When you Read Like a Writer (RLW) you work to identify some of the choices the author made so that you can better understand how such choices might arise in your own writing. The idea is to carefully examine the things you read, looking at the writerly techniques in the text in order to decide if you might want to adopt similar (or the same) techniques in your writing. You are reading to learn about writing. Instead of reading for content or to better understand the ideas in the writing (which you will automatically do to some degree anyway), you are trying to understand how the piece of writing was put together by the author and what you can learn about writing by reading a particular text. As you read in this way, you think about how the choices the author made and the techniques that he/she used are influencing your own responses as a reader. What is it about the way this text is written that makes you feel and respond the way you do?

“One of the most anticipated YA debuts of 2018, Brightly Burning is a gothic, romantic mystery with hints of Jane Eyre, Marissa Meyer, and Kiera Cass.” —Entertainment Weekly “Brightly Burning delivers a brooding gothic mystery and a swoony romance, all set in space. Donne’s atmospheric, twisty update of a cherished classic will keep you up late into the night!” —Elly Blake, NYT bestselling author of the Frostblood Saga Stella Ainsley leaves poverty behind when she quits her engineering job aboard the Stalwart to become a governess on a private ship. On the Rochester, there’s no water ration, more books than one person could devour in a lifetime, and an AI who seems more friend than robot. But no one warned Stella that the ship seems to be haunted, nor that it may be involved in a conspiracy that could topple the entire interstellar fleet. Surrounded by mysteries, Stella finds her equal in the brooding but kind nineteen-year-old Captain Hugo. When several attempts on his life spark more questions than answers, and the beautiful Bianca Ingram appears at Hugo’s request, his unpredictable behavior causes Stella’s suspicions to mount. Without knowing who to trust, Stella must decide whether to follow her head or her heart. Alexa Donne’s lush and enthralling reimagining of the classic Jane Eyre, set among the stars, will seduce and beguile you.

Since childhood Ruth Weiss has been escaping from life into books, and from the hothouse attentions of her tyrannical and eccentric parents into the gentler warmth of lovers and friends. Now Dr. Weiss, at forty, a quiet scholar devoted to the study of Balzac, is convinced that her life has been ruined by literature, and that once again she must make a new start in life.

Princess Leonie Kolburg, aged nineteen and heir to a faded European spaceship, enters the engagement season hoping only to save her family from financial ruin, but is soon falling for her first, rejected love.

Why should you want to read my book? I was a first-line manager of several businesses for over 40 years. There has been many changes in attitudes and business practices over these years. Therefore, I believe this saying is true "experience is the best teacher, it just costs too much." It is my wish that my experience and my stories will save you time and money. My life changed when I became a manager. I was sandwiched between managers making a career and employees making a living. First-line managers are the backbone of a business. These managers are usually the only ones who understand what it takes to make a product or provide a service. They are the ones on the shop floor or customer service office who keep the company in business day to day, hour to hour. If someone in middle or upper management is absent, no problem, the business will still function on the first line. However, when first-line managers are absent, some part of the plant or service process will suffer, and thus, the business. When the production line or the service line backs-up or slows down, the company expects the first-line manager to get it moving again. First-line managers stand in the gap between the business and the customer. They are the deal-makers in any business. Here are confidential comments on management surveys made by my team members. These are the blurbs that count most for the evaluation of my management style. Team member comments: Comments exactly as given on upward and 360 surveys.GREAT DECISION MAKER TAKES INITIATIVE PEOPLE ORIENTEDForward vision always learning Honest, good listener, provides employee empowerment Knowledgeable - Honest / Fair - DedicatedVery knowledgeable of companies business, has wise visions very courteousGood communicatorDependability Cares about Company and peopleJim handles a changing environment well. He tries to help with difficult situationsDedicated to what he is doing prompt in getting answers to problemsDedicated knowledge of APCo COMPANYHere is my last evaluation: As a manager/supervisor, you are especially good at... employee comments: Allowing us to manage ourselves as a group. He is our leader, but he does not dictate. If we come up with a solution to a problem that affects us as a group, he allows us to handle it as long as we as a group agree on it.He's an excellent leader.Empowerment and EncouragementListening to employees problems and working with us when we have personal needs> Following through with special request & projects. Jim is a wonderful supervisor whom I feel truly cares for his employees, as a co-worker & a person. He is someone I know I can count on.> ACTING IN A PROFESSIONAL MANNER, ALWAYS MAKES DECISION THAT'S BEST FOR THE WHOLE WORK GROUP, AND ALWAYS WILLING TO GO THE EXTRA MILE TO GET THE JOB DONE. I CAN TRULY SAY, I FEEL BLESSED TO HAVE JIM AS MY SUPERVISOR. HE IS DOING AN EXCELLENT JOB. I AM VERY GLAD HE IS APART OF OUR WORK GROUP.

1928 The Bonaventure Circus is a refuge for many, but Pippa Ripley was rejected from its inner circle as a baby. When she receives mysterious messages from someone called the "Watchman," she is determined to find him and the connection to her birth. As Pippa's search leads her to a man seeking justice for his murdered sister and evidence that a serial killer has been haunting the circus train, she must decide if uncovering her roots is worth putting herself directly in the path of the killer. Present Day The old circus train depot will either be torn down or preserved for historical importance, and its future rests on real estate project manager Chandler Faulk's shoulders. As she dives deep into the depot's history, she's also balancing a newly diagnosed autoimmune disease and the pressures of single motherhood. When she discovers clues to the unsolved murders of the past, Chandler is pulled into a story far darker and more haunting than even an abandoned train depot could portend.

Enroll in this boarding school thriller about a group of prep school elites who would kill to get into the college of their dreams...literally. "The Plastics meet the Heathers in this murder mystery about ruthless Ivy League ambition." -Kirkus Reviews "Twisty and thrilling...boarding school murder has never been so much fun!" –Kara Thomas, author of That Weekend Everyone knows the Ivies: the most coveted universities in the United States. Far more important are the Ivies. The Ivies at Claflin Academy, that is. Five girls with the same mission: to get into the Ivy League by any means necessary. I would know. I'm one of them. We disrupt class ranks, club leaderships, and academic competitions...among other things. We improve our own odds by decreasing the fortunes of others. Because hyper-elite competitive college admissions is serious business. And in some cases, it's deadly. Alexa Donne delivers a nail-biting and timely thriller about teens who will stop at nothing to get into the college of their dreams. Too bad no one told them murder isn't an extracurricular.