The Weird and The Wacky Meet

Where YouBetIAm comes to write….

Query Letter Two

Dear Ms Roode,

                 “Hi, Dad.  Can I speak to Jon or Liz?”

                 “No.  I think not.”

                 *click*

                 I hold my cell phone in my hand.  All I see is blinking text on the screen telling me the call has been disconnected.  I drop the phone onto the bed among the opened boxes.  They still have little bits of ripped gold and green and red paper still clinging to the sides, held on by scotch tape, even though the majority of the wrapping paper is crumpled up and in the trash.

                 I would like to propose a personal experience essay for submission to your magazine, Child.  The piece is tentatively titled, “Clones Don’t Like Themselves” and will run about 1250 to 1750 words.  The article will focus on why it’s important for parents to let children be themselves.

                 This will be a creative non-fiction piece.  I will tell the story of how my relationship with my parents disintegrated after they set up unrealistic expectations for all four of their children.  There will be a section on learning to differentiate between depression and discipline problems.  Also, the importance of full medical evaluations for problem children will be key to the narrative.  There will be two underlying themes throughout the piece, the first being that parents shouldn’t blame their children for problems that aren’t their fault, and also that for a child to respect a parent, that parent has to earn the respect of the child.

                 I am very well qualified to write this story because I have lived this situation.  I have three younger siblings and each of us has gone through a serious problem with our parents when learning to live for ourselves and not them.  I believe that this would make a fine article for your magazine, but it would also fit quite well into your column, “What I Wish Every Parent Knew.”

                 For two years, I’ve written for my school paper, Horizons, on a variety of topics, ranging from news and opinion pieces to profiles and reviews.  For the last year, I’ve held a student editor position, and have honed my writing skills.  Sample articles are available upon request.

                 If you would be interested in seeing an article on this topic, let me know and I could provide the finished draft within two weeks of your reply.

 

Sincerely,

Amanda Evans

Copyright 2005

 

*  This query letter is based on The Five Paragraph Query Letter, a style I’ve found most helpful and endearing.

by Amanda Evans

Date: 04/26/05