The PINK SOFA welcomes Val Poore

Barge dweller, author, blogger, supporter of other writers, kindness personified, caring and all-round totally nice person ... yes, I could only be talking about one special individual: Val Poore. Val lives on a boat on the Rotterdam canal and if you want to sample life afloat without actually being afloat, visit her blog and check out the pictures. The PINK SOFA is overjoyed that she has decided to place her feet upon terra firma for a while, as it is not keen on getting its upholstery wet. To celebrate her visit, there is strawberry cheesecake and freshly brewed dutch coffee on the coffee table. Val .... over to you!

''Yay! I've made it to the PINK SOFA! I must be doing something right. Thank you so much for inviting me, Carol. I must say it feels a lot more stable up here in Hedges Towers than it does on the barge. Ooh - and that strawberry cheesecake looks heavenly. How did you know it's my absolute favourite?

Anyway, to earn my slice, you want me to talk about my book background. Hmm..where to start? Like most of us who end up writing, I was an avid reader as a child. I was the youngest of four and with the older three away at school, I was a bit lonely, so books were my escape and companions. I loved nothing better than lying on my bed with our old cat Tiger for company and reading.

 I read everything on my parents' bookshelves - they never limited my reading, so I had everything from Elizabeth Goudge's Little White Horse and E. Nesbitt's The Railway Children to Dornford Yates' 1920's comedies and the historical novels of Georgette Heyer. Later I got interested in archaeology, so I read books about Roman history. I was a dreadful nerd. Well, we had no TV and my dad (bless him) only played the Third Programme on the radio, so what do you expect?

How did I end up on a barge in Holland? I got there by the scenic route! I lived for twenty years in South Africa before I found my way to Rotterdam, (f anyone's interested, I have written a book about it). I loved it there and would never have left had it not been for my now less than 'significant other' who seemed to be quite significant at the time. The whole barge thing got me hooked very quickly though. We didn't have much water to speak of in Africa (read my book; you know you want to) so I was amazed when I saw all these floating homes. It's a lot of work though, so writing has to take second place to painting. You have to be totally in love with paint to have an old barge like mine. Oh - I also managed to fall in love with a Dutch skipper too.

As I lost my job - I used to write copy and communications stuff for a company in Johannesburg, I had to get my writing fix by writing books. Writing is an addiction, and I've been hooked on it all my life, so it's impossible to break. The African memoir came first, then Watery Ways describing my first year on a barge. After that, a sort of YA novel about the waterways  - I call it kidult, called The Skipper's Child and now my latest offering .... drum roll....... 

How to Breed Sheep, Geese and English Eccentrics. It's a novel about a girl trying to do the self-sufficiency thing in the wilds of rural Dorset. It's got a very special and eccentric cast of characters that includes the girl's mother who drifts around in an old wedding dress half the time. There's lots about a flock of wilful sheep and some lunatic geese as well, but it's all good fun, especially when Maisie (the main character) has to cart her sheep around in the back of a VW Beetle. The background story is of course rooted in fact - somewhere. I've self-published this one through Lulu.com and Amazon Kindle simply because I wanted to. I've had two books published by Sunpenny Publishing, but I really liked the whole process of doing it myself this time.

Anyway, I think I'd better shut up now, or you'll be throwing me off the turrets here at Hedges Towers. Thanks a million for having me, Carol. Can I have my strawberry cheesecake now? I promise I won't spill any on the sofa ... oops ..what did I go and say that for?''

Before you send me off to get the cloth, here's the links to my writing and blogs etc:

Amazon Page: http://tinyurl.com/m9zcth5
Lulu.com: http://tinyurl.com/k4bltn4
Blog: www.wateryways.blogspot.com
Twitter: @vallypee

Val,thank you so much for visiting. The PINK SOFA is now humming: 'The Padstow Lifeboat' and contemplating the slap of the waves and the feel of the wind in its cushions. So while I nail its legs to the floor to stop it escaping yet again, and you enjoy a well-deserved chunk of cheesecake, I'll open things up to everyone. Questions? Comments? Go for it................