Ancient History Meme

OK, a lot of people are doing it, but I picked this up from david_de_beer

Writing Samples: Then and Now.

OK, this is the sample of the oldest thing I have. SIXTH GRADE.

A dark morning again. Maltia looked out of the box in which he lived. The sky was cloudy and overcast, but it was obvious that the sun was up. Once in a while a person would pass by the further end of the alley casting a long, rather faint shadow. All of them are noisy and clumsy, he thought, and I'm glad I'm not like them. A dog ran by, barking, and several cars drove past. Suddenly, the dog reappeared at the end of the alley.
(All right, people, I was in sixth grade when I wrote it....be nice. I've never found that story that I wrote in the second grade, but I've looked for it many times...)

FIRST PUBLISHED STORY:
"The Stains of the Past" in The Sword Review
I believe in redemption. Every week when I go to confession, the priest tells me my sins are forgiven. I am a new person now, he has explained, and my penitence has created in me a clean heart. Unfortunately, my sins haven’t been forgotten. My past will always be with me, at least as far as Kiya is concerned.

CURRENT WIP: The Devil in the Details
Kirien Sevireiya stared at the metal table, one finger pressed hard under her nose. The cool classroom reeked of formaldehyde and other smells she didn't feel like trying to identify. "Key, how can you bear the stench?"

(Kind of hard to know which is the current WIP, since I'm working on several things concurrently--3 shorts and a novel. This is the novel.)

Snakes, again....

displaced_texan doesn't really believe that there are snakes at the park. I saw another one today, just lying in middle of the jogging path. This is the seventh one I've seen there. So, I waited around for it to get off the path. (I think this was a Rough Earth Snake, like the ones we have at the house).

I've decided that the snakes only show themselves to me.

A totally unrelated tid-bit: Amazon is doing something interesting. They are giving a $10 gift certificate to people who turn in $30 of coins at a Coinstar booth by 11/4. So basically, by getting $30 of coins, running it through the machine, and having it given back to me as an Amazon GC, I am eligible for an additional $10 GC from Amazon through the mail. Now, as I see it, that's 25% off. After all, I will spend the GC at Amazon. If there's a downside to this, I can't figure out what it is. There's no charge for cashing in the coins, so....

Here's the Coinstar website: Coinstar