Avalanches for Dummies is an article about Homer, a certified crash test dummy who has been utilized in engineering tests to determine what exactly happens to a human body inside an avalanche.

Author Andrea Clark remembers pitching the idea to High Country News after taking Jay Cooke's Travel Writing Boot Camp.

"After I took Travel Writing Boot Camp, I understood that an emailed rejection is a type of acceptance, so I would write editors back until I came up with an idea they liked."

Andrea has forged a relationship with High Country News through various assignments such as "Avalanche for Dummies" and would like to keep pursuing freelance work with other magazines.

"I became a lot more confident of a freelancer after I took the mediabistro course and began querying magazines about freelance ideas," says Andrea. "I also came to understand the idea of slanting a story. A general idea is usually not specific enough. Pitching the story is half the battle."

--William Battaglia

RELATED: Travel Writing Courses at mediabistro.com