Reviewers and readers praise  BENT, NOT BROKEN and Lighting The Dark Side.

Aaron Wilson of The Soulless Machine Review said,

Lighting the Dark Side: Six Modern Tales arrived in the mail a few days ago. It is a collection of short stories and novellas that focuses on relatively normal people in strange situations. I haven’t finished all of them yet, in fact, I’ve only read the first story. I will get to the others. For now, I really want to tell you about “Bent, Not Broken,” a story that should not be missed.

Dwayne suffers from OCD. I think that after finishing the story that some of my own compulsive tendencies have flared, but I’m not Dwayne. Dwayne must live in a world of odd numbers preferring 3s, 5s, and 7s. One of the more touching moments is when Dwayne is out on a date and he needed an extra chair and place setting at the table in order to feel comfortable, and I think that I’m hard to live with.

Dwayne is excellent at his job. He is calls people that he reefers to as “marks” and asks them about their preferences, surveys them about food, TV, etc, and rewards those who answer them with valuable coupon books. He holds the record for the most completed surveys in one shift. He is loved by his boss; hated by his co-workers. To Dwayne, his co-workers are the terrible trio. They play games with this desk, putting an extra pen in his up so that they number 4 or 6 or 8. These games make it impossible for Dwayne to focus.

The one thing that Dwayne has going for him is a mysterious woman that he calls Black-Coat Girl who is at the bus stop everyday at the same time he drives by on his way to work. Dwayne has made up several stories about Black-Coat Girl, who she is, what she does, why she takes the bus.

What is really nice about this story is that it has a very Punch-Drunk Love romantic twist that takes a seven car pileup on a snowy day to kick off. Dwayne has to take the bus, the very same bus that Black-Coat Girl takes. And on that day, Black-Coat Girl sits down beside him and admits that she thinks of him as her 20-Second Boyfriend.

They have a bumpy start to things, but their story ends well, not the happily ever after kind of ending, but an ending that suits the characters and left me wanting for more.

The writing is really well done. The descriptions of Dwayne’s inner experience are strange and wildly detailed. www.soullessmachine.com

Another reviewer said...

 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 (Bent, Not Broken) of an improbable romance between an obsessive-compulsive geek and a drop-dead gorgeous woman, seemed doomed from the start. 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. Highly recommended by reviewer: Jan Evan Whitford, Allbooks Reviews

Readers Said...

Engaging Stories

By Cassandra Mae (Wisconsin)

The author (Potter) has written an engaging book. The characters are so well-developed that you can "feel" them.
My favorite short story is the first one (Bent, Not Broken). 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.

A Captivating Read

By Heather Shockney (Greensboro, PA USA)

William Potter has done an excellent job of writing six short stories that draw you in from the beginning. Mr. Potter makes you feel so connected to the characters. You feel like you are right there with them, going through the same things they are.
My favorite story was Bent, Not Broken. I have dealt with OCD my whole life and I could relate so much to the way Dwayne felt each day. Dee-Dee was such a special person for accepting Dwayne as he was.
I would recommend Lighting the Dark Side to everyone. They will be hooked from the start. It takes a great author to keep my attention when reading a book. Mr. Potter has done that wonderfully. I was not able to put the book down until I was done reading the last page.

This is a great book!,

By C. Eversole

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 truly deal with OCD, I also believe that everyone has their own...tendencies. This piece really shed some light on what people deal with on a day to day basis, as well as being told in a riveting, 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!

 Now Available on AMAZON.COM    $16.19 (Trade paperback)
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