Photo by Erin Nelson
Anne Glass with her new book Back to One at her home on Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2021. Photo by Erin Nelson.
A popular trend last year, due to the pandemic, was to start a project, or in Anne Glass’ case, pick up an old one.
Glass, a Dunnavant Valley resident, pulled out the novel she wrote in 1994, made some updates and changed the music on the playlist that accompanies the book. She also found a major publisher after two decades.
“Writing and the arts have been my passion since I was a child,” Glass said. “Having ‘Back to One’ published is a dream come true, and the irony is that the 2020 summer of COVID is what brought the opportunity to me.
“I was pretty much alone, and instead of sitting and watching TV, I found myself wanting to be creative. Part of it, I think, was my own loneliness and coping with raising a 2-year-old [her son], who inspired one of the characters in the book.”
Glass said her son, William, came home to visit during the pandemic last summer. He asked her what she ever did with the book she had written all those years ago and if she had thought about bringing it up to date. She had thought about it but hadn’t made the time to, so she decided to take his advice.
“I brought it up to the present day, and halfway through the editing process, a second book was born, so I had to back it up for that to be created.”
It was what Glass describes as “a very serendipitous event” that occurred after William flew back to New York last October. She ran into an acquaintance and mentioned the book to him. He responded that he had some connections in the publishing industry and asked if Glass would like him to present it to them.
“Within a couple of weeks, I had a contract on this book [with Hidden Shelf Publishing],” she said. “The first thing my publishers asked was if I had considered writing a second book, that this could be a series.”
While the first book took a while to complete as she was working full-time and raising her son, the second only took Glass six weeks to write. The third one was more difficult because some of the writing fell during tax season and she didn’t have as much time to devote to it because she is an enrolled agent. Book four only took her six days. She is currently working on companion books for book two and three, while book four stands alone.
Glass, who writes under the pen name Antonia Gavrihel, describes “Back to One” as a remarkable story of a deep and abiding friendship. The two main characters have a friendship based on trust and respect and love. Glass said although it is a love story, it’s not a romance novel. The book is based on the movie industry, and music plays a huge part in it.
“The whole thing is that friendship makes them better people,” she said.” They come from two totally different worlds — she lives in Alabama, and he lives in Hollywood. When I wrote it in 1994, my main characters would have been a different age, so I brought it to 2005 and had to change all my music to make it still relevant and more modern.”
Glass will spend time this summer promoting “Back at One” before it’s released Nov. 2. The next several books in the series are set to be released in October 2022, 2023 and 2024. She will also be recording the audio version of the book herself.
About Anne
Both of Glass’ parents were entertainers: Her mother was a big band singer, and her father was a comedian and actor. Glass left her home in Phoenix when she was 18 and moved to Los Angeles, where she stayed for six years and worked in industrial film.
She said LA was a lonely place, so she decided to move back to Phoenix to start her own acting studio. She got married and moved to Alabama in 1985. Even though the relationship ended, Glass has been here since.
Besides writing, she also has a passion for animals and the arts. She moved from Montgomery to Shelby County in 1996 to work at The Greater Birmingham Humane Society, beginning as a volunteer coordinator and eventually becoming the interim executive director. She also served as the executive director of Summerfest Musical Theater (now Red Mountain Theater).
She decided “a little later in life” to attend law school. It was 2008 when she began taking classes at Birmingham School of Law. In 2011, she graduated with a Juris Doctorate and has worked as a law professor there since 2012, teaching tax law for attorneys and study skills. She is also a master tax advisor and is an enrolled agent at H&R Block in Inverness.
After waiting over two decades to finally have her book published, Glass said it was worth the wait.
“This is the luckiest break I’ve ever had,” she said. “If this happened to me 24 years ago, I don’t think I would be this happy or appreciative. I’ve never been this happy in my life and I think that’s why I'm writing so much. I'm in a good place.”
