceiving.

Available on all Amazon marketplaces, including Canada, the USA, Australia, the UK, and Japan.

The Storytellers’ Compact Size (6″x9″) is available on all marketplaces, including Canada, the USA, Australia, the UK, and Japan.

Issue 1 of Second Draft Journals: A Time Capsule For Hospitality

Second Draft Journals: A Time Capsule For Hospitality (Issue 1)

This issue is available in two sizes (8.27″x11.69″ and 6″x 9″). Published in the spring of 2021, our first Second Draft Journal was inspired by the plight of small-business owners (restaurateurs, in particular) during the COVID-19 pandemic.

If These Walls Could Talk (the short story in this issue) follows a restaurateur and his group of friends that is narrated by the very walls of a restaurant itself.

Second Draft Journals: A Time Capsule For Hospitality is printed in colour, with original works of art, goal-setting pages, and plenty of lined pages to use as you please.

Available on all Amazon marketplaces, including Canada, the USA, Australia, the UK, and Japan.

The Storytellers’ Compact Size (6″x9″) is available on all marketplaces, including Canada, the USA, Australia, the UK, and Japan.

Life is a work in progress. Enjoy your second draft!

A.F.S. Green

Staycation For The Soul: A Collection Of Short Stories

Female reindeer fight for equality and respect in the North Pole after a multi-generational cover-up is discovered. A masterpiece narrates its journey through time. An atheist talks to God. A premature baby decided when to be born. A mature dog finds a new life after the death of her beloved owner.

In Staycation for the Soul: A Collection of Short Stories, each story is imaginative and heartfelt. A.F.S. Green’s first collection is for anyone looking for a short break from their day-to-day life with messages of hope that are sure to reverberate long after the last page is read.

*Intended for readers who are 8-years-old and up (at the discretion of their parent or guardian).

Available on all Amazon marketplaces, including Canada, the USA, the UK, and Australia.

The Ties That Bind

It was unfathomable that Angel would lose her twin sister, Eve, to an underground community in early 2009, but after Eve was attacked, things started to change — quickly.

The Ties that Bind is the premiere novel in a series about sisterhood and friendship, lust and affluence, and control and loss. When a seductive woman and a man with smouldering good looks present the twins with the keys to a world where lines are blurred between tradition and an alternative culture, professionalism and desire, and loyalty and a sexy, taboo lifestyle, which path will each sister choose?

*Intended for a mature audience, 18+.

Available on all Amazon marketplaces, including Canada, the USA, the UK, and Australia.

I’ve started publishing under the pen name, A.F.S. Green (formerly, ‘Amber Green’) and I’m excited to do everything in my power to ‘make it’ as an author (because if not now, when?).

I hope you’ll join me on this journey and allow me to stay in touch with you by signing up for my email list.

It’s A Go!

A.F.S. Green (aka Amber Green)

28 December 202028 December 2020

A Shift in Thinking

Pre-pandemic, I thought that signing a deal with a major publishing company was my only ticket to literary success, so I started publishing short stories in hopes that I would attract their attention and build an audience while I focused on my freelance writing business. Then COVID-19 hit.

All of a sudden, publishing my own full-length novels was a better idea than to wait for professionals to take notice of my work, so I started writing a novel I thought would be enjoyed by a mature audience (likely adult women).

In the last year, I published my first novel, The Ties That Bind (which is the premiere novel in a series I’m writing intended for a mature audience) and my first short story collection, Staycation for the Soul: A Collection of Short Stories.

I turned the short story that started my foray into publishing, Musings of a Masterpiece (which is available in Staycation for the Soul: A Collection of Short Stories) into a screenplay and my work has been sold and enjoyed by people in Canada, the USA, the UK, Australia, and Japan. (Which is incredible! Thank you to everyone who has read and purchased my work.)

What’s on the Horizon?

Throughout 2020, my focus has shifted from merely wanting to attract attention from people in the industry to a desire to become a respected professional in publishing as time goes on. (I would like to help other writers as I progress and grow, so I am starting a writers’ group in 2021.)

Though The Ties That Bind is the first novel I published, it’s not the first novel I wrote. I completed my first novel (an untitled work of fantasy intended for readers 16+) in the summer of 2019.

Since we’re in a 28-day lockdown in Ontario, I am focusing on editing and publishing it as soon as possible.

If you’d like to receive updates and special offers as I continue on my journey, please join my mailing list.

Give life the green light. It’s A Go!

A.F.S. Green

4 August 20204 August 2020

A Toast to Publication

Toastmaster magazine, August 2020 issue (‘Virtual Camaraderie’, page 5)

My heartbeat would race and my whole body would shake. I would be out of breath and I’d speed through whatever I had to say so I could sit back down and escape the front of the room. This would happen every time I presented. (And once in a while, it still does.)

I’ve always been a better writer than a speaker. I was aware of this from an early age and actively avoided public speaking opportunities.

In order to combat this, I joined Toastmasters (a non-profit organization intended to develop public speaking and leadership skills) in my early twenties. I loved my original Toastmasters group in downtown Toronto, but life got in the way.

After a hiatus, I rejoined Toastmasters and I have been a member of my club for the past two years.

As we seek to adapt through the COVID-19 pandemic, I virtually visited Toastmasters clubs around the world. My letter was published in the August 2020 issue of Toastmaster magazine (‘Virtual Camaraderie, page 5). It’s thrilling to be published by a magazine that is distributed internationally.

Though the COVID-19 pandemic has existed as an end to ‘the way things used to be’, it also serves as the beginning of a new chapter. In addition to publishing my first novel this month, I will be starting my podcast.

I look forward to providing you with updates on my blogs (The Write Results and It’s A Go!) by the end of the month.

Take care!

Give your life the green light. It’s A Go!

Amber Green

19 May 202019 May 2020

What’s your story?

All of us have a story to tell. The COVID-19 pandemic serves as a reminder that we live life without knowledge of the hardships we’ll face nor a guarantee of the number of pages we have the absolute privilege to turn on our personal journey to the back cover.

Fortunately, the opposite is also true. Luck is often examined in hindsight, but we have no idea what love, friendship, success, and joy await us.

If you’re able to do so, I hope that you take some time — even a few precious minutes — to journal or record a video every few days to build an archive of your experience through this moment in time. Good or bad, remember that you won’t feel this way forever; the Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, was correct when he stated that “change is the only constant in life.”

Take some time to reflect, revise, and recharge. If your inner voice — or the narrator in your head — has been telling your story in a morose tone (even when times are good), pay attention and practice switching it up.

Everyone has a story. Including you.

What plot twist does today’s chapter revolve around, what’s the tone of the next few pages, and (just as importantly) what will your story reveal, overcome, and celebrate in the future?

Give life the green light. It’s A Go!

Amber Green

8 May 20208 May 2020

A Digital Keepsake for Any Occasion

Though I use my blog/It’s A Go! Publishing to explore new topics and spread the word about my e-books (available on Amazon), I am also a freelance writer (The Write Results is my company).

If you’re looking for a heartfelt, thoughtful digital keepsake, I’d love to create a personalized video for you that you can email your loved one or post on their social media pages.

I’ve received glowing feedback about the videos I’ve created, as giving the gift of a digital keepsake is perfect if you’re observing physical distancing measures, avoiding stores, or busy managing our “new normal”.

They’re perfect for any occasion, including:

Mother’s Day
Birthdays
Thinking of you
Sympathy
Father’s Day
Graduation
Anniversary
Remember when…?

CAD $25 for a custom video (*up to 13 slides- like this presentation)

Contact me (Amber) for details: info@thewriteresults.ca

I look forward to connecting with you. Take care!

20 March 202014 April 2020

Healthcare Heroes: Answer the Call

The call to war is a cough.

Deployment lasts hour to hour, day to day.

Healthcare professionals since retired

Recommit to their oath to do no harm,

Though by stepping up, they voluntarily put themselves directly in harm’s way.

Their education ensures that they understand the dangers when they hear the proverbial doomsday alarm sound.

They answer the call to work on the front lines of streets thankfully abandoned

By the public they’re working ‘round the clock to save.

Heroes in lab coats and scrubs rather than capes,

They stare not down the barrel of a gun,

But through the lens of a microscope to identify the enemy.

Medically tested swabs make the diagnosis clear.

The strain moved quickly from animal to human,

Then it passed from human to human and multiplied as it caught like wildfire through dry brush,

Burning through our misconceptions, ignorance, and the social parameters we use to define our existence: Wealth, status, clout, and country.

In a time when we’re so convinced that our opinions matter,

Caught in an echo chamber of our own design,

A slippery virus takes hold and officials demand that we stay home to stop the spread.

The paradox? A pandemic that unites us while it threatens to tear us down. The vast majority take action by doing nothing at all.

The planet started to heal in our absence; an unintended — but welcome — consequence.

What a juxtaposition;

The fear inspired by a deadly, invisible force that removes the

Hustle of the everyday also serves to remind us of what truly matters.

Phantasmal reflections of others’ mistakes mirrored in policy, red tape, and latent response;

Like the ghosts of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol appearing before us at breakneck speed,

Demanding repentance for the actions we didn’t commit but have no time to repeat.

As they mourn their dead, we are granted an opportunity to stay a step ahead;

A step at most, but a step so many communities wish they could walk back.

Hindsight — 20/20 and crystal clear — comes not in years, but days.

As we muster the courage to keep the faith as we stagger blindly into our new normal,

I am reminded that

Malcolm Gladwell was the first person I heard theorize that Goliath could not rely on his vision,

But in this battle, as David stands at the ready with his slingshot,

David is the one who cannot see; for in this analogy, Goliath is

An invisible monster. A virus that killed the very doctor who bravely sounded the alarm.

They are our heroes in lab coats and scrubs.

Far more vulnerable through their repeated exposure to the enemy than am I,

Sitting in front of my computer screen

Typing a message of thanks

I know they won’t have time to read.

*Please note that I offer an audio version of Healthcare Heroes: Answer the Call on YouTube

If you liked the above, you would really enjoy:

🇨🇦 Musings of a Masterpiece

A work of art narrates its journey through time in this short story.

In the centuries since its creation, it has witnessed the joy of love and companionship, the heartache of loss, and hardship. Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but what if the masterpiece you so admire silently muses at the countless wonders of humanity?

🇺🇸: Amazon.com users, click here.

🇬🇧: Amazon.co.uk users, click here.

Amber Green is a self-published Canadian author and freelance writer. Her short stories can be found here: www.amazon.com/author/ambergreen