Portrait of Alice B. Toklas

Betrayal is a harsh word, but when my friend Alice B. Toklas disclosed certain long-held confidences to me, she felt she had indeed betrayed her devoted companion of many years, Gertrude Stein and damaged her integrity as a writer.

Betrayal is a harsh word, but when my friend Alice B. Toklas disclosed certain long-held confidences to me, she felt she had indeed betrayed her devoted companion of many years, Gertrude Stein and damaged her integrity as a writer. When in 1960 a young Art History professor, Rose Romaine, arrived in Paris to research the art of Matisse and Picasso, she has a chance meeting with Alice B. Toklas, whom the Parisians call "a treasure of the art and literary world and who knew both artists personally. Miss Toklas' long time companion, Gertrude Stein, died almost 40 years ago and Miss Toklas has since remained in Paris. Though Alice Toklas is 80 year old and in frail health, she welcomes Rose into her home where they spend hours conversing about the Paris of the past. Rose finds Miss Toklas to be lively, articulate, vivacious and a wonderful teller of tales. They form a most singular friendship which leads Alice Toklas to confide in Rose, secrets that suggest Miss Toklas as the probable author of Gertrude Stein's most well- read literary success.

I have a BA in Studio Art and Art History and an MSW degree from Arizona State University. During the years of 1995 and2002 I live and worked in Germany and traveled throughout Europe visiting major art museums . I have visited Paris many times and explored the city extensively. I am an avid reader, painter and photographer. My travels, my painting and my photographs provided the impetus to create a literary backdrop for my novel and to incorporate my passion for Paris its art and literary figures. This is my first novel and I am now working on my second book, Matisse and Picasso Silent Conversations.