I'd say just forget about the symlinks. Instead, create a new directory, which I'll call "/home/user/whatever", and copy the appropriate files into it. Next you would make your image file, which I'll call "my_image.img" by running this command
Code:
mkisofs -r -o my_image.img /home/user/whatever
Burn it to CD by running this command:
Code:
cdrecord -v speed=8 dev=0,0,0 -data my_image.img
Obviously you would want to adjust the speed parameter to fit your hardware. Good luck with it -- J.W.