Published: July 02, 2009 11:59 pm      

Ex-mayor reveals hidden talent

Rudy Dunnigan writes book between seeing dental patients

Ashland — Many may know Rudy Dunnigan as a former mayor of Ashland, having served two terms in office.

Many may know him as a dentist who has been in practice for more than 40 years.

What many may not know about him is he also is a writer.

Even as a child, he spent a lot of time writing.

“When I was about 15, I wrote 30 pages about something and I don’t remember what. I would write and hide what I had written under a piece of old linoleum on the floor of the old house at 35th and Winchester Avenue where we lived,” he said. “My brother, Ron, found it and made me pay him $5 to return it.”

Over the years, he held onto the short stories and essays he’d written; he recently turned many of them into a novel he titled “Boone Springs.”

“‘Boone Springs’ is based on several actual occurrences that took place all over eastern Kentucky over several years,” Dunnigan said of the book, much of which he wrote in his dental office between patients. “It is a book of contrasts. There is a businessman and a sheriff involved in multiple illegal activities and an honest state trooper who is after them. There is a virtuous woman and totally amoral woman. There are two ministers who are polar opposites in their approach to religion. There is one couple who are deeply in love and another who are deeply in lust. Two love stories also inhabit the book and are far removed from each other in the way they occur.”

Dunnigan, a fan of Mickey Spillane, John Steinbeck and Robert Penn Warren, said he likes to write early in the morning, even though that’s not how “Boone Springs” was created.

“I have been known to get up in the middle of the night if I have a thought that I don’t want to lose,” he said, adding “Boone Springs” was written over a period of about two months; he also said he rewrote it four times.

“I find that I write in fits and starts,” he said. “I will go for long periods and write very little, but when I start a project, I am driven to do it in every spare minute that I have. I am almost a hermit once I begin to write.”

Dunnigan also has written three other novels and has outlines for two others. He also has started an outline for a nonfiction book about his years as mayor of Ashland.

“There is a lot to write about that isn’t generally known by most,” he said about that experience. “I think it may turn out to be stranger than fiction.”

Dunnigan has found he can write on more than one project at a time, something many writers have difficulty with.

“I could have a block about one of them and just begin to write in the other,” he said. “The words would come in a torrent. ... Maybe I just have too much to say. Sometimes we must learn to shut up. It’s a hard lesson for some of us.”

While Dunnigan’s life and accomplishments illustrate he has many talents and interests, he’s modest about his writing ability.

“I don’t think I have the magic with words that some writers do, but I believe that I am a decent storyteller,” he said. “I hope others enjoy my storytelling.”

LEE WARD can be reached at lward@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2661.