Claire Taylor

Midway through April and Back Again, Claire Taylor asks herself, "Where is the line between hope and stupidity?" Tracking the final year of her thirties from April 2024 through April 2025, Claire Taylor's debut poetry collection is an intimate portrait of loving and living against a backdrop of existential dread. Deftly oscillating between quotidian scenes of family life and the anxiety of raising children amid the realities of climate change, gun violence, and a democracy on the verge of demise, Taylor leads us through the ups and downs of a year that was history in the making. Simultaneously marveling at the magic of watching her children grow and witnessing the horror of a country going, literally and figuratively, down in flames, April and Back Again follows Taylor from the pleasures of life's little moments into the growing depths of her own despair. Full of quiet meditations, heartfelt introspection, and delightful hints of humor, April and Back Again is like the first hopeful signs of spring after a long, cold winter.

Beyond a linguistic experiment, Esperanto was a movement--this work tells the untold story of how its pioneers built real bridges across cultures, one postcard at a time. In the early twentieth century as the world grew increasingly interconnected, a Scottish family found an unlikely tool for forging transnational connections--Esperanto. Postcards, Translators and Esperanto Pioneers unmasks the fascinating microhistory of how everyday speakers of the constructed language built international networks, exchanging ideas and friendship across borders. Through postcards and translations, the book depicts how language and media shaped a grassroots vision of global communication long before the internet era. Moving from the Russian Empire to Scotland, the book stresses the crucial role of women in Esperanto's success. It also studies the translation of the Bible into the language as an act of both faith and diplomacy. By centering the experiences of ordinary Esperanto speakers, this work provides an alternative perspective on early twentieth-century globalization; one built not by political elites or economic forces, but through words exchanged between individuals striving to connect across cultures.

Beyond a linguistic experiment, Esperanto was a movement--this work tells the untold story of how its pioneers built real bridges across cultures, one postcard at a time. In the early twentieth century as the world grew increasingly interconnected, a Scottish family found an unlikely tool for forging transnational connections--Esperanto. Postcards, Translators and Esperanto Pioneers unmasks the fascinating microhistory of how everyday speakers of the constructed language built international networks, exchanging ideas and friendship across borders. Through postcards and translations, the book depicts how language and media shaped a grassroots vision of global communication long before the internet era. Moving from the Russian Empire to Scotland, the book stresses the crucial role of women in Esperanto's success. It also studies the translation of the Bible into the language as an act of both faith and diplomacy. By centering the experiences of ordinary Esperanto speakers, this work provides an alternative perspective on early twentieth-century globalization; one built not by political elites or economic forces, but through words exchanged between individuals striving to connect across cultures.

Iconic characters build unforgettable stories. Iconic characters stick with us long after the final page. They become touchstones, reference points with which we describe friends, enemies, and ourselves. Creating just one iconic character can transform your writing career. Readers will forgive all sorts of minor flaws in your stories if your characters strike deep into their humanity, connecting with both their light and shadow. Write Iconic Characters reveals the psychology behind unforgettable characters by exploring the nine core fears and desires that drive human behavior. Master these forces, and you'll craft characters whose every choice feels inevitable and stories that readers can't put down.

Social media use is a confounding aspect of organisations, aiding interconnection, communication, and productivity. Its use has undoubtedly impacted on human resource management and the establishment of harmonious contemporary employment relationships. Its use challenges the traditional boundaries which existed between work and privacy and, in doing so, seemingly increases organisational power and management control. This book discusses the impact social media has on work; how it is used to stage the organisation, self-identity, power, and control using four conceptual themes: adoption, shaping, and staging of social media in organisations; digitised regimes of power, control, and surveillance; evolving identity, employee voice, and dramaturgical performance online; and employee forms of resistance, sousveillance, and social media misbehaviours. These themes are brought to life through the lived experiences and narratives of workers who hold roles in human resources, management, and frontline operations. This approach highlights a unique multi-perspective on social media use by giving voice to these workers. The book uses these individual narratives to reposition the ways employees utilise social media for sousveillance, dissent, and resistance purposes. In doing so, the book encourages wider debate, critical reflection, and self-reflexivity on rarely discussed management approaches or (mis)behaviours associated with social media use and their profound implications for power dynamics in organisations.

Reignite your writing motivation and develop creative resilience in your author career.Have you lost touch with the ease and enthusiasm for writing you once had? Does the process of writing stories feel tougher than it used to? Do you find yourself thinking about giving up more and more frequently? Claire Taylor is bestselling fiction author of both off-beat and on-market fiction, a trained and experienced Enneagram instructor, and has coached some of the biggest names in the business. And now you can learn her process for tapping back into your motivation, cultivating resilience, and creating a meaningful author career for the years ahead.In Sustain Your Author Career, you'll discover: Troubleshooting techniques for writer's block, anxiety, and distractionsBlindspots that are keeping you stuckIn-depth examples from Claire's work with authorsDaily practices to connect you to yourself and your workResilience tools for a changing industry, and much, much more Sustain Your Author Career is the groundbreaking guide every author needs to cultivate their gifts, deepen their connections, and triumph over adversity. There is a reason you're called to tell stories. It's time to reconnect with that inspiration.Buy Sustain Your Author Career to get started today

Overwhelmed by all the ways to write and market your books? Discover a simple framework to align your business and reclaim your author career.Are you an indie author who's struggling to stay in the game? Are you ready to supercharge your career while staying true to your values? Do you crave greater fulfillment and success on a daily basis? Claire Taylor has made a name for herself as a bestselling author of both off-beat and on-market fiction and as a story consultant and career strategist for some of the biggest names in the biz. And now you can learn her tried and true system for authors to discover their gifts, avoid all-too-common pitfalls, and build the career of their dreams.Breaking an author business down into four main components, Reclaim Your Author Career uses the Enneagram framework to help writers rediscover their core motivation and align their work with what fuels them. By examining creative values, persona, themes, and protagonists, Claire guides you deep through an exploration of yourself that will leave you wiser, refreshed, and excited to make the tough decisions that lead to lasting success.In Reclaim Your Author Career you'll discover: Which creative values make or break your happinessHow to identify the distractions and stressors that lead you off courseWhy you're failing to attract the right readers for your books and ways to adjustHow to leverage theme to build your fandomWhy picking the right protagonist can make or break your brand, and much, much more Reclaim Your Author Career is the insightful guide you've been looking for to build a writing life that fits like a glove, brings you the satisfaction you've dreamed of, and empowers you to create a life worth celebrating.If you like individualized advice, fresh storytelling strategies, and deeper self-knowledge, then you'll love Claire Taylor's revolutionary approach to unlocking the creative life you deserve.Buy Reclaim Your Author Career to prioritize creative fulfillment in your life today

This book explores one of the most exciting new developments in the literary field to emerge over recent decades: the growing body of work known as ‘electronic literature’, comprising literary works that take advantage of the capabilities of digital technologies in their enactment. Focussing on six leading authors within Latin(o) America whose works have proved pioneering in the development of these new literary forms, the book proposes a three-fold approach of aesthetics, technologics, and ethics, as a framework for analyzing digital literature.

This book explores one of the most exciting new developments in the literary field to emerge over recent decades: the growing body of work known as ‘electronic literature’, comprising literary works that take advantage of the capabilities of digital technologies in their enactment. Focussing on six leading authors within Latin(o) America whose works have proved pioneering in the development of these new literary forms, the book proposes a three-fold approach of aesthetics, technologics, and ethics, as a framework for analyzing digital literature.

Felicity has finally made it to university. With Christmas coming, and new friends being made, she is looking forward to a fresh start after the summer that she survived. But when she returns from a party one evening to a grisly discovery, it's clear that not only is she stumbling across murder, but it's looking for her. Can she find the killer before they take their final victim, and what will she do when she realises who the final victim is?

Felicity Lawrence is still recovering from the start of summer - a summer of murder, terrifying visions and failed romance. Just as she feels she is getting back to normal, she has another vision, and a young girl disappears. Can she, Ella and Noah catch another killer, or will new arrivals, unfinished business and impending university get in the way.

This volume explores one of the central issues that has been debated in internet studies in recent years: locality, and the extent to which cultural production online can be embedded in a specific place. The particular focus of the book is on the practices of net artists in Latin America, and how their work interrogates some of the central place-based concerns of Latin(o) American identity through their on- and offline cultural practice.Six particular works by artists of different countries in Latin America and within Latina/o communities in the US are studied in detail, with one each from Uruguay, Chile, Argentina, Colombia, the US-Mexico border, and the US. Each chapter explores how each artist represents place in their works, and, in particular how traditional place-based affiliations, or notions of territorial identity, end up reproduced, re-affirmed, or even transformed online. At the same time, the book explores how these net.artists make use of new media technologies to express alternative viewpoints about the locations they represent, and use the internet as a space for the recuperation of cultural memory.

Poverty in fifth- and fourth-century BCE Athens was a markedly different concept to that with which we are familiar today. Reflecting contemporary ideas about labour, leisure, and good citizenship, the 'poor' were considered to be not only those who were destitute, or those who were living at the borders of subsistence, but also those who were moderately well-off but had to work for a living. Defined in this way, this group covered around 99 per cent of the population of Athens. This conception of penia (poverty) was also ideologically charged: the poor were contrasted with the rich and found, for the most part, to be both materially and morally deficient. Poverty, Wealth, and Well-Being sets out to rethink what it meant to be poor in a world where this was understood as the need to work for a living, exploring the discourses that constructed poverty as something to fear and linking them with experiences of penia among different social groups in Athens. Drawing on current research into and debates around poverty within the social sciences, it provides a critical reassessment of poverty in democratic Athens and argues that it need not necessarily be seen in terms of these elitist ideological categories, nor indeed solely as an economic condition (the state of having no wealth), but that it should also be understood in terms of social relations, capabilities, and well-being. In developing a framework to analyse the complexities of poverty so conceived and exploring the discourses that shaped it, the volume reframes poverty as being dynamic and multidimensional, and provides a valuable insight into what the poor in Athens - men and women, citizen and non-citizen, slave and free - were able to do or to be.

This volume provides an innovative and timely approach to a fast growing, yet still under-studied field in Latin American cultural production: digital online culture. It focuses on the transformations or continuations that cultural products and practices such as hypermedia fictions, net.art and online performance art, as well as blogs, films, databases and other genre-defying web-based projects, perform with respect to Latin American(ist) discourses, as well as their often contestatory positioning with respect to Western hegemonic discourses as they circulate online. The intellectual rationale for the volume is located at the crossroads of two, equally important, theoretical strands: theories of digital culture, in their majority the product of the anglophone academy; and contemporary debates on Latin American identity and culture.

This book is a retrospective volume on Latin American new media arts, arising from the Cities in Dialogue exhibition that was held in in FACT in conjunction with the University of Liverpool and the Liverpool Independents Biennial in 2014. There is also plenty of detail about the other events that were held during 2014 and into 2015, including workshops, artist talks, Twitter galleries and the Artist in Residence and his activities. One chapter is dedicated to each artist and the works they presented at the exhibition: Brian Mackern from Uruguay, Bárbara Palomino from Chile, Marina Zerbarini from Argentina, and Ricardo Miranda Zúñiga from the US. There is also an extensive chapter about the exciting new residence artwork created by Artist in Residence Brian Mackern. Entitled This Too Shall Pass// Affective Cartographies, this work is based on footage obtained through a series of unplanned journeys along Liverpool’s urbanscape. The gathering of information and recording of sound and visual material during these journeys is then remixed in this artwork by different parameters (volume levels, transparencies, zooms, fragmentations, crossfadings, speeds of timelines, etc.) controlled by Liverpool’s “socio economic historic curve” of the last century. In this book you can find out about all of these works, and other pieces by these artists. The book includes full colour images throughout, including exclusive images of works in progress, as well as excerpts of interviews with the artists. At the back of the book you can find links to online resources, including the art works themselves, audio interviews with the artists, image galleries, and more.

This volume explores one of the central issues that has been debated in internet studies in recent years: locality, and the extent to which cultural production online can be embedded in a specific place. The particular focus of the book is on the practices of net artists in Latin America, and how their work interrogates some of the central place-based concerns of Latin(o) American identity through their on- and offline cultural practice.Six particular works by artists of different countries in Latin America and within Latina/o communities in the US are studied in detail, with one each from Uruguay, Chile, Argentina, Colombia, the US-Mexico border, and the US. Each chapter explores how each artist represents place in their works, and, in particular how traditional place-based affiliations, or notions of territorial identity, end up reproduced, re-affirmed, or even transformed online. At the same time, the book explores how these net.artists make use of new media technologies to express alternative viewpoints about the locations they represent, and use the internet as a space for the recuperation of cultural memory.

This volume provides an innovative and timely approach to a fast growing, yet still under-studied field in Latin American cultural production: digital online culture. It focuses on the transformations or continuations that cultural products and practices such as hypermedia fictions, net.art and online performance art, as well as blogs, films, databases and other genre-defying web-based projects, perform with respect to Latin American(ist) discourses, as well as their often contestatory positioning with respect to Western hegemonic discourses as they circulate online. The intellectual rationale for the volume is located at the crossroads of two, equally important, theoretical strands: theories of digital culture, in their majority the product of the anglophone academy; and contemporary debates on Latin American identity and culture.

Investigation of the development of the Cathar heresy in south-west France, looking at how and why its growth differed across the regions. The medieval county of Quercy in Languedoc lay between the Dordogne and the Toulousain in south-west France; it played a significant role in the history of Catharism, of the Albigensian crusade launched against the heresy in 1209,and of the subsequent inquisition. Although Cathars had come to dominate religious life elsewhere in Languedoc during the course of the twelfth century, the chronology of heresy was different in Quercy. In the late twelfth century, nearby abbeys were still the main focus of devotional activity; inquisitors' discoveries in the 1240s point to the previous twenty years as the period when Catharism and also the Waldensian heresy took a firm hold, most dramatically in its far north. This study deals with the cultural and political origins of the religious change. Its careful analysis offers a significant re-evaluation of the nature and social significance of religious dissidence,and of its protection and persecution in both the history and historiography of Catharism. Dr Claire Taylor is Associate Professor, School of History, University of Nottingham.

Investigation of heresy in south-west France, including a new assessment of the role of Catharism and the Albigensian Crusade. Heresy was a recurrent problem for the established church throughout the middle ages, and it is here examined in the context of the medieval duchy of Aquitaine. The author traces forms of dissent there back to the influence of Balkan dualism, indicating the vast spread of heretical ideas throughout Europe. She goes on to offer an account of Catharism in north-western Languedoc, using neglected evidence for its reception and rejection by the families and towns of the county of Agen to shed light on heretical adherence in the Languedoc more widely, in peace-time, during the Albigensian Crusade, and under the Inquisition. Dr CLAIRE TAYLOR teaches in the Department of History at the University of Nottingham.