Blast from the Writing Past

WOW! I'm cleaning out my computer files to separate my newer writings from some that have been on the back burner for quite some time. This is an excerpt from one of my first attempts at historical romance...it's pretty self explanatory why I now write chick lit and paranormal!

This one was called Provocation:

The castle doors swung open as if the mighty hand of God had done so himself. The sheer force of the battering ram easily toppled the five clergy men that held fast against it with their shoulders.

“Run, Lady Malina,” she hears Father Markus yell as the doors give way, knocking them to the floor. His voice wrought with pain, Malina knows she can’t leave him and his brethren. A dusty steed stormed past the battering crew, past the trodden priests and into the grand foyer just below the stairs. Malina was almost to the top of the stairwell when she heard the beast nay, whirled around with fiercely clenched fists and nearly fainted at what—or who—she saw.

Sitting atop the brown warrior horse was the most gorgeous male being she had ever laid eyes upon. His slick black hair hung loosely at the broad ridge of his shoulders; chiseled features encircled the fiercest black eyes the devil himself could claim; and his bare chest heaved against the taught muscles that seemed to grow with every breath. He eyed her with such intensity that Malina almost fell, weak kneed and blushing.

Oh, no, no, no, what was she thinking?! Run, turn around and run, dammit! Her feet and legs betrayed her. She was frozen in place, but not out of fear; it was much deeper, grappling at her insides.

Yeah...it was 2001 when I wrote this according to the date stamp on the file. Again WOW! Luckily my writing has improved a bit since then. I have one completed manuscript, two partials, and a million ideas for more. My first submission is getting positive feedback and I am waiting for that magic phone call to say 'YES'.

There are some fantastic contests coming up (ahem, Launching a STAR!) that I am getting ready to enter, and hoping to get as much writing time in as possible now that school is back in session and my house is back on a routine!

What was some of your first writings like? or if not a writer, some of your other firsts?