Goodreads asked Harriet Scott Chessman:

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Harriet Scott Chessman I love art, and I enjoyed writing an earlier book about Impressionist art -- Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper. In that novella, Edgar Degas became a character. I actually tried to keep him out! because I felt unsure that I could do justice to him. But he insisted, so there he was. Over the years, I discovered more and more about his American cousins and family in New Orleans, and his visit with them over the course of one long winter. This felt like such intriguing material, so I started to try to find a way in to it. It took me years, on and off, to find my door!

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