So begins the opening premise of longtime XBIZ contributor James Edwards' time-travel romance novel "Romeo and Juliet: A Modern Day Sequel." One day, Romeo logs into an Internet chatroom and meets a beautiful young actress by the name of Emma Gallant, who we find out later is Juliet Capulet reincarnated.
As Edwards spins the hot cyber-romance around Shakespeare's famous soulmates, he draws on themes from Zen Buddhism, Hollywood narcissism and new-age philosophy.
Explaining why he decided to cast Romeo and Juliet in a kinky cybersex scene, Edwards said, "I wanted to place significant social barriers between them, as it was in Verona, Italy. This is essential to present the Buddhist concept of sameness, which states that an individual will go through many lifetimes meeting the same people while working out the same karma."
The villain of the novel is none other than Shakespeare's character, Cousin Tybalt, who is reborn as Johnny Perfection — Hollywood actor, cad and general nemesis of Romeo. Perfection enlists the help of a dubious hacker named Fat Sam, who destroys Romeo and Juliet's Internet accounts, thus separating them again.
As the story climaxes, Romeo is comically portrayed as both a Hollywood stalker and the legendary romantic simply seeking his wife from Verona, Italy.
"Romeo and Juliet: A Modern Day Sequel" is available through Romeo Publishing Company at at RomeoPublishing.com and other large booksellers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble.