What this site keeps, and why

This site belongs to Shane Yerkes, author of On the Healing Road. Questions about anything on this page: yerkesshane@gmail.com.

What you share, and what happens to it

Joining the launch list

We keep your email address, your name if you give it, the page and form you used, and the code from a friend's link if one brought you here. It's used to email you about the book: the cover, the release date, where to pre-order and buy it, tour stops, and occasional letters from Shane. Your welcome email includes your own link to share, and Shane can see how many people joined through it.

Messages, bookings and book clubs

When you write in (a question, a speaking request, a book club, library or bulk order, the launch team, or a note to Shane), we keep what you send so Shane can read it and reply, and you're added to the launch list.

Pre-order bonus claims

We keep your name, email, the format and store you ordered from, your order number, and your receipt if you upload one. Receipts are kept in private storage. Only Shane, or someone Shane trusts to help manage pre-orders, can open one, through a link that expires. You're also added to the launch list.

The memory wall

We keep your name, email, city, your connection to the story, what you write, and your photo if you add one. Shane reads every story before anything is shared. If yours is shared, your name, city, connection, story and photo appear on the wall. Your email never does. Please don't include anything about yourself or anyone else that shouldn't be public. To have your story taken down, email Shane.

Talking with Val

Val is an AI companion, not Shane and not a medical or crisis service. Chats are saved, Shane can read them and step into a conversation while it's happening, and Shane is told when a new chat starts. To write Val's replies, your messages are sent to Anthropic, the company that makes the AI model. If a message sounds like someone may be in danger, Val shares crisis resources such as the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, and Shane is alerted. Please don't share anything in a chat you wouldn't want Shane to read.

Visits

We count visits without cookies and without identifying you: the page, the site or post that sent you, and your country, worked out from your connection. Clicks on store buttons and the "Where are you on the road?" count work the same way. Vercel, which hosts the site, also counts visits and page speed without cookies.

Spam protection

Your IP address is used for a short time to stop floods of fake sign-ups. It lives only in a short-lived counter and is never stored with your name, email or messages.

Email to shaneyerkes.com

Messages sent to an @shaneyerkes.com address are forwarded to Shane's personal inbox.

Who else handles it

These companies run parts of the site for Shane and process your information to do it: Vercel (hosting and visit counts), Supabase (the database and private file storage), Resend (sending and receiving email) and Anthropic (Val's replies). The film of the trip plays from YouTube, and YouTube's own privacy policy applies once you press play.

Shane may give people helping with the book, like a publicist or a publisher, access to parts of this information to plan the launch. Publishers may be shown how the audience is growing: counts, not names. The list of names and emails is shared only with the publisher that releases On the Healing Road, and only so you hear when and where the book is out.

Your information is never sold or rented.

Cookies

No advertising or tracking cookies. If a friend's link brought you here, their code is kept in your browser tab until you close it. Because nothing here tracks you across other sites, there's nothing for a browser's Do Not Track signal to switch off.

Your choices

• Every email to the launch list has an unsubscribe link. One click and the emails stop.
• To see, correct or delete what we have about you, email yerkesshane@gmail.com.

How long it's kept

Your place on the launch list is kept until you unsubscribe or ask to be removed. If you unsubscribe, your address stays on file only so you're never emailed again, unless you ask for it to be deleted. Messages, chats, stories and receipts are kept until Shane deletes them or you ask. The spam counter clears itself within hours.

Children

This site is meant for adults. It doesn't knowingly collect information from children under 13. If you believe a child has shared something here, email Shane and it will be removed.

Changes

If this page changes, the new version will be posted here with a new date.