A fantastic initiative from Eden College Durban now offers blind children stories in MP3 format on the internet. The stories are mainly for children between 4-10 years of age and the advantage is that it is on the internet, and therefore available anywhere and anytime, with the only caveat being that you need internet access. The project started with an inventive educator, Mr Charli Wiggill wishing to develop his grade 8 English class’s English reading skills. Mr Wiggill encouraged his learners to record themselves reading by using their mobile phones as recording devices. Apart from being successful in improving the learners’ reading skills, it also resulted in wonderful stories becoming available to other children on the internet, in particular children with visual - and reading impairments.

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Now Novel is a tailor-made novel writing process that gives aspiring writers the structure, expertise and necessary motivation to start and finish their novels. With expert guidance on hand to lead writers through a step-by-step process, Now Novel has taken all the indecision out of writing a novel, and provides the necessary motivation to keep writing – even when inspiration runs dry.

Bridget McNulty is the published author behind the course - her first novel, Strange Nervous Laughter, was published in South Africa in 2007 and in the USA in 2009, and she studied Creative Writing at Franklin & Marshall College in the USA. “As soon as people find out I’ve had a novel published, they want to know how to do it,” she says, “but it’s not really a quick and easy answer! This course is the result of all the knowledge I’ve gained from studying Creative Writing in South Africa and the US and having a novel published in two countries – as well as an enormous amount of research and discussion with aspiring writers that we’ve done to find out the most effective ways to motivate writers to actually finish their books.”