Who we are
This is the website of author Marie Brennan, and its address is: https://www.swantower.com.
What personal data we collect and why we collect it
This site collects the data necessary for you to interact with it, via the contact form, comments on blog posts, and the option to sign up for the newsletter.
Comments
When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.
An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.
Contact forms
When visitors use the contact form on the site I collect the data shown in that form: your name, email address, and subject line and content of your message. This is forwarded to my email account and stored there.
Cookies
If you leave a comment on my site you may opt in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.
The signup bar for the newsletter uses cookies to determine whether you have dismissed it or signed up.
Embedded content from other websites
Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.
These other websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracing your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.
Analytics
I do not use any analytics services to monitor the usage of my site.
How long we retain your data
If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so I can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.
If you send me a message through the contact form, that message and its metadata are retained indefinitely.
What rights you have over your data
If you have have left comments on this site or used the contact form, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data I hold about you, including any data you have provided to me. You can also request that I erase any personal data I hold about you. This does not include any data I am obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.
Where we send your data
This site is hosted by Dreamhost. Visitor comments are checked through an automated spam detection service.
Your contact information
If you wish to contact me and prefer not to use the form on this site, you may send a letter to:
P.O. Box 88
San Mateo, CA 94401
Amazon Affiliate Links
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
I am legally obligated to say the above; the rest of this is me. I do not particularly like Amazon: I believe it is an exploitative business whose practices are fundamentally not good for the publishing industry. However, I also know that if I do not include Amazon links for my books, I will miss out on significant numbers of sales from my site, which will not be good for my career. Given an option between lining Jeff Bezos’ pockets, and lining them but pulling out a few bits of lint for my own, I have — not without reservations — chosen the latter. But I wholeheartedly encourage you to use any of the other links provided, from one of the many fine retailers that also sell books. (My apologies to UK readers for not having more UK link options; I hope to fix that in the future.)
