Dennis Venter

, Male

South Africa

Profile Information:

Hometown:: Cape Town, South Africa
About Me:: Ex-attorney who hated law. Turned to writing with the naïveté of an ignorant. Wrote for five years on the great South African novel without earning a red penny. Worked at a large chain bookstore selling the books of others. Fell into TV writing through another bookseller and now have over 150 produced television credits in both drama and sitcom. Last year optioned a script to a Hollywood producer which lead to two writer-for-hire feature film jobs. Still dream of the novel. Hopefully one day will find the time (and strength of character) to go for it again.
I Am A:: Reader, Writer
Books And Authors I Like:: The Old: James Lee Burke, Robert Crais, Lee Child, John Stanford, Michael Connelly, Stephen King, John Irving, Tom Robbins, Nelson De Mille, Elmore Leonard, Carl Hiaasen and many many more.

The New (for me): Victor Gischler, Duane Swierczynski, JD Rhoades, Laura Lippman, Meg Gardiner, Ken Bruen, Al Guthrie, and hopefully many more of the authors on this site.
Movies And TV Shows I Like:: The Wire, Sopranos, Deadwood, Rome, Rescue Me, 24, Dexter, The Shield, Boston Legal, various CSIs (when they're not jumping the shark with ludicrous storylines), Prison Break, Bones, Criminal Minds, Without a Trace, Battlestar Galactica, Heroes, Friday Night Lights, Weeds. (and then my guilty pleasures...Gilmore Girls, Everwood, Buffy, Angel).

Comment Wall:

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Marta Stephens

Hi there Dennis! Thanks of inviting me to your group.
Marta

Jun 1, 2007
Rosie Contreras

Hello! Thank you for befriending me! I look forward to participating on this space and learning more from these interesting folks! - Rose

Jun 1, 2007
Shirley Wells

Hi, Dennis, and thanks for the invite. Good to meet you.

Jun 2, 2007
James Twining

Thanks for the add Dennis. I've never been so cold as when I went to swim with the penguins at Boulders Beach!

Jun 5, 2007
Tess G

Hi Dennis,

I appreciate the invite.

Wow, over 100 TV shows

Jun 6, 2007
Marta Stephens

Hey Dennis, you asked if my book is available in the UK. Absolutely!! My publisher is British. It's there now. Look on my website under, what else, "Buy it NOW" There are several locations listed including the book depository in London. It's also available through all the Amazons including the UK. So by all means, Buy! Buy! Buy! :)

Jun 6, 2007
Rosie Contreras

Hi Dennis, thanks for the comment! I haven't watched FNL yet so I can't respond to whether it's an accurate depiction of small town Texas life. I will say, however, that small town Texas is pretty obsessed with football.

Jun 6, 2007
Dave Zeltserman

Hi Dennis, thanks for the invite.--Dave

Jun 12, 2007
Babe King

Hey you young whippersnapper, don't go pulling guns on people who are older than dirt! teehee. Many days I feel much older than 106, especially when I'm in edits. :-)

Jun 13, 2007
Steven Dunne

Great CV Dennis. Always wanted to visit Cape Town and now relations are there perhaps I will. Keep writing.

Jun 18, 2007
Theo Gangi

Good to meet you. Keep writing.

Jun 20, 2007
Steven Dunne

Hi Dennis
Yeah so far so good. I don't know what the situation is where you are but in Britain getting an agent never mind a publisher is impossible unless your book falls into tightly defined parameters which agents think is what's selling at a particular time. If a mainstream publisher came up with an offer I'd more than likely grab it with both hands as the DIY route is time-consuming if interesting. Cheers

Jun 20, 2007
Joan Conwell

Thanks for the invitation, Dennis. I'm just so impressed with the accomplishments of everyone on this site!

Jun 23, 2007
TJ Perkins

I have always wanted to get my most popular book Mystery of the Attic turned into a tv movie for kids. Know anyone willing to take a chance?

Jun 26, 2007
Paula R. Stiles

Hi Dennis,

Thanks for commenting on my page. You have had a very interesting career. "The Great South African novel", eh?

Jun 27, 2007
Jason Starr

Thanks so much re BUST, Dennis. Great to hear you enjoyed it!
Working with Ken on it was the best part, lots of laughs. We do a lot of the planning together, and then go back and forth ont he writing when we're apart. We write all the chapters together, and have a new one out.....SLIDE.....in October
Thank you again and talk soon
Jason

Jun 27, 2007
R Broome

Yeah, R is fine...yeah, I moved here almost ten years ago (it'll be 10 next summer) finished high school and college here...went back home last christmas...it's awesome, you should try to go cuz each time i go back i remember what makes the Caribbean a great place to live.

Jul 2, 2007
Declan Burke

Hi Dennis - Thanks for the welcome, it's really appreciated - much obliged, sir. Glad to see you're a Ken Bruen fan ... the guy is really putting Irish crime fiction on the map, and pretty much invented a whole new sub-genre in the process ... a great guy. Will be back once I get myself settled in, and thanks again, Dec

Jul 3, 2007
Cyndia Depre

Thanks, Dennis! I think starting a new career so late was good for me. Made me feel younger and it was wonderful to learn new things. Maybe you'll feel like picking up your novel again soon. If not now, when?

Jul 4, 2007
Lilo

Hi Dennis,
I'd love to help out on that porch... but it'll have to get in line behind the brick patio, room addition, remodeling of the kitchen and restoring of a very sad looking wood floor in my living room.

Jul 8, 2007
Dennis Webster

Hi there, Dennis. I love the name! This is a really cool place.

Jul 8, 2007
Michael Allan Mallory

Hi Dennis. Thanks for the invite.

Jul 10, 2007
Cara Black

Nice to meet a South African writer...makes two after Deon Meyer

Jul 27, 2007
surfingcheryl

Thanks for the invite, Dennis. Congrats on the TV credits, most people would kill for that. You can get your novel published, no sweat. (Hey, I did, so anybody could.) But it's a BADDDDD addiction and man, show me the money...it ain't there.

Jul 28, 2007
Harry Shannon

Yeah, we're out shopping the movie (waiting sucks) but people seem to laugh and/or shriek in all the right places. Have a great weekend!

Jul 28, 2007
Michael Haskins

Dennis, yeah,checking your book list, we do like a lot of the same writers. Spent too many years in LA, and was a member of Mystery Writers of America, so I got to meet many of the S. Cal writers and collected their books, and am doing the same now that I live in Key West (South, very South, Florida). Good luck with the Hollywood producer.

Jul 29, 2007
JackBludis

So man of us like the same shows, the same books. Makes one wonder why hardboiled seems to take a back seat to cozy.

Jul 31, 2007
Jackie Houchin

Thanks. What was the "great South African novel" about, Dennis? Sounds like it could be interesting. And what is the Hollywood script? Drama or sitcom? (We have enough sitcoms, in my opinion.) ;-)

Aug 1, 2007
Robert Fate

Thanks for the invitation, pal - and best of luck to you. Bob

Aug 1, 2007
Jackie Houchin

Ah. Hope the feature gets picked up.

Aug 1, 2007
Alexandria Ayers

Hi Dennis,
Thanks for the request. Glad to be your online friend.

Take care
alexandria

Aug 3, 2007
Patrick Lee

Hi Dennis, thanks for the invite!

Your credits are impressive, and I'd say they bode very well for your future as a novelist. Thanks for wishing me luck; you too!

Aug 6, 2007
Rick Mofina

Hi Dennis: Thanks so much. Hope the option plays out in the most profitable way for you.
All the best
Rick

Aug 6, 2007
Jerry Sanford

Dennis - Thanks for your kind invitation. This is the first time I've been involved in a blog, but I don't think it will take that long to adjust with friendly folks like you around.
Jerry

Aug 6, 2007
R. Barri Flowers

Hello, Dennis:

So you're from South Africa? I had a few friends in grad school from SA. I'd love to get there someday.

Aug 8, 2007
Timothy Hallinan

Hey, Dennis - I envy anyone with the command of structure necessary to write scripts. I have to write a story two or three times before the structure really becomes apparent, and then I have to go back and reshape. Ands even then I'm never sure I got it right. I just finished reading a new biography of Kingsley Amis, and Amis is quoted as saying it's more important for a story to be well told than it is for it to be well written, which I agree with, and I think structure is one of the most important elements in a well-told story. You'll write your novel.
Tim

Aug 22, 2007
Steven Craigh

Cheers, Dennis. Always envied screenwriters their economy with words. Good luck with the feature.

I agree with Tim about the novel, you'll get another crack at it, see if you don't.

I didn't get to do mine until I'd given it up. What is it they say about if you love something, set it free? Well it went and it came back to me. Lucky me.

Aug 28, 2007
Loreth Anne White

Hi (howzit :) )Dennis,

I'm Johannesburg-born, and my most recent 15 years in South Africa were spent in Cape Town, which has got to be geographically one of the most beautiful places on this earth.

And yeah -- I miss the warmth. Some of our summer days in these Canadian mountains are as cold as a mid-winter one in CT.

I do, however, love the snow. I have become an avid Nordic skier -- both classic and skate, and a snowshoe hiker/runner. Winters are magic ... and well, the houses are warm inside :). Much warmer than an SA on in winter!!

Fabulous to "meet" you.

And Barri (waves) it's a fabulous place for a vacation -- the dollar goes far :)

Loreth

Aug 29, 2007
Douglas Quinn

See you like James Lee Burke (have corresponded with him--he's a nice man) and Carl Hiaasen. Two of my favorites. Personally, I'd think a novel would be easier to write than a television script, but it depends what you're in the groove on, I guess. I'm trying to find the time over the next week to update my Crimespace with excerpts from my books, but in the meantime, check out my website and see what I've got going on.

Douglas Quinn
www.douglasquinn.com

Aug 30, 2007
Keith Dixon

Hi Dennis
I like your taste in books! Your writers and TV shows reflect my favourites too. I guess when you're into this 'crime' world you hunt down the best in whatever medium you can, huh?

Sep 3, 2007
Charlotte Williamson

Dennis,
I accidently hit "decline" instead of "accept" in your request to be my friend on crimespace. Can you resubmit it? I'm really interested in talking to someone from south Africa. Your resume sounds intriquing.

Sep 5, 2007
Liz Filleul

Hi Dennis, thanks for befriending me. Your TV writing sounds great - have you written any crime series? Am I likely to have seen any of your series in Australia?

Sep 5, 2007
Keith Dixon

Hey Dennis!
The run of the final 9 episodes has just started here, so I don't know what happens in the last one - though I've seen the odd comment about it online (try as I might to avoid reading anything about it!) So if it's OK with you I won't be getting into a discussion about it for, oh, another 8 weeks ... hehe

Sep 5, 2007
Charlotte Williamson

Dennis, old pal, old buddy, old friend,
Tell me about south Africa. It sounds so exotic.
What part of Law did you hate? All of it, or just the idiocy of the whole thing? I especially abhor defense attorneys, myself.
Keep working on that novel. I'm writing my third.
Charlotte

Sep 7, 2007
Charlotte Williamson

OH! I hope you're not a former defense attorney! I'm pro law enforcement (former deputy sheriff), & I'm forever on my soap box. I saw enough injustice and inequities in the justice system, that I sometimes get carried away. My detective in my murder mysteries is the same way. He states that if he HAD to be an attorney, he'd have to be a prosecutor.

Sep 7, 2007
Charlotte Williamson

Oh, forgot. I like your Mike Hammer impression photo on "Your Page."

Sep 7, 2007
Charlotte Williamson

Hi, Dennis,
I like your poetic verse descriptions of south Africa. Sounds like a journalist (or a novelist), and a little bit like James Mitchner. It still sounds like an interesting place to visit. I've never been to that part of the world. Oh, well. Maybe one day.

Sep 8, 2007
Charlotte Williamson

Is summer never going to end? It's still in the upper nineties here. Humidity is probably the same. Don't ya'll have summer year round, like we do? Southwest Florida only has two seasons. Spring and summer. We're looking forward to the Winter temperatures, which is usually in the seventies. What television scripts have you written? Share that part of your experience with me.

Sep 13, 2007
Charlotte Williamson

Dennis,
You're right about the success. "Success comes to those who wait." Or something like that. Of course, you can't just sit and wiat. You have to work your but off for that fifteen minutes of fame. I'm really impressed with your resume. Goodness! I'm in the company of greatness!
Yeah, we get a lot of rain here, too. My landscape is becoming a jungle. When it gets cool enough to trim the trees and shrubbery, the garbage company will have to send an extra truck to pick up our yard debris. It will be stacked to the sky.
Heard any good "lawyer" jokes, lately? I assume those kind of jokes are abundant in South Africa as well as in the U.S. Most of the lawyers I know take the jokes in stride, but one I knew (he's dead now) HATED those jokes. ( I think he took his job too seriously I always enjoy life. I never take it too seriously.)

Sep 18, 2007
ed goldberg

Glad to be your friend. Often wanted to visit South Africa. Been to Kenya. Maybe in a couple of years.

Sep 18, 2007