Whether it’s Happy Valentine’s Day or Happy Galentine’s Day, love is in the air!
While people are preoccupied with love stories and Cupid’s arrow, we’d like to give a special shout-out to those who love us unconditionally year-round — our furry, four-legged family members.
Issue 7 of Second Draft Journals: Love Notes & Paw Prints is the puuurfect journal for pet lovers everywhere. Whether you journal about your day-to-day life and goals, or you keep a record about your fur baby (because there’s just too much to tell if you have to rely on someone else to care for them), we hope that you love the original works of art, the short story, Puppy Love, and the poems about self-care and our four-legged friends. With white and rose-tinted lined pages, this Second Draft Journal is meant to be soothing and sweet long after the Valentine’s Day candy is gone.
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.
Issue 4 of Second Draft Journals: For The Child In You
Second Draft Journals: For The Child In You (our first black-and-white issue!)
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.
Issue 3 of Second Draft Journals: Fly In The Face Of Fear
Second Draft Journals: Fly In The Face Of Fear (our first issue with tinted pages!)
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!
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
Second Draft Journals: A New Beginning (Issue 2)
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.
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.
Life is a work in progress. Enjoy your second draft!
A.F.S. Green
Staycation For The Soul: A Collection Of Short Stories
Staycation For The Soul: A Collection Of Short Stories by A.F.S. Green
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
The Ties That Bind by A.F.S. Green (18+)
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?).
Twitter users chose ‘Sports’ as the major theme for my next short story!
Sports was the clear winner on Twitter. Also discovered, Twitter users do not like weddings…
Now that the major theme has been decided, my second Twitter poll is live! Visit my profile (itsago_blog) to vote on the sports-related Canadian charity that my first community-driven short story will support (details below).
This Twitter poll is live RIGHT NOW until 10 am EST on Thursday, March 5th, 2020!
I am challenging myself to write, edit, and publish a community-driven series of short stories but I need your help.
Follow me on Twitter (itsago_blog) to help me choose the main theme of my next short story (voting starts right now; Monday-Tuesday, March 3 at 11:30 AM EST).
Which major theme interests you the most?
-Weddings
-Sports
-Winning the lottery
Let me know what you would like to read about, and I’ll start writing!
Charitable Donations
Visit my Twitter page this Wednesday-Thursday and you will have the opportunity to choose between two charities.
The charity with the most votes on my Twitter poll at the end of 24 hours will receive 10% of the net proceeds made via the sales of this short story (the donation will be made at the end of the year), so please visit my Twitter page on Wednesday, March 4th-Thursday, March 5th to have your say!
Thanks for helping me challenge myself as I create a community-driven series of short stories.
**January 26, 2021: It’s been one year since Kobe Bryant, Gianna Bryant, John Altobelli, Keri Altobelli, Alyssa Altobelli, Sarah Chester, Payton Chester, Christina Mauser, and Ara Zobayan perished. May they rest in peace.**
Saint Peter stood at the gates of heaven as he always did, but onlookers started to gather. A solitary job, it was unusual that so many angels and departed souls were interested in the arrival of a group of nine people– dubbed ‘the New Nine’– whom Saint Peter expected to greet momentarily on the morning of Sunday, January 26th, 2020.
It would be a tragedy on Earth; Saint Peter knew that family members and friends of the New Nine were about to suffer unimaginable shock and heartache, for there was no warning of the impending event that would unite basketball fans around the world. As news of the helicopter crash spread, basketball players would honour the most famous of the nine by taking eight and 24-second violations; a moment of silence to show respect for one of the greats taken too soon. Tearful interviews and outpouring of love and condolences would follow.
Fans would gather to pay their respects. Some would talk about how one of the nine singlehandedly inspired their love for the game. No matter what jersey they sported during the season, they would discuss his greatest plays, as they found solidarity in their shared admiration for an athlete beloved; an athlete who inspired and achieved greatness during an impressive career spanning two decades, though his life was cut short in a little over four. He was a man, a father, and a husband who had achieved the status of a basketball legend and would be forever remembered that way.
Three of the nine would arrive before Saint Peter as children; girls who had barely entered their teenage years. Though the glory of the afterlife would overtake them once they arrived, Saint Peter knew that people on Earth would mourn the years of their lives that these three girls were made to forfeit, missed milestones and rites of passage they would have no earthly right to experience. As the people who knew and loved the three girls would be sent into grief-stricken shock upon hearing the news, parents would hug their children a little tighter that night, as humanity was reminded that even if you have it all, the time for which you have it is never guaranteed.
The New Nine would pass through the pearly gates together. In time, some left behind would find solace in that.
“The basketball court is ready. They’ll want to play,” Saint Peter said to the crowds of souls who had gathered. He looked at a bright light shining in the distance. “That’s them. Our new stars have arrived,” he announced confidently to the onlookers, who were eager to welcome the New Nine.
May the light the departed brought to the world continue to shine through the love and cherished memories of those they touched.
Rest in peace, Kobe Bryant, Gianna Bryant, John Altobelli, Keri Altobelli, Alyssa Altobelli, Sarah Chester, Payton Chester, Christina Mauser, and Ara Zobayan.
Note from the author:
If loved ones of any of the people who perished on January 26, 2020, read this post, I am so sorry for your loss. Please accept the condolences of your friends north of the border.
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?
We’ve all heard the stories: a woman unexpectedly finds a priceless work of art in a second-hand store, a family had no idea their grandmother’s furniture was worth a fortune, and he was down to his last $10 when he sold a garage sale knick-knack for untold millions, etc.
You’d think it was the financial windfall that inspired me, but it wasn’t.
I asked myself: If a masterpiece painted centuries ago was aware, what would it think of life? What would it want us to know?
I hope that you enjoy reading Musings of a Masterpiece. It is one of my favourite works. (And if you happen to know Thomas Adamson, kindly send him this link.)
It’s A Go!
Amber Green
**Please note: Depending on the device, the book cover may be best viewed in landscape orientation.**
