psas

A few words of advice based on recent things of my life.

If you agree to be the executor of a friend's literary estate, make sure said friend has made sure the will in which you are so named is legal by the standards of the state in which said friend resides. Otherwise, in addition to missing your friend, you'll have to deal with contracts & requests piling up while a lawyer in Tennessee does god knows what.
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If you have animals and no children, try to remember, when you have to start spending a lot of money on the furry one's health, that at least you don't have to send them to college.
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Don't have problems with styes if you have weird skin because you have scleroderma. You will be fucked.
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If you're feeling some despair over the novelist career you've been paying dues on for almost forty years...just keep writing. Keep writing because it keeps you sane, because you know you're good at it, because it gives you good energy, because you'd rather keep writing than not.
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Be nice to yourself sometimes. Breathe.