It is quite humorous that the “main” character in Calvino’s novel is having a difficult time tracking down all the ends or “connections” to stories that he is reading. He keeps reading stories that just end on him and it is very frustrating for him. This definitely parallels with us as the readers not being able to finish any of the stories that Calvino has written for us to read in this novel. I feel like this was purposely written with this sense of irony because it makes us as the readers really jump into the characters’ shoes — the character being the “I” or the “you” that the novel refers to here and again. I tried to keep this in mind while writing my own Calvino-esque story. I was trying to jump into the story in what would seem to be the middle of it. I felt that it was hard to do this, however; mainly because if you were really to jump into the middle of a novel or movie, you likely wouldn’t be able to get the background information that you missed at the beginning. I found it difficult to not present some background information though in my piece. Also like this novel, I inserted a hybrid of the names given by Calvino by presenting a character named “Cimbrian Marana.” While it was a fun excersize and homework assignment, I did find it sort of difficult because I didn’t want it to sound too off the wall. I think I was afraid of it not sound very legit, so I took it slowly to make sure I cover most questionable issues. Also, I haven’t written a story since probably 4th grade so it was different getting back into that story-telling frame of mind. I enjoyed the challenge though and felt that what I produced was pretty good.