I always use my diaries for writing samples. So mainly short stories and Prompts. If you aren't familiar with prompts (unlikely, but let me dialogue) they're words or phrases given that you then write something in response to. You can use works-in-progress or you can just write randomly. I do both. Mostly the prompts don't actually end up in my stories, but they help me form the characters and plotlines for them.

And so it begins…
Story: Matchmaker, Matchmaker

Tanisha had always said her hobbies would get her in trouble one day. But Arlyne had tended to ignore her roommates rants. After all, all her complaints never stopped Tanisha from begging her to sew her a new evening gown to wear to dinner with her equally new boyfriend. And Arlyne didn’t care how many times Tanisha called her a geek, or asked when she was going to grow out of her love of fantasy. She knew the other woman meant well. That’s why they were still friends. And it wasn’t as if Arlyne didn’t have an average, boring working class job where she spent 40 hours or more a week with her nose to the grindstone. What she chose to do with her free time was her business.

And if that included dressing in the new fantasy-style gown she’d sewn and spending an entire weekend with fellow fantasy lovers, it never hurt anyone. Even if her latest purchases would probably end up in storage. Because she’d need those statues and pictures to decorate when she finally managed to finance a house. Arlyne loved the con circuit. It was just plain fun. And she tended to stay out of trouble, for the most part. There was that one incident…but that had been years ago.

It had been an average weekend, all and all. Until the night of the dance, when she’d found her grandmother’s pin in her jewelry bag. She hadn’t looked at in years, and it must have been caught with one of the necklaces she’d brought, because she didn’t remember packing it. But it had matched perfectly, and it had brought up many fond memories of the old woman who’d raised her and been the one to inspire her love of fantasy. So, she’d pinned it to the gown and headed out for the evening.

A family heirloom, a hotel elevator, and her friend’s infamous rant in her ears. And so it begins…