Hallie's Comet — Denise Dietz

Hallie O'Brien is a successful artist, renowned for her Degas-like paintings of ballerinas. Except for a short stint in Paris, she has never lived anywhere other than New York City, so she is puzzled when she finds herself filling her canvasses with unfamiliar subjects; a comet that hovers above a mining town, a late nineteenth-century bordello, and the bordello inhabitants. She knows that two of the inhabitants are called Lady Scarlet and Knickers, and that the mining town is Cripple Creek, Colorado, but she can't fathom why she has also painted a portrait of her "perfect man," a man who doesn't exist, a man she has dubbed "Gabriel." Hallie hopes a visit to Colorado will solve the mystery, but when she meets Gabe Quinn it deepens instead. Gabe is a successful glamour photographer. As a photojournalist, he traveled all over the world until a serious leg injury cut short his globe-trotting. Bitter from the loss of his chosen profession and the fiancée who couldn't deal with his injury, he is in no mood to serve as host to a "ballerina artist." However, upon meeting Hallie, he feels as if he's met and loved her before -- during another lifetime. Together, Hallie and Gabe explore Cripple Creek. Together, they solve the mystery of Hallie's paintings. And, together, they discover a love that cannot be destroyed by time or space.

Denise Dietz lives in Canada.