this woman’s work

Glass’s cheerfully disordered life in this less-than-700-square-foot space — a closet-size kitchen and two small rooms she shares with photographer Dennis Cowley and their two young sons — is a reproach to all those New Yorkers who fantasize that they, too, could write the Great American Novel if only they had free time, an Aeron chair, and no distractions.

Here at her kitchen table, between editing corporate brochures and writing magazine articles on pets and parenting, Glass, 46, wrote her first novel, Three Junes, a gorgeously crafted saga set in Scotland, Greece, Manhattan, and the Hamptons. She got a five-figure advance from Pantheon, a respectable 26,500 first printing, and glowing reviews upon publication last spring but drew minimal media notice. “I gave a reading at a bookstore in Marin County and two people turned up,” says Glass. “I did separate events with Ann Packer and Richard Russo. I felt like the opening band for a rock star.”