Larry Brown (1951-2004) is another huge literary hero of mine. He was a Mississippi dude who became a firefighter after serving in the Marines, then started reading - and writing short stories - in his down time. Ten books followed!
His memoir On Fire (1993) was instrumental in nudging me toward graduate school at USC and pursuing my writing career. He wrote about gritty, everyday characters just trying to survive.
After I moved back to Columbus in 1993 and my mom and dad promptly moved to Kansas, I got a job at the Dublin Branch Library but I wasn't writing. I sorely lacked creative discipline and drive.
This memoir by Larry Brown (1951-2004) absolutely changed my life. It's about the 15+ years he spent as a firefighter in Oxford, MS, while raising a family and knowing, deep down that he wanted to write.
He put his nose to the grindstone and started writing whenever he could. Chipping away at it! This eventually, miraculously, led to 10 published books and a career that was sadly cut short by a heart attack.
I read On Fire and it inspired me to apply to writing graduate programs. A year later, I was in my car, driving out to California and USC. I've been here ever since.