Bev. Cooke is a young adult writer who lives in Victoria, BC, Canada. Royal Monastic is Bev's third book. Bev reports that getting to "know" Mother Alexandra was a true privilege, and she was awed by Mother's faith, courage, and good humor. To have lived such a life and grown in faith is a lesson Bev hopes she's learned, both from Mother and from the nuns in Holy Transfiguration Monastery. The peace that passes all understanding is a ­little more comprehensible, since it's in evidence at the monastery, and the faith and serenity Mother Alexandra experienced live on in the lives and ministry of the nuns. Bev has also written Keeper of the Light, a novel about St. Macrina the Elder, and Feral, a secular novel about a street kid and a small cat who experience fear, hunger, and pain in a dangerous subterranean world. Bev maintains a blog, "Bevnal Abbey Scriptorium," at Blogger, and her website, ­bevcooke.ca, is almost updated. Her inability to keep quiet when she has an opinion (and she has lots of opinions) keeps getting her into trouble. Since her debating skills are minimal at best, this leads to a lot of frustration. If she's losing badly enough, her face gets red, her eyes bug out, and steam leaks out her ears. When this happens, her family hustles her away and hides her in the fridge until she cools down. Bev and her family have been Orthodox for about five years and are active in their church, All Saints of Alaska OCA parish.