"Joyful Christian Apoptosis" is a 1,000-word article about my painful start in medical wolrd and how, like an unborn child, God killed part of me to make me a useful vessel for him. This is not a negative article. Far from it. God sometimes allows difficult things to happen in our lives to make us more flexible in our ability to serve Him. Rather than asking God, "Why me?", we can ask, "What for?" and say, "Thank you for carrying me through." Because of my difficult start, I became a stay-at-home mother of four, a professional writer, and a college professor of nursing students (all at same time). I thank God for difficulties in my life that have brought me to a place where I am learning to serve Him more each day.

The third paragraph of my query tells editor why I'm one to write article. It lists related magazines I've been published in and any important personal training or experiences that make me an expert on topic. When I first started writing, I didn't have anything to list here, so I skipped this paragraph. If you can't make it look good, wow editor with your first two paragraphs and you'll still get a "yes" response.

I have published articles in On Mission, Men of Integrity, Spirit Led Writer, Physician Assistant Journal, Advance for Physician Assistants, and many more.

I always add a "thank you for considering this article" comment just before closing query. It shows respect for editor's time. Too many writers don't act professionally, so when you do, you'll get a second look.

Thank you for considering "Joyful Christian Apoptosis".

Editors don't always buy resulting articles, but they almost always ask to see them after reading my query letters. Follow these tips, and you'll find same is true for you.

Good luck! I'll see you in print.

A way to identify a good anecdote is to pay attention to another person's reaction when you are telling them a story. For example, a few months ago I posted a little story on my mom's group list about a very frustrating but humorous moment I had with my toddler. My e-mail inbox filled up quickly with responses from other moms in group who could relate to my saga and enjoyed description of incident. "Aha," I thought, "that writes."

That evening, I sat down at my computer. I copied message I posted, added an introduction, a little more background, a couple more related anecdotes and a conclusion. Then I e-mailed it to editor of an anthology. Less than twenty-four hours later, I received an e-mail response.

At first I was a little worried. I thought a response that speedy could only mean I forgot to attach manuscript. Or maybe she did receive it, and was promptly rejecting it.

I clicked on e-mail and was happy to discover I received an acceptance. It's first and last time I've received such a quick response, but if I hadn't been perceptive about how enjoyable little anecdote was, I would have forgotten incident completely and lost story.

Keeping a personal journal is also a very effective way to capture your anecdotes until you can get back to them. Find a journal that is small enough to carry in your purse or pocket, and take it with you everywhere.

Record every interesting thing you hear, church sermons, funny things people say, lyrics to songs on radio. Pretty soon, it will become second nature, and people will begin to peer at you curiously and say, "um, what are you writing in that little book?" They're worried you're taking notes about them, of course.

Journals are writer's cookbook. We store our delicious morsels of words in them until it's time to write something nourishing. We may have lots of ideas, but if we don't record them, they are soon forgotten. Don't allow your writing to suffer from malnutrition. Take notes about your life!

May God bless you with right anecdote to cure your blank page. And enough journals to keep you well fed. Happy writing.