LIGHTING THE DARK SIDE: Six Modern Tales [Paperback]

William R. Potter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 29, 2008

A short story collection featuring three novellas and three shorter works, LIGHTING THE DARK SIDE covers a wide range of fiction genres including, action, thriller, mystery/detective, suspense, and even romance. Join regular people who find themselves caught up in extraordinary situations. Some are simply down on their luck; while others struggle for survival. Each is locked into circumstances rendered more complex by their own weaknesses. Only when the shortcomings are recognized can they overcome these limitations and succeed. This collection of Six Modern Tales is designed to exercise your emotions, capture your imagination, and challenge you to think in new directions. LightingtheDarkSideWRP.com

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The Stories

Bent, Not Broken. The opening novella is about an obsessive compulsive man who falls in love. Dee-Dee challenges Dwayne to experience life instead of hiding from it. Nevertheless, Dwayne's disorder puts a severe strain on the relationship. Jealousy, low self-esteem, anxiety, and an increasing sense of violence engulf him until he pushes his new love away and falls into old habits of avoidance. Will he overcome this dilemma for love? Or will his problems continue to impede his happiness?

In the Gray. A seemingly mundane phone call between a grown son and his mother uncovers the reality of one man's life. Michael Conner has estranged himself from his entire family. He has no time for his co

Editorial Reviews

Review

Lighting the Dark Side contains a collection of six refreshingly different short stories.  Each one is very unique and cannot be compared to the others.  I really enjoyed reading the stories.  They are about human nature and how we deal with hardships.  Sometimes we overcome them, sometimes we obliterate them and sometimes we just make adjustments in ourselves to live with them.

What I discovered really interesting is that in almost every story, I found aspects of myself in the characters.  This allowed me to feel like I could relate to what they had going on inside themselves.  Some of these aspects ranged from a desire for vigilantism in situations with no other way out; a desire to help others by going way beyond what is expected; and that need to ask myself why I allow things to happen when I know the outcome ahead of time.  Kind of like, why did I do that again?  The examples in the stories are so much more interesting than any story that I have possibly lived.

Each short story or novella is very complete within itself, however, I found myself wishing that the stories would go on longer.  I wasn’t ready to leave the lives of these interesting characters.  This is what made the book even more fun because I found myself thinking about the stories later on, wondering what happened to people that never even existed. The characters are very well developed and intricately woven into their plots that they seem very real.  Their humanity is expressed through their shortcomings, and their need to change their situations.   

This book, “Lighting the Dark Side,” by William R. Potter, will definitely be enjoyed by all fans of fiction.  I think that it would make an excellent selection for a reader’s group or for a college course.  I would love to hear the interesting discussions that will be held about these stories. Reviewer, Paige Lovitt.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

About the Author

William R. Potter attempted his first novel at age eleven (Something about a giant crab attacking Vancouver). The teen years kept his imagination in a state of unrest and he used poetry to journal personal achievements and the events of the times and also published a piece in an anthology. He returned to his love of storytelling in his twenties, writing numerous short stories; and now in his thirties, has completed two full-length novels. He enjoys movies, music, reading, the outdoors and spending time with his kids. William resides in Vancouver with his wife, Erin and two children, Alexander and Meghan Rae.

Product Details

• Paperback: 258 pages
• Publisher: Xlibris (April 29, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1436312531
• ISBN-13: 978-1436312530
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,589,875 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

You could say I was bitten by the writing bug at an early age. Shortly after watching the first remake of King Kong, around the age of ten or eleven, I scribbled a few lines about a mutant crab and called it a book.

I returned to my love of storytelling in my twenties, writing numerous short stories. "Lighting the Dark Side-Six Modern Tales" represents my work from the past several years and is my first published book. The collection received the Editor's Choice Award for short stories from AllBooks Review International in 2009.

All three novellas from the short story collection "Lighting the Dark Side" have now been published 1n 2011 Direct to Kindle as stand alone books. They are:

Bent, Not Broken (romantic suspense)

Surviving the Fall (thriller)

October 18, 2012 (sci-fi suspense)

"DEAD of KNIGHT A Jack Staal Mystery" is my first full novel.

The Fright Factory (horror)


New books are in the works will be published shortly.

When I'm not working on my novels I'm reviewing books for authors. Many of my reviews are here on Amazon.

Thank you for dropping by my Amazon author page.

William R. Potter



William resides in New Westminster, Canada with his wife and two children.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a great book!, June 30, 2008

By 

C. Eversole - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: LIGHTING THE DARK SIDE: Six Modern Tales (Paperback)

I'm so glad I decided to get Lighting the Dark Side. I love books that are compiled of short stories, so this one was right up my ally.

While I realize there are many people out there who truely deal with OCD, I also believe that everyone has their own...tendancies. This piece really shed some light on what people deal with on a day to day basis, as well as being told in a riviting, entertaining way.

The author has made it easy to really connect with the characters in this book through these detailed stories. In fact, you might not notice how time flies when you're reading this one; it really is hard to put it down!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Engaging Stories, June 25, 2008

By 

Cassie Mae (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: LIGHTING THE DARK SIDE: Six Modern Tales (Paperback)

The author has written an engaging book. The characters are so well-developed that you can "feel" them.

My favorite short story is the first one. It captured me as I see a lot of the main character's actions the same as my own. Thankfully, as I read on more and more I found out I am not as OCD as he is.

For the life of me, I could not put this book down until I finished it in one day! This is only the second book in my 43 years that that has happened to me.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Believable Characters, June 25, 2008

By 

Sophie S, - See all my reviews

This review is from: LIGHTING THE DARK SIDE: Six Modern Tales (Paperback)

Interestingly, I was able to relate to the characters in each of the stories that made up Lighting the Dark Side. I am not OCD or anything, but there are parts of people and parts of myself that you can see in each person, and that is what I liked the most about this set of short stories.

The thoughts and storyline keep you very involved and invested in what you are reading, so I wasn't bored with it at all as I sometimes get with short stories.

I appreciated the feelings and emotions, like those in Surviving the Fall and May 18th more than I thought I would. Overall, I really liked this book of short storeies because of the well laid out stories that didn't leave you confused, guessing, or bewildered. They are still intense without being a total wash. Nice job.