{"id":5351,"date":"2013-07-25T13:02:07","date_gmt":"2013-07-25T19:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/mojo\/?p=5351"},"modified":"2025-08-24T11:31:05","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T16:31:05","slug":"heroine-decapitates-someone-in-the-first-scene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/blog\/heroine-decapitates-someone-in-the-first-scene\/","title":{"rendered":"“Heroine decapitates someone in the first scene”"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am proud to announce my first 1-star review for Dunham<\/em>, which you can find here<\/a>. But I will quote it in its entirety for your convenience.<\/p>\n

This book contains some shocking and gory scenes of violence that, for me, were difficult to get past. It seems more like historical fiction masquerading as romance<\/strong>, which isn\u2019t my preference as a reader. I found little to recommend the heroine (she decapitates someone in the first scene)<\/strong>, and the hero\u2019s introspection was clouded by odd lines that were stream of consciousness? Bad poetry? I\u2019m not sure what it was, other than that I didn\u2019t like it. I\u2019m surprised that kind of thing got past an editor, as it should have been punctuated or scrapped entirely. In all, I just didn\u2019t like the book–it seemed a little too in love with itself and was weighed down by too much needless dialogue that I couldn\u2019t be bothered to wade through. This one was a DNF for me, unfortunately.<\/p>\n

(bold is mine)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

\"A<\/div>\n

I am absolutely and utterly delighted and thrilled with this review. Why? I will tell you.<\/p>\n

I wrote the first scene, where Celia mutinies her captain by beheading him on the first page, almost 20 years ago. It was not then, nor was it for many years afterward, warmly received by any critique group and\/or would-be beta readers (except one total stranger who loved it). It was, apparently, \u201cnot heroine-like. Your hero could do it, though.\u201d (That\u2019s a quote.) (By a male.) In fact, it was insulted, reviled, and generally all-around \u201cWTF do you think you\u2019re doing? WOMEN DON\u2019T DO THAT!\u201d<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s why I kept it. Through all the naysayers and insults, I knew what I wanted to do and I never wavered. I meant to write a female pirate and I\u2019d be damned if my female pirate didn\u2019t act like an actual pirate.<\/p>\n

Even when that wasn\u2019t fashionable.<\/p>\n

Regardless, that scene (as does every opening scene in every one of my books) serves as a litmus test for me and the reader. It tells the reader, \u201cIf you can\u2019t make it through the first few pages, you really aren\u2019t going to like this book, so don\u2019t waste your time.\u201d It\u2019s a public service, really.<\/p>\n

But if you can<\/em><\/strong> carry on in spite of its opening, you\u2019re in for a real treat.<\/p>\n

As for this: \u201cIt seems more like historical fiction masquerading as romance<\/em>,\u201d well, that\u2019s probably true, too, although I never really looked at it that way because I consider myself a romance writer.<\/p>\n

But you know what? What this tells me is that it will appeal to many people, not just romance readers who like strong females and want something different. Because I\u2019ve been vindicated. There are plenty<\/em> of people who like Celia because<\/em> she decapitates someone in the first scene.<\/p>\n

I like a good beheading in the morning.<\/p>\n

PS Please please please go upvote her review<\/a> because that\u2019ll help me sell more books. CONTROVERSY!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am proud to announce my first 1-star review for Dunham, which you can find here. But I will quote it in its entirety for your convenience. This book contains some shocking and gory scenes of violence that, for me, were difficult to get past. It seems more like historical fiction masquerading as romance, which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5354,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[526],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews-mojo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5351"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5351"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18511,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5351\/revisions\/18511"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}