Destiny and other follies
Calder Brandt beat the odds—but the victory came with a price. As he moves through sterile corridors and stark truths, memories collide with the present, and one question lingers: What does it mean to truly live when every day feels like a gift you didn’t ask for? Destiny and Other Follies is a deeply human story of endurance, identity, and the quiet reckoning that comes when life refuses to fit the plan. Poignant and unflinching, it speaks to anyone who has ever wondered what they owe to life—and to themselves—when tomorrow is never guaranteed.
Lovers of literary novels that blend gritty realism with suspense and a splash of drama will find Destiny and Other Follies… an enthralling read. Venters hurls readers into the troubled worlds of the cast with reflective prose of profound philosophical depth.
Venters’s skillful analogies and descriptive writing sometimes steal the spotlight from the plot, but, along with the richness of Calder’s emotions, they also serve to invigorate the mechanics of corporate life: business meetings, email threads, the explanations of proposals. Despite the challenge of tracking the story’s large cast, Venters ensures they are realistic, relatable, and grounded in contemporary corporate power dynamics, with developments like Calder’s poor health post-throat cancer becoming their own character.
Razor-sharp, funny, and painfully true. A dark comedy of aging and ambition that leaves no illusion unshattered.
Destiny and other follies
Calder Brandt beat the odds—but the victory came with a price. As he moves through sterile corridors and stark truths, memories collide with the present, and one question lingers: What does it mean to truly live when every day feels like a gift you didn’t ask for? Destiny and Other Follies is a deeply human story of endurance, identity, and the quiet reckoning that comes when life refuses to fit the plan. Poignant and unflinching, it speaks to anyone who has ever wondered what they owe to life—and to themselves—when tomorrow is never guaranteed."
Venters’s skillful analogies and descriptive writing sometimes steal the spotlight from the plot, but, along with the richness of Calder’s emotions, they also serve to invigorate the mechanics of corporate life: business meetings, email threads, the explanations of proposals. Despite the challenge of tracking the story’s large cast, Venters ensures they are realistic, relatable, and grounded in contemporary corporate power dynamics, with developments like Calder’s poor health post-throat cancer becoming their own character.
Lovers of literary novels that blend gritty realism with suspense and a splash of drama will find Destiny and Other Follies… an enthralling read. Venters hurls readers into the troubled worlds of the cast with reflective prose of profound philosophical depth.
Razor-sharp, funny, and painfully true. A dark comedy of aging and ambition that leaves no illusion unshattered.
What happens when a cancer survivor, facing a world where business has become personal, wants more than merely to survive?
“Rich in gritty realism, a work of highbrow literary fiction for those who appreciate deep philosophical introspection and extrospection.”
Destiny
and other follies
A psychological tale of suspense about a career gone wrong, Destiny and Other Follies shadows business consultant Calder Brandt as he defies backstabbing colleagues in his pursuit of promotion. His struggle is mirrored by his young Bosnian wife, Hana. Her own work challenges and loneliness reveal a marriage locked in an isolation of its own making, one held together only by a shared devotion to their Weimaraner, Darwin. Set against the impersonal backdrop of high-stakes consulting and the grim reality of deteriorating health, the story asks: How can we hope to thrive in a corporatized and disconnected world where “humane” has lost all meaning?
Destiny
and other follies
What happens when a cancer survivor, facing a world where business has become personal, wants more than merely to survive?
A psychological tale of suspense about a career gone wrong, Destiny and Other Follies shadows business consultant Calder Brandt as he defies backstabbing colleagues in his pursuit of promotion. His struggle is mirrored by his young Bosnian wife, Hana. Her own work challenges and loneliness reveal a marriage locked in an isolation of its own making, one held together only by a shared devotion to their Weimaraner, Darwin. Set against the impersonal backdrop of high-stakes consulting and the grim reality of deteriorating health, the story asks: How can we hope to thrive in a corporatized and disconnected world where “humane” has lost all meaning?
Club Magie Noir
This project started almost by accident.
Where I live, I’m surrounded by solitude. Although ideal for writing, the silence can become oppressive. While I write, I like instrumental music playing, usually jazz. But the jazz created by the greats always draws me in, distracts me with its beauty and virtuosity. I needed more mundane jazz, jazz only to fill the silence, nothing more. But what I found, all of it AI-generated, was too bland, too repetitive, dull.
I became AI-curious. If I learned to use the tools, I could make the kind of jazz that would work for me. I still had doubts about AI, doubts that stemmed from a writing perspective. But I figured, you can read a book with music in the background, but you can’t listen to music with a book in the background. So, I started messing with the tools and liked the results. I wondered what others would think. So I launched Club Magie Noir on YouTube, and people seem to like it.
It will never replace music forged by the living soul of an artist. It has no place in the writing of serious fiction (every word of my book is my own). But it can create a peaceful atmosphere for doing stuff like writing and reading.
About
Gregory Venters was born in Northern Virginia and grew up outside Annapolis. He received a BA in Philosophy from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and did brief stints in the US Navy and for various corporations. After earning an MBA from the University of Edinburgh, he worked for over twenty years as a management consultant in the UK, US, and Europe. He lives in the Salzkammergut region of Austria.
Email me
© Sara Bubna – Salzburg
