(What is this? A combination of two Friday memes: the literate kitten’s invitation to ‘fess up to our crimes and misdemeanors against our writing efforts and a “friday five,” in which we list five random things about our week…)

1. ‘Fessing up: I’ve got my 25 pages. Character arcs are circling around from the beginning of the novel, which is great. It’s happening naturally, with no undue pressure from me. Also, this morning, I choked myself up! This doesn’t happen often, but when it does, I feel excited and foolish at the same time. My stoic character is falling in love! (Though he doesn’t realize it in so many words, and I’m not going to delve into it deeply because it wasn’t the purpose of scene, but its subtext.)

2. Case in point for writing what we’d like to read: On July 8th, Joelle commented: Write what you want to read. Her comment spurred a memory:

Awhile back Deanna Raybourn toured with her debut novel. She’d spent years writing romances of the Harlequin variety that, one after another, went unsold. Her agent finally told her to take a break, read for a year. At the end of that year, Raybourn realized that she most enjoyed reading historicals, more mysterious than romantic. Low and behold, she wrote in that vein, and the novel sold! (And now there’s movie talk, too.)

3. This morning I received an email from a writer friend here in Portland. She’s a literary novelist who’s trucking along on the same bumpy road toward publication as I am. She’s read my stuff, so her support is a true feel-good balm. Here’s an excerpt; she’s the best.

As for your writing, you know you can write, you know your stuff is worth publishing. I think this phase is just another jump through fire to see if you’re sincere, if you have the grit to be a writer, and deserve being published as much as your writing does. So there.

4. Why do I keep buying nonfiction? This week I bought The Island of Lost Maps, A True Story of Cartographic Crime. Here’s approximately what went through my head: Cool, maps; man, I’ve loved maps since I was a girl trying to memorize the world capitols; how nerdy was I?; and very cool, a mystery too; maybe there’s fodder here; maybe I can write a novel that somehow includes maps; maybe antique maps; maybe rare, antique maps; maybe I ought to buy this book.

Hope I read it soon. That’s the plan anyhow.

5. Photo of the week: Vancouver, B.C. Just another sunset shot, this one with a tragically declining horizon line. Seems like I have to snap a sunset at each new destination. What is it about a beautiful sunset? I never tire of them; my reaction must be primordial: I’ve survived another day and can now retreat to the safety of my cave.