You guys have caught me in a fabulous mood. Not sure how many of you know this, but Miss Simona has been writing for quite a while. I published my first romance novel, Night Heat, in 1999! Yup, while the world was cringing on the threshold of Y2K and hoping for the best, I was skipping and dancing around like a happy little cricket. I was a real writer at last!
Fast forward to 2023, and after negotiations with my publisher, I got back the rights to ten of my earlier novels. This means they’re mine, all mine, and I’m busy working on revising and updating them, to release them back into a modern world.
Why do you update a romance novel? It’s hilarious when you think about it, but sometimes you have to drag your characters out of the Dark Ages, because:
- They need smartphones. Looking up numbers in a phonebook? Really?
- Sometimes they use expressions or slang that even my grandmother knows are out of date. Nobody leaves their “pad” to go “cruisin’ for a bruisin’”, looking to give some “goober” a “knuckle sandwich” and hopes the “fuzz” isn’t nearby. I mean, get with it, people!
- Your writing style changes. I have to admit younger me tended to be a bit purple with her prose, but more experienced me knows that a single, well-chosen word is way more effective than a noun preceded by five flamboyant adjectives. Why did nobody tell me this before?
- Places and customs cease to exist. Are your characters heading off to Blockbuster to rent a video, rather than chilln’ in front of Netflix? Bwa-ha-ha. Get real.
So I’ve spent the last couple of months slashing and burning, primping and polishing, and Wonderful and Wild is live on Amazon. You, my lovely visitor, are invited to download and read the first three chapters here. I hope you like it.
You can also buy your own copy or read on Kindle Unlimited. Click here and read away!
Let me know what you think.