Titled, A Luscious Illumination my historical novel is set in 19th century Paris and is about a woman, Berthe Morisot who is an actual person and one of the four founders of the Impressionist art movement.

She is stunningly beautiful and comes from a wealthy grande bourgeoisie family who overcomes the severe limitations put on women of her class to mold herself into a painter of soaring talent. She uses the healing power of the sun to battle debilitating bouts of depression and to capture in paint some of the most shimmering visions of light created by the Impressionists.

The great masters Renoir, Degas, Monet, Pissarro were her good friends and learned to view her as an esteemed equal. She was also linked closely with Edouard Manet and married his brother, Eugene. She managed to blend a professional art career with marriage and motherhood, a feat unheard of in her class and era, so is an archetype for today's women.

The novel was named as a semi-finalist in the William Faulkner-William Wisdom Writing Competition for 2010 in the novels-in-progress category.