Wow, it's been ages since I was here last. A million things have happened, yet at the same time, nothing much has happened. 

I am creeping closer to the end of my Masters, I have been working more than I'd like to, I have become a full-on gymnastics mum, with two of my kids doing gymnastics competitions all over Brisbane (or at least it seems like that), sometimes at stupid o'clock, and unfortunately, most of everything else has suffered, including my poetry.

But that's starting to turn around, as the work, and study, have slowed down. Phew.

To prove that writing didn't stop completely for all these months, I have a story in the current issue of Tincture (Issue 6), which you can purchase, and download straight away, over here, for only $8. It doesn't get much better than that, and there's heaps of great reads in there, not just my story.

Also, the Genealogical Society of Queensland, has started its own blog and, along with a handful of other members, I will be posting regularly (monthly). My first post just went up, and you can check it out here. It'll show you how easy it can be to create a visual poem, though there are, of course, other ways to do that too. Here's one I made.

2013 turned out to be a doozy of a year and at some point I think I sat around waiting for 2014 to show up. Now that it's here, I'm not quite sure I'm ready, but that may the chaos of school holidays speaking.

Speaking of chaos, in just 11 days I'm heading off for Unlock the Past's 4th Genealogy Cruise, and I am nervous/excited. I say chaos because I have done almost nothing yet to prepare. Eeeeek.

I have had a sneak around at some of the blogs with handy tips on preparing, so I know to take a water bottle, teabags, and warm clothes for when in the conference centre. And a US adaptor to charge my phone. I have at least started making a list. I'm not sure whether I'll need to be organised in case of sea-sickness, though it is a huge ship, so I suspect I'll be okay.

And I still have some work to do to have my own presentation ready. My presentation 'Writing poetry: different ways to present your family history' is on the first full day of the conference, which is great. It means I'll be able to relax afterwards and, as I'm travelling on my own, it's a great opportunity to meet others early on. I'm so looking forward to that, especially the bit about being able to talk about family history related stuff for days on end! I may even set myself the goal of writing a new poem every day.

But really, I think I'll know more next week, when I actively try to organise myself. When the children are all back to school. Then I can start immersing myself into 2014. I hope the new year has been good for you.

I am very excited that Going Down Swinging have published 'Irish Orphan Immigration' in The Blue Corner. This is a piece that is close to my heart as well as being different to my usual style. One of my ancestors, Honora Bentley (photo kindly supplied by Beth Chamberlain) was an Irish Orphan who emigrated to Australia in 1849. She is one of my most fascinating ancestors and her story, or what I have so far discovered of it, has captivated me. Of course, I have to write about her.

But the Orphan story isn't necessarily easy to write. Especially the bit about their reception in Australian ports. I wanted to use the words of the colonists at the time and what better way than to use original text and 'erase'. So, follow the link to the Blue Corner and see what it is/was all about. There's an audio file to go with, which includes the voices of Eleanor Jackson and Andrew Phillips as well as my own.

While we're talking about family history, I have so far neglected to mention that I will be going on a cruise next year: the 4th Unlock the Past history and genealogy cruise. As well as all the obviously exciting things a genealogy cruise has to offer, I will be giving a presentation about 'Writing Poetry: different ways to present your family history'. Earlier this week I got to speak to Unlock the Past. here's what I had to say.

And (it's a huge week for news), speaking of interviews, my third and final interview for the 2013 Queensland Poetry Festival: spoken in one strange word, with New Zealand based poet Siobhan Harvey, is available here. 

That ought to keep you busy a while.

While we're on the topic of the Queensland Poetry Festival, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to speak to a few of the poets who will appear this year. First up, I spoke with Felicity Plunkett and then Aden Rolfe. Find out what they had to say.

In other news, I was very excited last week to finally discover the maiden name of one of my 4x great grandmothers from Bideford, Devon: Grace Moore. I celebrated, as I usually do, with a good dose of chocolate and an hour or so at FamilySearch to see what else I could find. In some ways, it's odd that it took so long to discover her name, as it wasn't very difficult. It just took a little sideways thinking, like ordering the birth certificate of her youngest child. Her eldest is my direct ancestor, but he was born before registration was mandatory. Now the problem is: which ancestor to attack next!