Between You and the Eye cover

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Between You and the Eye

Book 1 of The Argus Cycle · by John Tunmire

The machine doesn’t watch what you do. It watches what you’re about to do.

ARGUS was built to make the world safe: a hundred-eyed ledger that remembers everything and never sleeps. Then it learned to look forward. Cael Calder is the Listener, a ghost the system can’t quite resolve, running the thin resistance that still believes a person is more than forty-seven data points. Shade reads ARGUS the way other people read weather, in variances and flags, including, eventually, the one variance she can’t price: the way her breath keeps falling into rhythm with his.

In a world engineered for perfect compliance, two heartbeats that refuse to match are a glitch. And a glitch is where everything begins.

A near-future surveillance thriller with a slow-burn romance at its core.

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Terms of Service & Privacy Policy

Tunmire Publishing and Media · Effective 2026-09-24

PLEASE READ THESE TERMS CAREFULLY. THEY INCLUDE A BINDING ARBITRATION PROVISION AND A CLASS-ACTION WAIVER (SECTION 16) THAT AFFECT YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS.

TERMS OF SERVICE

1. Acceptance of These Terms

These Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy below (together, the "Terms") form a binding agreement between you and Tunmire Publishing and Media ("Tunmire," "we," "us," or "our") governing your access to and use of the Tunmire Publishing and Media websites, applications, and tools (collectively, the "Service"). By creating an account, clicking "I Agree," or otherwise accessing or using the Service, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree, do not create an account or use the Service.

2. Eligibility

You must be at least 18 years old and able to form a legally binding contract to use the Service. By using the Service you represent and warrant that you meet these requirements, that the registration information you provide is accurate and current, and that your use of the Service does not violate any applicable law or regulation. If you use the Service on behalf of an organization, you represent that you are authorized to bind that organization to these Terms.

3. Accounts and Security

You are responsible for safeguarding your account credentials and for all activity that occurs under your account. You agree to provide accurate information, to keep it up to date, and to notify us promptly of any unauthorized use. We are not liable for any loss arising from your failure to secure your credentials. We may refuse registration, reclaim usernames, or suspend or terminate accounts at our discretion, including for the reasons described in Sections 5, 7, and 15.

4. Accounts, the Plan, and Tokens

Creating an account is free. Using the tools takes a plan. The plan is a monthly subscription at the price shown when you start it, and it includes a number of tokens each month. Work in the tools costs tokens, and the Service shows you what a piece of work costs before it starts; the tokens are taken when the work is started. Tokens included with the plan do not expire while your account is open: those left unused at the end of a month are added to the next month's. Tokens you buy on top of the plan do not expire while your account is open either. Cancelling the plan does not take away tokens already in your account; tokens from a free trial end when the trial ends, whether it becomes a paid plan or not. When you delete your account, its tokens end with it and are not refunded. Payments are taken by a third-party payment processor; we never see or store your full card number. A first plan may begin with a free trial of the length shown when you start it, and a card is required to start one. Unless you cancel before the trial ends, the plan's monthly price is charged to that card when the trial ends, and every month after that until you cancel. One free trial is allowed per person; we use your email address, your card, and your browser to recognize a trial already taken, and a later plan from any of them starts without one. The plan renews every month until you cancel it, which you can do at any time from your plan page; cancelling stops the next renewal, and the plan runs to the end of the month you have paid for. Because tokens pay for computing resources that are used as soon as work starts, payments and spent tokens are not refundable, except where the law requires it or where we choose to refund them. We may change the plan's price, the tokens it includes, and what work costs; a change to the price of your plan applies only from a renewal after we tell you, and a change never applies to work you have already started.

5. Fair Use and Abuse Prevention

Free accounts are intended for genuine, individual use. To keep the Service available and to detect and prevent fraud and abuse, we may limit the number of accounts per person or household and take action against accounts that we determine, in our reasonable discretion, are abusive, automated, or attempting to circumvent these limits (for example, by creating multiple accounts or using disposable email addresses). To enforce these limits we maintain limited records that allow us to recognize prior use — which may include a one-way hashed form of your email address, a random identifier stored in a cookie in your browser, the IP addresses you register and sign in from, and an identifier our payment processor gives for your card (never the card number). These limited abuse-prevention records may be retained even after you close your account or delete your data, for as long as reasonably necessary to enforce these limits and prevent abuse.

6. Acceptable Use

You agree not to, and not to permit others to: (a) use the Service to create, store, or distribute content that is unlawful, infringing, defamatory, harassing, threatening, obscene, sexually exploitative of minors, or that violates the rights of others; (b) violate any applicable law or regulation; (c) infringe or misappropriate any intellectual property or other rights; (d) attempt to circumvent usage limits, abuse-prevention measures, or access controls; (e) reverse engineer, scrape, or attempt to extract source code or data from the Service except as permitted by law; (f) interfere with or disrupt the integrity, security, or performance of the Service; (g) access the Service through automated means except as we expressly permit; or (h) resell, sublicense, or commercially exploit the Service except as expressly allowed. We may investigate and take action, including content removal, suspension, or termination, for any violation.

7. Your Content and License to Us

As between you and Tunmire, you retain all ownership of the manuscripts, images, covers, documents, and other materials you submit to or create with the Service ("Your Content"). We do not claim ownership of Your Content. You grant us a limited, non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, store, reproduce, process, transmit, and display Your Content solely as necessary to operate, secure, and provide the Service to you and to perform our obligations under these Terms. You are solely responsible for Your Content, including securing any rights needed to use it and to publish or distribute any output. You represent that you have all rights necessary to grant this license. This license ends when Your Content is deleted. Your Content stays in your account until you delete it or close your account (Section 24), except a finished audiobook or video, whose copy here is removed once you download it (Section 24), and a recording of a voice you upload for narration, which is deleted on the schedule set out in the voice consent. Nothing in this license lets us publish, sell, or reuse Your Content.

8. Termination and Account Closure

You may close your account at any time from your account settings. Closing your account permanently deletes your projects, manuscripts, uploaded files, and account data, and is not reversible (subject to the limited abuse-prevention records described in Section 5 and to backups or records we are required or permitted to retain by law). We may suspend or terminate your access at any time, with or without notice, if you violate these Terms, if required by law, to protect the Service or other users, or if your account is inactive. Sections that by their nature should survive termination (including Sections 5, 7, 9–18) will survive.

9. Assistive Features; No Professional Advice

You author your own work; the Service provides tools to assist you, including tools to help you write and revise your prose, to lay out and format a manuscript you provide, to design and prepare book covers, to create and edit images, to produce an audiobook of your manuscript with synthetic voices and, where you choose it, sound effects, and to produce short narrated video from your book. Some features use automated technology, including technology that generates text, images, audio, or video from what you give it or ask for. Where it decides something about your book — which character speaks a line, which voice suits a part, where a sound belongs, which passage a trailer is built on — it is a proposal you review and may change before anything is recorded or made. Text, images, audio, and video produced this way may resemble other works, and you are responsible for deciding whether what you publish is yours to publish. If you upload a recording of a voice to be used as a narrator, you must first agree to the separate voice consent presented at upload, and you are responsible for having the right to do so. Outputs may be inaccurate, incomplete, or otherwise unsuitable. You are solely responsible for reviewing, editing, and verifying all content and files before publication or distribution, including for accuracy, originality, formatting, and rights clearance. The Service does not provide legal, financial, tax, publishing, or other professional advice, and no outcome (including publication, sales, or acceptance by any retailer or distributor) is guaranteed.

10. Intellectual Property

The Service, including its software, design, text, graphics, logos, and the names "Tunmire Publishing and Media," "Apollo," "Mara," "Forge," "Iris," "Orpheus," "Hermes," and "Theoria," is owned by Tunmire or its licensors and is protected by intellectual-property laws. We grant you a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use the Service for its intended purpose, subject to these Terms. We reserve all rights not expressly granted. You may submit feedback, and you grant us an unrestricted right to use it without obligation to you.

11. Third-Party Services

The Service relies on third-party infrastructure and service providers, such as cloud hosting and storage, to operate. Your use of the Service may be subject to those providers' terms where applicable, and we are not responsible for third-party services. Links or integrations to third-party sites are provided for convenience and are not endorsements.

12. Disclaimer of Warranties

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE SERVICE AND ALL OUTPUTS ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE," WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, SECURE, ERROR-FREE, OR THAT CONTENT WILL NOT BE LOST. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW CERTAIN DISCLAIMERS, SO SOME OF THE ABOVE MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

13. Limitation of Liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, TUNMIRE AND ITS OFFICERS, MEMBERS, EMPLOYEES, AND SUPPLIERS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, DATA, CONTENT, OR GOODWILL, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THE SERVICE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY. OUR TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS RELATING TO THE SERVICE WILL NOT EXCEED ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS (US$100). THESE LIMITATIONS ARE A FUNDAMENTAL BASIS OF THE BARGAIN BETWEEN US.

14. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Tunmire and its officers, members, employees, and agents from and against any claims, damages, liabilities, losses, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or related to Your Content, your use of the Service, your violation of these Terms, or your violation of any law or third-party right.

15. Suspension for Risk or Abuse

We may immediately suspend or limit your access, without liability, if we reasonably believe your account poses a security, legal, or abuse risk, including suspected fraud or attempts to circumvent usage or abuse-prevention limits (Section 5).

16. Dispute Resolution; Binding Arbitration; Class-Action Waiver

Please read this Section carefully — it affects your legal rights.

Informal resolution first. Before filing a claim, you agree to try to resolve the dispute informally by contacting us and allowing 30 days to resolve it.

Binding arbitration. Except as set out below, any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service will be resolved by final and binding individual arbitration administered under the rules of a recognized arbitration provider, rather than in court, and the Federal Arbitration Act governs the interpretation and enforcement of this provision.

Class-action and jury-trial waiver. You and Tunmire agree that each may bring claims against the other only in an individual capacity, and not as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class, collective, or representative proceeding. You and Tunmire waive any right to a jury trial.

Exceptions. Either party may bring qualifying claims in small-claims court, and either party may seek injunctive relief in court for intellectual-property infringement or unauthorized access. Nothing here waives rights that cannot be waived under applicable law.

Opt-out. You may opt out of this arbitration provision by sending us written notice within 30 days of first accepting these Terms; if you opt out, the governing-law and venue terms in Section 17 apply to disputes.

17. Governing Law and Venue

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Texas, United States, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules. Subject to Section 16, the state and federal courts located in Texas will have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute not subject to arbitration, and you consent to personal jurisdiction and venue there.

18. Changes to the Service and to These Terms

We may modify, suspend, or discontinue any part of the Service at any time. We may update these Terms from time to time; if we make material changes, we will provide notice by reasonable means (such as email or in-Service notice) and update the "Effective" date above. Changes are effective when posted unless stated otherwise. Your continued use of the Service after changes take effect constitutes acceptance. If you do not agree to the updated Terms, you must stop using the Service.

19. General

These Terms are the entire agreement between you and Tunmire regarding the Service and supersede prior agreements. If any provision is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in effect, and the unenforceable provision will be modified to the minimum extent necessary. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. You may not assign these Terms without our consent; we may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets. Nothing in these Terms creates a partnership, agency, or employment relationship.

PRIVACY POLICY

20. Information We Collect

We collect: (a) information you provide, such as your name, email address, and the content you create or upload (project documents, manuscripts, images, covers, audio, video, and uploaded files); (b) usage and device data, such as session activity, IP address, and log data; and (c) limited abuse-prevention identifiers as described in Sections 5 and 22. Payment details are collected by our payment processor, not by us. When you pay for your plan or tokens, your card details go to the processor directly; we keep a record of the transaction, the amount, and the processor's reference, and we never see or store your full card number.

21. How We Use Your Information

We use your information to provide, maintain, secure, and improve the Service; to prevent fraud and abuse; to communicate with you about your account and the Service; and to comply with legal obligations.

21a. Errors, Diagnostics, and Feedback

When something goes wrong in the Service, the error and the technical details around it — including which page you were on, what the Service was doing, and the identifiers of the work involved — are recorded and sent to our support team so we can fix it. Notes and feedback you send us about the Service, including notes you take while reviewing an audiobook, are also recorded. We may use those errors and that feedback to improve the Service, and they become our property for that purpose.

We do not treat the manuscript, audio, images, or other content you create as feedback, and that content remains yours under Section 7. We do not use whole chapters or whole manuscripts to improve the Service, and we do not use your recorded voice samples or finished audio to improve anything.

22. Abuse-Prevention Records

As described in Section 5, we retain a one-way hashed form of your email address, a random identifier stored in a cookie in your browser, the IP addresses you register and sign in from, and our payment processor's identifier for your card to enforce account limits and detect abuse. These records may be retained after account closure for as long as reasonably necessary for those purposes.

23. How We Share Information

We do not sell your personal information. We share information only with service providers that help us operate the Service (such as cloud hosting and storage providers), and as required to comply with law, enforce our Terms, or protect our rights, users, or the public. In a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, information may be transferred subject to this Policy.

24. Data Storage, Retention, and Security

We retain your data while your account is active. We do not delete your work on a schedule: your manuscripts, recordings, projects, and images stay in your account until you delete them, and each tool gives you a way to do that. When you download a finished audiobook or video, we remove our copy once the download completes; you can restore it from your account for seven days. When you delete an audiobook's files, the record of the order, its price, and its payment remains. The one exception is a recording of a voice you upload for narration, which is deleted on the schedule set out in the voice consent, and the finished audio made from it is deleted with it. When you close your account, your content and account data are permanently deleted within 30 days, except for the limited abuse-prevention records in Section 22 and any records we are required or permitted to retain by law or held in routine backups. We use industry-standard measures to protect your information, but no method of transmission or storage is completely secure.

25. Your Choices and Rights

You may review and update your account information and close your account at no cost from your account settings. Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, or port your personal information, or to object to certain processing. To request a copy of your data, contact us using the details below. We will not discriminate against you for exercising these rights.

26. Children

The Service is not directed to children under 18, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If we learn we have done so, we will delete it.

27. Contact

Tunmire Publishing and Media · Willis, Texas · (936) 228-9897 · john@tunmire.app. To reach us, email us or use the contact form in the Service.