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Hi all, I completed a Master Of Creative Writing in June this year at the University of Canberra. I very much enjoyed the challenge and my writing improved. Some of the teachers were very good, some not so good, and I rate them below. Belle Alderman (Writing For Young People). Rating Feedback Excellent Communication Excellent Written Materials Excellent Subject Knowledge Excellent Belle was always quick to offer quality feedback to my questions and posts. She constructed a wonderful website for the course. Belle Alderman was appointed Member of the Order of Australia in 2007 for her services to children's literature as a researcher and mentor to emerging writers and illustrators. Her course of Writing for Young People won an award for an online course the year I completed it. Belle is a children’s book editor and publisher. I thoroughly enjoyed Writing for You...

Hi all, As I desperately try to diminish my stack of newspapers, I came across an article by Jason Steger in the Age on June 16th that said book sales have increased modestly in 2006 in both number and value. The article referred to Nelson BookScan statistics that indicated the value of books sold in 2006 increased 3.8% on 2005 sales to $1.05 billion, as the volume rose 2.2% to 53.3 million units. The article said that even if Harry Potter and Dan Brown were excluded the trend is still for growth in book sales. So much for rumours of the demise of the book. The same article also said, and this really surprised me, that the independent sector's share in value terms increased by 16.1%, as compared to the overall industry's 3.8%. This could have something to do with the big chains concentrating on big name authors at discounted prices. Perhaps they could increase the value of their sales if they stocked more Australian authored speculative fiction. Graham.