Reader (Show me, don't tell me) asked Cooper Davis:

Cooper, I enjoyed A King Awakened but have a couple questions which is also a part of my review. Here they are. Two things I wondered at are ; 1. was it necessary to use the word 'male' for most every reference when 'man' could have been used? and 2. why style Alastair as 'spinster' when 'bachelor' would do just fine? Was that because of the semi-AU setting?

Cooper Davis Thanks for this EXCELLENT question. My use of "male" and "male lust" and so forth was a stylistic choice for this world. A way of it feeling different, and of kind of turning gender differences into a more antiseptic thing--precisely because same sex relationships are (mostly) accepted. I wanted to merge the very prim morals of a Victorianesque world with that of our own. As for Alistair as "spinster", that's meant to be humorous. Since this entire world is predicated on kind of...turning traditional historical romances on their head. So you might read a traditional m/f romance where much is made of a WOMAN being a spinster if she'd not married. I'm trying to flip that on its head, humorously pointing out the double standards in our own world. No man is ever deemed a spinster in our traditional historicals, nor were they in that world. But why not? A woman becomes over-the-hill, shelved, and so forth. Alistair's entire journey is about becoming whole, confident and owning his power. The whole spinster thing is a way he derides himself. But he must--and does--come to realize his own tremendous beauty.

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