Last updated: July 21, 2026
This document is the Terms of Service for Lodestar, a family of seven writing tools — Sadr, Rigel, Mirach, Deneb, Capella, Altair, and Pollux — provided by Christopher Ray Writes ("we," "us," "our"). It covers your shared Lodestar account (the single login used across every product) and everything common to all seven products. Each product also has a short addendum, appended below when you view that product's own Terms, covering what's specific to that product's own functionality, pricing, and data retention.
Geographic scope: Lodestar is currently offered only to users located in the United States and its territories.
By creating an account and using any Lodestar product, you agree to these Terms of Service. If you don't agree, don't create an account or use the service.
One account works across every Lodestar product. You can create a free account without purchasing anything, and purchase any combination of Sadr, Rigel, Mirach, Deneb, Capella, Altair, and Pollux against that same account at any time. You're responsible for keeping your login credentials secure and for all activity under your account. You must provide a real, working email address — it's how we verify your identity and, at least at launch, how account recovery works.
Creating a Lodestar account does not automatically subscribe you to the Christopher Ray Writes newsletter. At signup, an unchecked checkbox lets you opt in — check it if you'd like to receive the newsletter; leave it unchecked and you won't be subscribed. If you do subscribe, you can unsubscribe at any time using the link in any newsletter email — doing so only removes you from the newsletter and does not affect your account or access to any Lodestar product.
This is the most important section. Everything you write, plan, upload, or otherwise create inside any Lodestar product — your premises, characters, chapters, scenes, manuscripts, worksheets, source records, or any other content — belongs entirely to you. We claim no ownership, no license to use it for any purpose beyond providing the specific product you're using, and no rights to your characters, plot, sources, or prose, now or ever. You retain full copyright and all other rights in everything you create.
As the operator of the service, we have the technical ability to access data stored in our systems — this is true of any hosted software, not unique to Lodestar. Here is exactly what we do and don't do with that access:
Every Lodestar product is sold as a one-time purchase, not a subscription — you pay once and retain access indefinitely, subject to these Terms. Exact pricing, what's included, and any bundle discounts are stated in that product's own addendum. Refund policy: all sales are final; no Lodestar product offers refunds on one-time purchases.
Across every Lodestar product, you agree not to:
The Lodestar brand, and each product's own software, design, and branding (distinct from your content, covered by Section 5), are owned by Christopher Ray Writes. You're granted a license to use the service as intended; you don't acquire any ownership in the software itself.
Every Lodestar product is provided "as is," without warranties of any kind. We are not liable for any indirect, incidental, or consequential damages arising from your use of the service. Our total liability to you for any claim arising from these Terms or your use of any Lodestar product is limited to the amount you actually paid for that product.
We take reasonable measures to protect your data, but you're encouraged to regularly export your own local copy of your content using each product's own download/export feature. We are not responsible for data loss.
You may stop using any Lodestar product and request account deletion at any time by contacting us. We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate Section 8. Account deletion removes your access to every Lodestar product on the same account, and their stored data, subject to each product's own data retention terms; see Section 11 regarding your own backups.
If we ever discontinue a Lodestar product, we'll provide at least 60 days' notice and continued access so you can export your data during that window.
We may update these Terms from time to time. Material changes will be communicated via a notice shown in the app before they take effect.
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Alabama, without regard to conflict-of-law principles.
Questions about these Terms: christopherraywrites26@gmail.com.
The following is specific to Altair, in addition to the Lodestar Terms of Service above.
Altair is a thesis-writing tool. It provides worksheets for organizing a central argument, literature review, evidence, and outline, plus a split-pane writing space. Altair does not write any part of your thesis for you.
Altair stores the citation metadata you enter in the Literature Review Tracker and lets you export it as BibTeX or RIS for use in a dedicated citation manager (such as Zotero, EndNote, or Mendeley). Altair does not generate formatted bibliographies or in-text citations (APA/MLA/ Chicago, etc.) — you are responsible for verifying any exported citation data before submitting your thesis.
Altair is a one-time purchase, at the current price shown at checkout — not a subscription. You pay once and retain full, unlimited access to Altair on your account permanently, covering any thesis you write, including future ones.
We are not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or academic acceptability of any content you create or any citation data you export.