>More seriously, so far as I found with magazines, and I don't see any reason why MSDN would be different, editors are _starved_ for good, dependable authors with something substantive to say. So, if you have an idea of a topic you care enough about to write about, send it to Mike Stewart (ducks). Send a few ideas. It doesn't have to be a final-form submission.

I can't speak for the other publications, but for the years I edited FPA, I preferred article proposals (a few paragraphs, maybe including an outline) to complete, unsolicited articles. That way, I could go back and forth with the author over the idea without there being a finished (or near-finished) product. The proposal also gave me an idea as to whether the person could organize ideas, and whether s/he could put sentences together to form paragraphs.

Tamar