I have been bad.

Yes, it’s true, for one reason or another (possibly and another), I haven’t done any ‘proper’ writing for weeks. Okay, I do have some excuses:

• The entire family was horribly sick with various colds for at least the last 6 weeks
• Mr D has been on his Easter holidays
• We had extended family visiting
• W’ve been sorting out our disaster of a house so that Steph’s parents could visit
• And I’ve had a freelance project with a tight deadline.

So, yes, I’ve been copping out on the personal writing thing. And, once you do miss a few weeks, it can be hard to force yourself back into the right headspace.

Anyway, the point is that the only way I’m going to force myself back into doing this is by blogging myself into accountability.

So, that’s what I’m going to do. Every day I’m going to blog about what I’m going to do. Then I’ll have to do it, right?

Today’s work is notebook work: going through the outlines of ideas I’ve got jotted down and choosing something to develop further.

And, to stop this blog being utterly boring, here’s today’s random interesting links:

Neanderthals were not less intelligent than modern humans, scientists find – From The Guardian

Prehistoric North Sea ‘Atlantis’ hit by 5m tsunami – From BBC News (This is talking about ‘Doggerland’, where the North Sea now is).

If you’re interested in Doggerland, by the way, Stephen Baxter’s Northland novels are a fantastic alternate-history exploration of the era

And finally, listen to a free podcast of Stephanie Burgis’s awesome short story, Foxwoman, over at Toasted Cake podcast.

The header image on this post is Susan Lueck, and is used under a Creative Commons 2.0 License.

So, last weekend was St. David’s Day over here in Wales. I’m not quite sure what St. David did to deserve a day, but he got one, and so did we (actually, we got three; see later). Anyway, because St. David is the patron saint of Wales, that meant that all the national historical monuments were free, so we took a trip up to Raglan Castle.

My brother was visiting, along with two of Mr. D and Baby X’s cousins, so, along with my mum, we made a big family trip of it. Mr. D ran into a bunch of his friends there, and spent most of the time tearing around the castle, being a dinosaur.

Astonishingly, nobody fell into a moat or off a tower or into a dungeon, but they did get impressively muddy, which kind of made me feel jealous. :)

This was Baby X’s first ever castle, and I’m not sure he noticed much of it, but it’s a tradition, because Castle Raglan was Mr. D’s first castle too.

I love castles. Seriously. They are one of the best things about the U.K., and Wales in particular. They’re everywhere, and they’re magnificent. I want a castle. Really, any castle. My mum almost bought a house with a bit of castle wall in it, but then she didn’t. Supposedly, she would have had to maintain it, and it was crumbling. Bah, I say.

So, as I said, we’ve had three St. David’s Days this year (so far). There was the real one at the weekend, then Mr D.’s school is having an Eisteddfod for St. David’s day, and it overran to a second day. And then to add to the fun today we’re having World Book Day, and the kids have to dress up as a character from a book. Mr. D dressed up as a pirate from Jonny Duddle’s The Pirates Next Door. Mr. D has now dressed up three days in a row. (For St. David’s day, they dress up in Welsh national costume, which basically means a Welsh rugby shirt. I mean, it’s either that or dress up as a leek, right?)

I’m sure school wasn’t this fun when I was a kid.

The Promised Links

Tiffany Trent with an inspiring blog entry – When Publishing or Life Has You Down on the Mat, Answer the Bell

If you’ve got a five-year-old in need of entertainment (and the neighbours are out…) – Bouncy Balls

I’m sure they’re relieved… – Neanderthals cleared of driving mammoths over cliff in mass slaughter

It’s about dinosaurs. It’s cool. – Newly identified dinosaur fauna sheds light on evolution