The Book Stacks

I have asked author William Potter to join us today in talking about his love of writing and what draws him to writing shorter works of fiction…

I was making up stories before I could read. This made writing short stories the next logical step for me. The ability to complete an entire story idea in a few thousand or even a few hundred words was very attractive, as I could experiment with several different characters, plots, points of view and genres in the same time frame that would be committed to a single novel.

In 2001 I was in a new relationship, in love and happy for the first time in years. From this stability, I decided to get serious about writing. I started with a few short stories with some success. With my growing confidence I tried increasingly complex plots and soon had a number of shorts and two novellas by fall 2004.

The birth of my daughter delayed writing for over a year. Finally in spring 2006 I returned to the unpublished short stories. The first thing I noticed was the darker subject matter. I credited this gloominess to sadness still lingering from my divorce. The stories were getting some favourable feedback and I wondered if grouped together they might be enough for a book. After polishing the stronger selections, I wrote another novella, pared the total down to six and then began to research publishers.

On April 29, 2008, Lighting the Dark Side was published. The characters in the book all follow unique paths in order to escape their extraordinary situations; from Dwayne Johnson, a man who struggles to find love despite a severe Obsessive Compulsive Disorder; to Brad Stewart, whose lottery win becomes a nightmare when his son is kidnapped for ransom; to James Goodal, a gentle man with a rescue complex who resorts to murder when he takes in a young street prostitute.

I appreciate your interest in Lighting the Dark Side and invite you to stop by my site at www.lightingthedarkside.com

Thank you.