There was once an episode of Friends when Ross (I think) both bought an apothecary’s cabinet, or some such, from Pottery Barn, and then pretended that he’d picked it up in an auction somewhere.  He was too ashamed to admit where he’d really bought it from (he was, of course, found out, because someone else had bought the same thing.)  Well, I’m not ashamed.  I was in Kansas City a few weeks ago and fell in love with a desk in the Pottery Barn shop there.  Since I’ve recently moved into new digs I was able to justify buying the thing – and it was delivered yesterday.  Here it is, in situ:

I like it hugely.  It’s the perfect height, and you can see there’s lots of room to spread out when the need arises.  Yes, it has the Pottery Barn trademark faux aging, but that doesn’t bother me.  I have enough genuine antiques/old crap from London to know that authenticity can be over-rated.

My first job sitting at my new post has been to approve the third set of proofreader corrections to the text of A GOOD AMERICAN.  I am in complete awe of the people who do this job.  They are ruthless in their pursuit of dangling modifiers, relentless in their fact-checking, encyclopaedic in their knowledge of arcane grammatical rules and White and Strunk.  I suspect it must take a particular type of person to do that job.  As I type, the thought occurs to me that it wouldn’t be a bad profession for a character in a future book…

In other news, this afternoon I am having my author photo taken by my friend Carole Patterson.  Carole is a fabulous photographer, and has a lot of experience snapping writers.  She insisted on reading the book before scheduling the session, which I liked.  I am looking forward to seeing the results – I think.  If anyone can make me look like a proper writer, it’s her.  Watch this space.