G.M. Potter
G. M. Potter was born in Santa Monica, Ca. on April 20, 1961. In November 1973, his parents moved the family to Phoenix, Az. where he attended school with his two brothers and, in 1976, was enrolled in the prestigious Brophy College Preparatory School. In 1979, he graduated and was admitted to the University of Arizona, in Tucson, where he majored in Biology as a Pre-Med student. Lacking the proper motivation, and after three disastrous academic semesters, he left the University and enlisted in the US Army in January 1981. Through demonstrations of capability and independent action, he was recruited into the US Army Special Forces, 7th Special Forces Group, Fort Bragg, North Carolina, as an Intelligence Specialist where he remained until early 1985. After leaving the US Army, he was briefly a student at Arizona State University in Tempe, Az. enrolled as a computer science major, until his mother passed away unexpectedly in late 1985. In the following years, he held jobs as a carpenter, building furniture, houses, cabinetry, and, for a brief period in Orlando, Florida, boats. In 1992, he was accepted as an Undergraduate student at the University of California at Berkeley when he had rediscovered his passion for writing and sought academic training at the finest University he could find. In 1994, he graduated with a degree in English and fully intending to pursue a career as a writer.
Unfortunately, and like many of his previous attempts at following a passionate interest into a career field, he was living in San Francisco, Ca. and had to accept employment as a sales representative in a local automotive dealership simply to pay the bills. After almost fifteen years in one sales position or another, he found himself as a financial advisor in San Jose, Ca. in 2008. He believed in the early months of that year that he was witnessing the coming financial collapse and advised all of his clients to get out of the market and prepare for a long economic collapse. Unfortunately, in so advising his clients, his financial planning practice came to an abrupt halt. He sold his equity position in the practice to a good friend and left that business and passion behind.
Previous to the economic collapse in 2008, he had found an outlet for a passion he had carried all of his life since growing up near the ocean in Santa Monica, Ca. He bought a surfboard and a wetsuit, and found a small group of like-minded men and women in the coastal town of Capitola, Ca. not far from San Jose. They accepted him as one of their own, surfed with him every morning for the next several years, and became life-long friends.
Along with the loss of his livelihood and the pervasive economic collapse all around him in early 2012, he found himself unemployed, homeless, and being forced to leave his beloved California for the only place he knew he could go if things were going badly. He bid fair well to his group of friends in Capitola and took a train, then a bus, and finally arrived in Livingston, Mt. where his Aunt took him in, sheltered him, and where he could plan his next move. He soon found employment at a local hotel as a dishwasher in the restaurant. After less than a year, he was promoted to Prep Chef and remained in the employ of the hotel for a year and half more.
After every intended try at writing, after three attempts at university life, after one failed marriage while in the army, after the collapse of the economic system that provided his livelihood as a financial advisor, and even after discovering a love of the ocean so late in life, G. M. Potter accidently found himself involved with a wonderfully caring woman whom he met while working as a dishwasher in the local hotel in Emigrant, Mt. The two began living with each other in mid-2012. In late 2014, he began to dust off the short story work he had completed so far, and worked tirelessly to finish the small collection of stories, Clowns and Buffoons: Short Stories, in mid-2015.
He continues to live in Emigrant, Mt. with his partner, Robin Martin, and their two dogs, Bella and Jagger. He is currently working on his second collection of short stories due for publication in the spring of 2016.
