Morteza Zahedi

Dear Morteza:
Sorry about that.
The way I write can be hard to understand,
I think...especially late at night. I ordered
"Goodnight, Commander" in the mail, because
the bookstores where I live don't carry it. They
generally don't carry very good picture books,
I think...which is disappointing. But it came
in the mail, and I read it last night...and I
was so impressed! You and Amhad are
a very good match for each other. You
each create work with honesty and real
substance, real meaning. I feel like a lot
of picture books published in the USA don't
bother with that, and concentrate only on what
will sell. It felt so good to read a book that had
an important story to tell, with art that really did
help the reader to feel the story. I'm sure you've
been told this before, but your work has a very
'sophisticated innocence.' It lets any reader,
adult or child, to be the child in the story.
We know that we know more than the
narrator, and that makes it sadder,
and truer. So I suppose I wrote to
thank you and Ahmad for creating
a work of such honesty and intelligence.
I felt richer as a person, having read it...which
is how one feels, I think, after experiencing any
quality artwork. I'm working on creating a
couple of books right now, myself...and
I hope to produce work of the same sort
of quality, having something important
to say, sand saying it well. ...Looking
back at this email, I'm not sure if this
is any clearer. I know I can get a little
tangled in my sentences, and I hope I'm
not too confusing. Let me know, if I am.
I don't mind trying again. Thanks, Matthew.
PS. If there are Latin-based languages that
would be easier, let me know. I'm okay
with Spanish and Italian, but my French
is pretty weak.