Sierra Simone Takes Queer Romance Into the Fast-Growing World of Vertical Dramas

Sierra Simone built her readership writing the kind of romance Hollywood has often struggled to adapt: explicit, queer and unapologetically unconventional.

Now, one of her best-known series is entering a format built almost entirely around fast-moving romance.

ReelShort has adapted Simone’s Lyonesse Trilogy, a contemporary, queer retelling of Tristan and Isolde centred on the relationship between Isolde, Tristan and Mark. The three-part adaptation — Salt Kiss, Honey Cut and Bitter Burn — is now available on the platform.

For Simone, the project represents something she had not expected from the traditional entertainment industry: a production company willing to embrace the story without stripping away the elements that made it distinctive.

ReelShort Was Willing to Keep the Story Intact

Simone said previous conversations about adapting her books had raised concerns about their sexual and queer themes. With ReelShort, she found a different response.

The author was particularly interested in keeping the relationship's MMF dynamic intact rather than reducing it to a more conventional romance.

She also wanted queer voices involved behind the camera and actors capable of handling the emotional complexity of the characters.

That became part of the appeal of taking the project to ReelShort, whose short-form dramas are designed primarily for phone screens.

A Different Kind of Production

Vertical dramas usually break a story into dozens of short episodes, often running for only a few minutes or less.

That format demands a different rhythm from conventional television. Characters have to establish conflict, attraction and emotional stakes quickly because viewers can move from one episode to the next with a swipe.

The Lyonesse adaptation also received more production time than many vertical dramas. The trilogy was filmed across 26 days, giving Katelyn Rose, Jake Lively and Nico Tortorella more time to develop their characters and relationships.

Rose plays Isolde, while Lively portrays Tristan and Tortorella plays Mark.

For Tortorella, who had previously worked mainly in traditional film and television, the vertical format offered another route back into regular acting work after the disruptions caused by the pandemic and the 2023 Hollywood strikes.

Why Authors Are Looking at Verticals

The rise of vertical dramas is changing more than the way audiences watch romance.

The format has created another route for book adaptations, particularly in genres that have sometimes struggled to receive major Hollywood investment.

Romance is an obvious fit. These stories already depend heavily on emotional hooks, relationship tension and the promise of a satisfying ending — elements that can be broken into short episodes designed to keep viewers watching.

Simone sees parallels with the rise of independent romance publishing, when digital platforms gave authors more freedom to experiment outside traditional publishing structures.

The difference now is that the same kind of disruption is happening on screen.

Vertical-drama platforms that began as a niche form of mobile entertainment have expanded rapidly, attracting actors, writers, directors and production crews who might otherwise struggle to find work in a tightening traditional entertainment industry.

A New Lane for Entertainment

The Lyonesse Trilogy is therefore more than another book-to-screen adaptation.

It is also part of a broader shift in how stories are financed, produced and consumed.

For Simone, the attraction is the freedom to bring an unconventional romance to an audience without reshaping it into something more familiar. For actors such as Rose, Lively and Tortorella, the format provides another place to build careers.

And for the vertical-drama industry, adaptations like Lyonesse show how much further the format can move beyond quick, disposable phone entertainment.

The trilogy is now streaming in full on ReelShort.