More Changes
I hadn't planned to write here this week. It’s winter where I live and I’m also in a personal winter, and I like my wintering to feel like wintering with all the cozy vibes and quiet. Just like in Nature, for me, winter is a time of nourishing root work, inner-tending, and deep dreaming in the dark...
The tech world, of course, has other plans, and while I usually don't align with their schedules, or really even pay much attention to the hoopla, a few BIG changes have rolled out over the last few weeks that are important for readers.
Image by Maddi Bazzocco
This post started out as an email to my Insider’s Community, and I realized I couldn’t just share this info with them and not put something here too since it impacts people who aren’t a part of that community yet as well. Also, this is much too long for an email (or the kinds of emails I prefer to send, anyway). So, here we are.
Up first, Amazon has made some changes with ebook delivery options for some books.
As of January 20 of this year, some ebooks on Amazon will have the option to be downloaded after purchase and accessed (read) on the device of your choice, even if it's not a Kindle. This is a big deal, especially considering they were trying to curb this type of activity just last February.
The new delivery options are not available for ALL the ebooks on Amazon, though. This change only affects any ebooks which the author and/or publisher elected to release without granting Amazon digital rights management (DRM). My books fall into that category.
Choices around DRM are complex, and each author and/or publisher has much to consider with regard to participating or not. So I urge you to please be respectful to, and about, authors regarding this shift in ebook accessibility and their choices for their books.
I've had my own work pirated, scraped, and illegally fed to AI for training without my knowledge, consent, or compensation, so I absolutely understand the desire to want to do anything possible to mitigate and minimize such theft and misappropriation of intellectual property (seriously, it sucks).
DRM can provide a speed bump to such things, in theory making it more difficult for someone to pirate a book, access it illegally, or violate author copy and/or distribution rights. But it can also be an impediment to reader accessibility, which we saw last year for people who choose to purchase on Amazon but prefer reading outside the Amazon/Kindle ecosystem (when changes to licensing agreements tightened the scope of ebook accessibility outside that ecosystem).
Readers are my priority.
I believe in creating an equitable society. I believe in pleasure as medicine. I believe in watering the seeds we want to see grow. At its heart, my work is a nexus of joy and clean water, and I want as many people in on that party as possible so together we can help uplift humanity. Accessibility matters.
That being said, if you choose to download my ebooks after purchasing and read them outside the Amazon/Kindle ecosystem, it is understood that you will not share the files with others, as they are licensed for your enjoyment only. Also, you need to be aware that any future updates to the ebooks will not be automatically delivered to you.
Updates, you ask? Yes, sometimes those happen. Here's an example:
When Lucy's Lawman initially released, it launched with interior design and formatting that was not what I'd wanted or commissioned. I hired a new interior designer for Asher's Cache, and loved their work so much, I had them redo Lucy's Lawman (they did Tane's Temptation too!). The updates to Lucy and Cade's book were delivered automatically though Amazon’s system, and everyone who'd already purchased (with the old formatting), opened their ebooks to a much more user-friendly (and prettier) interior without having to do anything at all.
Other possible updates may include things like tweaks to front and back matter such as updated credits (new designer, for example) and book listings as new releases become available.
If after purchasing, you choose to download my ebooks from Amazon and take them out of the Kindle ecosystem, any future updates to those books will require entirely new files to be downloaded/uploaded for you to enjoy the same changes that are quietly delivered directly to Kindle users. If you're in this group (people who read my ebooks outside the Amazon/Kindle ecosystem), please be sure to join my Insider’s Community, to be kept in the loop if any future changes are made so you'll know when/if to update your files.
That's the big news from Amazon that dropped this week. People have more options now for where to enjoy reading their purchased ebooks, and I think that's great.
Image by Igor Omilaev
Next up, Google.
As of January 12, 2026, Google officially integrated Gemini AI into Gmail. This isn't a minor back-end tweak either. It fundamentally changes how you'll discover messages and prioritize and engage with your inbox moving forward (it's just getting started, and other platforms are following suit).
The AI is scanning and scraping every email - incoming and outgoing - which is how it's able to make those handy (and sometimes not so handy) summaries you're starting to see all the time (btw - this is happening across other platforms, like Yahoo, Apple, and Outlook, too). I understand there is currently an option to hide the summary, but I hear it may eventually become a full-time feature as the AI is still performing the summary even if you can't see it.
The Gemini integration also allows for AI-powered, context-aware response generation based on what it sees in, and understands about, your emails. And it also allows for automatically sorting your inbox not by date and time of an email's actual arrival, but by how relevant the AI thinks it is to you based on its perceptions of your activity, and how easily the AI can categorize incoming emails into actionable tasks (like bills to pay, appointments to confirm, etc.).
Some people may think this is awesome. Some may not. No judgements here, I'm just sharing info as it may impact you, and how you receive email from pretty much everyone.
For what it's worth, I opted-out of consenting to having the AI scrape every email last fall (which was a convoluted process, with the opt-out options deeply hidden, and part of me wonders if it actually does what it said, but lmk if you want that info, and I'm happy to share). After expressing my non-consent, I (sadly) now have zero tabs. None. Gmail took them all away, even in my pro accounts (that I pay for), and now my inbox is one giant thing.
But/and, since opting out, the emails are delivered, sequenced, and stored in the order received by timeline - as in actual date/time - rather than some arbitrary order based on an AI's perception and understanding of my activity as a user, and/or whatever is in the messages. That works for me. I actually prefer chronological order. But, it's not pretty, and admittedly, I do miss having a pretty and streamlined inbox.
Image by Anna Savina
Also, FWIW, just like with my books, I write all my own stuff. Newsletters, blog posts, anything on socials, replies to emails - that's all me. I'm not a fan of using an AI’s "context-aware response generation" because I believe in human connection, and I want whoever I am communicating with to know that they are hearing from me directly. My thoughts. My feelings. My words.
Yes, I have typos. Yes, I say things oddly sometimes (my family lovingly ribs me about that regularly). But for the record, if something is coming from me, it's coming from me. Period.
Likewise, when you write to me, I actually read what you write. Every word. Myself. I value what you have to say. I truly appreciate it when you take the time to reach out and share, or ask that question, or answer one of mine. People are important.
People are who I write for.
I have never created art for an algorithm.
I do not write for AI (or with it for that matter).
And I doubt I ever will.
Here’s to doing our best with the information we have, moment to moment. To paying attention to the changes, and finding our own ways with them, and to honoring our creative agency, choice, and our humanity in the process.