Penguin recently released the paperback version of a novel called The Memory of Running by Ron McLarty. I haven't read it yet, but I picked up a copy recently and I plan to get to it soon. It's about a 40-something year old alcoholic named Smithy who loses his parents in a car accident and then finds out that his long lost sister is also dead. In his grief, he goes out to his parent's garage, sees his boyhood bicycle, rides it to the end of his driveway and keeps going. He travels all the way from Rhode Island to Los Angeles to claim his sister's remains. On his way he meets people, some good—some not so good, and in the process he gets his life back on track.Besides the fact that this is a great story, the book itself has a story. McLarty wrote the book in 1988, sent it to publishers and it was never picked up by any of them. Memory was McLarty's third novel. His first two weren't published either. In fact, he wrote nine novels, 44 plays, and a number of poems that were never published. He stopped trying to get his novels published after he wrote Memory. But he continued to write.
He supported himself by doing voice-overs and ad work. But he didn't use the time he spent supporting himself as an excuse to stop writing. For the past 35 years, he has gotten up early and written from 4:00 AM until 10:00 AM before going off into the New York world of auditions the rest of the day. Listen to what he had to say about his routine: "By the time I went to New York in the morning to do auditions, I already felt successful."
In the midst of his day job, he found a friend in the audio-book publishing industry and gave her the Memory manuscript. She arranged for him to record the book in audio format—which is odd since the book hadn't been published in the traditional sense—but he took advantage of the opportunity and recorded the book.
During that same time, he auditioned without success for a part on a made for television miniseries called "Kingdom Hospital," a Stephen King creation. Even though he didn't get the part, he was stunned when King approached him on the set and asked him if he was the same Ron McLarty who wrote The Memory of Running. King had listened to it on audiotape while recuperating after being hit by a car.
King thought so much of the audio-book that he wrote an article for Entertainment Weekly in which he said this: "'The Memory of Running' is the best novel you won't read this year. So why can't you read it? Because—so far, at least—no publisher will touch it with a 10-foot pole." After the article was published, many publishers wanted it and within two weeks, McLarty had a contract.
If you can't get inspired by McLarty's story, then you can't get inspired. I am encouraged by his story, not because of who he has become or because he has finally tasted success, but because of who he has always been. McLarty had nothing and everything to do with Stephen King reading his manuscript. McLarty had no control over what Stephen King would do with his manuscript, but if McLarty hadn't written it, King would've never found out about it. You've got to admire a guy who spends six hours a day writing for 35 years when his chance of publication seems slim.
In a sense, we are all Ron McLarty. We all have passions. And for many of us, those passions will never materialize into worldly success. But so what? McLarty wasn't driven by whether he would "succeed" or not. He was driven by his passion to write and he simply enjoyed the journey. Everybody who has ever allowed a dream to die could learn something from him.
