If you only take one thing I say seriously ever again, let it be this: Don't live your life based on a brand. Authors change, evolve, retract, detract, implode, are born again. A brand is a temporary thing for a temporary state of mind. There are four financial quarters in a year. Even those are not all the same. If you want to live your life on your terms, being toxic ain't that bad. If you want to be in the cool kids' club, go protect your 'brand'. Don't expect me to protect it, though.