Dennis Ruane

Dennis Ruane has written four novels, “Wooden Spoons“, “Cataloochee Man”, “The Man in the Room”, and “The Battle of Walnut Hollow”. Although he has made a living as a woodcarver for thirty-five years, Dennis habitually wrote in a journal with the intention of gathering material for a novel. In the first two decades of this period, he made several attempts to develop one particular story, but was never satisfied with the results. Fifteen years ago, his efforts finally came to fruition, and he wrote "Wooden Spoons". Dennis was so encouraged by the response to this first novel that he began working on another story soon after it was published. Three years later, in 2009, "Cataloochee Man" was published, a story born out of a period when the author took many solo hikes in the Cataloochee Valley of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Dennis' third novel, "The Man in the Room" was four years in the making, during which time the author worked through some personal challenges, resulting in an introspective and somewhat autobiographical story. He deviated from the style of the previous two novels in that "The Man in the Room" is written in the first person a literary perspective the author utilizes again for “The Battle of Walnut Hollow”. This recently published work is the most ambitious project Dennis has undertaken, encompassing nearly five years, and is certainly the most political of his four novels.