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LIGHTING THE DARK SIDE-Six Modern Tales

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Lighting The Dark Side is an award winning anthology of shortfiction including three novellas and three shorter works covering a wide rangeof fiction genres including, Action/thriller, Mystery/ Suspense, Sci-fi,Romance and even Hard-boiled detective. Regular people find themselves caughtup in extraordinary situations; and all are locked into circumstances renderedmore complex by their own weaknesses.


The Stories

Bent,Not Broken. An obsessive compulsiveman falls in love; however, his disorder puts a severe strain on therelationship. Jealousy, low self-esteem, anxiety, and an increasing sense ofviolence engulf him until he pushes his new love away and falls into old habitsof avoidance.

In theGray. A seemingly mundane phone callbetween a grown son and his mother uncovers the reality of one man’s life.Tragedy interrupts the call seconds before the man can speak his truth and freehis mind of decades of bitter animosity.

Prominent Couple Slain. A former big city police detective is weary of thehorrors of homicide investigation. A few weeks after transferring to a smalltown police service he faces the brutality of murder once again when aprominent couple is found dead.

May18, 2010. Growing pandemonium overthe approach of an earth-grazing comet called Ivan is the backdrop for a manwho is given numerous chances to make amends with his loved ones.

Blessingor Curse? Who wouldn’t enjoy winningthe lottery? One man’s million dollar windfall becomes a curse when his son isabducted and held for ransom. Along with three friends, he takes up arms in afrantic effort to rescue his kidnapped child.

Survivingthe Fall. A man with compassion fordesperate souls meets a young street girl. Sickened by her life story, heimpulsively offers her his couch for the night and then feels unable to sendher away. The comfort the two find in their unorthodox relationship isshort-lived; shattered by violence as the girl’s past catches up to her.

 

Praise and Reviews

By Jan Whitford (Jamestown, Rhode Island)

The book jacket claims these tales will exercise our emotions, capture our imagination,
and challenge us to think in new directions. Well, I'm here to tell you all that the author
delivers on all that plus much, much more!
These novellas and short stories are definitely page-turners, but what impressed me the
most was their character-driven force. Potter skillfully intertwined succinct narrative and
some natural, fast-paced dialogue to present characters so real, they leapt right off the
page and captivated me immediately.
Lighting the Dark Side is a collection of three novellas and three short stories, including
plenty of action, thrills, suspense, mystery, and even romance. We start with an engaging
story of an improbable romance between an obsessive-compulsive geek and a drop-dead
gorgeous woman, seemed doomed from the start. Next, there's an artist trying his best to
thrive and find love in spite of overbearing, cruel parents. Following that, Potter changes
directions and we're treated to a well-done, hard-boiled police procedural with a nice
twist. An end of the world by approaching comet thriller is on tap after that, with some
great flash-forward writing as well as another ingenious plot twist. Now, these are all
wonderful tales, but I believe Potter saved the best two for last.
The title, Blessing or Curse is self-explanatory, referring to a big lottery win. A
kidnapping for ransom follows and we're treated to some of the author's best dialogue. It's
hugely entertaining and there are virtually no wasted words Elmore Leonard style. And
finally, Potter ends (all too soon) with a heart-warming tale of a wayward teenage street
whore and a gentleman with a rescuer complex. It's a great, intertwined plot where all the
characters come together, in the same spirit of the Academy Award winning movie,
Crash. Once again, Potter showcases his writing talent, this time with skillful
interspersing of critical back-story in such a way as to avoid slowing the plot.
Well, by now you've probably guessed that I am highly recommending Lighting the Dark
Side. As I said, all the stories are captivating but more than that, I urge you to take note of
the writer's talent for character development and I'm sure you'll be impressed. In fact, I
shouldn't think it'd be long before a major publishing house snaps Mr. Potter up because
he belongs on the bookshelves with the likes of Jeffery Deaver and Peter Abrahams.
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