very interesting

Dear Daniel Borzutzky,


Thank you for coming in and speaking to our class. I really enjoyed it! It was very interesting to be able to ask you so many questions, and I feel like your answers gave me some good advice on how to go about becoming a writer myself. Also, I liked that you asked us questions in return, as this indicates that you were actually interested in discussing with us. That you have spent part of your career translating the stories that your ancestors were exposed to seems like a very profound and interesting thing to do, and after speaking to you I am definitely interested in reading some of your work.
When I write I am most interested in evoking emotion and vividly describing the world that I imagine. My biggest weakness is, however, dialogue. It is very difficult to make people sound real, because in actuality while my characters may be based on real people, such as myself or loved ones, and I know what I make them say is not what they would likely say. I guess my point is, it feels nearly impossible to predict how somebody will react to any given situation, so when you are writing a piece of fiction, how do you personally reach the point of satisfaction in the interactions between your characters?
Also, how hard was it to become published? Did you self-publish your work, or where you published by a company? I have always heard that getting work published is incredibly difficult, and I would love to hear about the experience from an actual author's point of view.
I found the piece that you read in class to be very interesting. It focused on one main point, which was the changing of your city neighborhood from a middle and low class community to slowly changing into a high class neighborhood. As you described the enfranchment of local establishments, I was left with a sense of sorrow. Was this your point, to show the folly of the trend of big business we are currently in, or was it simply a chronological piece to simply tell how it happened?
Again, thank you so much for talking with our class. It was very interesting opportunity and I felt like I learned quite a bit.

Senserely,


Aaron Lankster