Interview with William R. Potter, Author of Lighting the Dark Side - Page 2

What was your favorite book to read as a child? 

Books that fired my imagination were always favored. I read anything from Little House on the Prairie to Lord of the Flies.

What is your favorite book at the present?  

I can’t think of a favorite at the moment. I just finished, and enjoyed, Peacemaker by Dan Ronco, a thriller about a computer virus which almost destroys the world.

Can you tell us a little about your latest book? 

Lighting the Dark Side is an anthology of fiction featuring three novellas and three shorter works. They are about human nature and how our darker side can impede our ability to cope with hardships. The book opens with a novella called Bent, Not Broken where we meet Dwayne Johnson, a man beginning a new relationship even though he is plagued with severe Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. A police procedural called "Prominent Couple Slain" is also included. Detective Jack Staal is disillusioned about his career after he takes a nosedive from big city homicide investigator to small town detective. Desperate to prove himself, he ignores protocol to work a case that is not his to solve. In "Blessing or Curse?" Brad Stewart’s bloated ego strains lifelong friendships after an enormous lottery win. His millionaire lifestyle suddenly becomes a nightmare when his son is kidnapped for ransom. The book closes with the largest piece, Surviving the Fall, a tale about James Goodal, a man who spent his entire life avoiding uncomfortable situations. This safe and easy existence has left James lonely and facing divorce. Everything changes when he takes in a young street girl named Ashley. The pair finds comfort in their unorthodox friendship until her violent world returns forcing James to fight for Ashley and for his very survival. The two remaining stories find average, but flawed, people struggling to overcome their weaknesses in order to escape extraordinary situations.

What was the inspiration behind your book?  Why did you feel a need to write it? 

Inspiration for the book came from everywhere. Sometimes it was from my own life experiences, like the birth of my children or the end of my first marriage. Other times it was the stimulating imagery of books, television, movies, and the Internet. Whatever the topic, if it stirred up my emotions, there was a good chance an idea would end up in a story. The collection represents where I was as a writer during the last eight years, and I felt compelled to put them together in a book.

What kind of research did you have to do to write your book? 

Each of the six stories required different amounts of research. Dwayne in Bent, Not Broken suffers from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. I researched the disorder until I felt confident that I wouldn’t offend sufferers, and then finished the story.

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