Xara :: Creating Glowing Lines Effect

I have looked everywhere at all sorts of photoshop and illustrator tutorials (because I couldn't find a Xara one) to accomplish this effect. I am creating a website for my client Jim and would like to incorporate a similar image to what he's using on his book cover, but with some different colors as the background to his site.

You can see what I'm trying to do in his blog header background here: [URL]......

I've found that this is a stock photo used in a lot of places, but I'm not really interested in getting the original image - I have that, but as a Jpeg on a black background. I'd prefer to learn how to create a similar effect in Xara.

I have tried all sorts of things that are kind of close, but just not there yet. I've tried using a line with pen pressure with a glow shadow. I've tried lines with a stained glass color overlay. I've tried creating a number of different brushes with a few levels of color, some with Gaussian blur applied, etc. but I just can't get this effect down. It always looks pretty good when I'm done, but then I look at the inspirational original and I'm not even in the ballpark for the amount of shine, glow, impact, etc.

In the end, this may not even work for the site since will be putting it on a light colored background, but I still want to know how to create this, as I'm sure I'll be able to use the technique elsewhere.