Books by Ben Parris
Fiction and non-fiction
Available now.
Wade of Aquitaine
First of the synesthete heroes.
Deep in the Dark Ages, with Vikings to the north and Aghlabid pirates to the south, a small flicker of the Roman Empire has been nurtured as an island of high civilization. Defeated Longobards scheme to bring it down from within. If Byzantium falls 600 years too soon, nothing of western civilization will survive to spark the Renaissance. Enter Wade Linwood of the 21st Century. Suffering of crossed senses where scents can conjure objects and sights can call up tastes, he wants nothing but the ordinary life of an insurance underwriter. When a trip to the acupuncturist opens an unused portal in his synesthete’s brain, a plea from the past draws him to a time when he must save the remaining shreds of history to preserve his own.
“Wade of Aquitaine is wonderfully well-written and exciting, an interesting and insightful volume that makes you say to yourself we’ve got a smart guy writing this. Ben Parris understands the challenge that a writer has, to write sentences that nobody ever wrote before.”
–George Clayton Johnson (Oceans Eleven, Twilight Zone Movie, Logan’s Run)
A story of astral travel.
Kreindia of Amorium
Wade of Aquitaine Book Two
Wade of Aquitaine’s troubles are just beginning when his female counterpart from the ninth century is claimed as the daughter of Wade’s twenty-first century adversary. Young Kreindia of Amorium, gifted with her own concentration of synesthesia-fueled powers, has uncovered new threats to Byzantium, and specifically her uncle, Michael Psellus, who sits accused of treason while Wade finds himself in a different century defending the Holy Roman Empire on his own. By now the fellow synesthetes are bound up in an emotional destiny in which Kreindia and Wade encounter unforeseen challenges that could make their separation—and thus the future of their universes—all the more perilous.
Born under the curse of time-blindness in the 8th century, her mind instead drift-samples other dimensions allowing her to spy through the tattered astral plane. That’s how she senses the presence of a far more powerful synesthete who wants no rivals. It is up to Kreindia without Wade to navigate the corrupted branches of time to restore them before history itself collapses.
“Agile prose enlivens an already heady narrative…An exhilarating time-travel tale hits a bullseye.” ~KIRKUS REVIEWS
Amynta of Anatolia
Wade of Aquitaine Book Three
Young Wade Linwood has always been troubled by seeing objects floating in the air, music coming from his touch, and colors spilling out of black ink. But when he went for acupuncture to cure an injured wrist, the needle tapped into an unused portal in his brain that sent him to 9th century Byzantium. That was when the most complicated, bizarre place in human history got even weirder.He and Amynta step right into the middle of a civil war that threatens to bring down the world’s greatest empire and strip away all the rest of history, including Wade’s own. Even at that, nothing is as it seems. They are living in a past that never was. And never should be. The two of them are separated, fighting missions of their own as they struggle to get back to each other.Meanwhile, the interventions of an all-powerful paraplegic child and two mysterious dogs have not gone unnoticed. Now half of all the verses in the multiverse have been torn apart, and all the threads of Time are swirling around them.
Mars Armor Forged
The tiny colony at Mars launched during an Earth emergency sits uneasy, starved and hopeless until the astonishing news that a new wave of political intrigue has landed it the Twenty Eighth Winter Olympics in 2038. In this near-future tale, a wide cast of villains and heroes each have conflicting visions of what comes next including a new method of unleashing geothermal energy to be tested on Mars’ volcanoes like the dormant Olympus Mons where the Olympic Village has been built. Olympian lovers Yves Loitte and Terri Finney find themselves in the middle of a power struggle that may end in the destruction of all they hold dear.
MARS ARMOR FORGED is a techno thriller for those who love a hard SF showcase and the rich Mars subgenre.
Praise from Advance Readers of MARS ARMOR FORGED 2nd Edition:
“Ben Parris is a great and memorable storyteller. His characters are fantastic. The writing is wonderful and the imagery is the crisp, logical sort that makes wonderful science fiction.”–Chyna B., Ann Arbor, MI
“I must say, you really do know how to work your stuff. This reminds me of a Shakespearean play with emerging conflicts in each Act, your soliloquies, intermission… making the viewer come back every time.” –Matina M., Sedona, AZ
“I find your descriptions of Mars quite amazing, your attention to detail is impeccable, and with every chapter I read, I want to read more.”–Justin L., Bridgeport, CT
Creds: The I.R.S. Adventure
Honest and hardworking IRS agent Danny “Creds” Shapiro is in trouble—with his superiors, with his girlfriend, and with a powerful politician desperate to keep a dark secret hidden. Danny doesn’t know that as he makes the journey home from work one night, trouble is stalking him and it doesn’t intend to leave him alive. In the blink of an eye, Danny is fending for his life and piecing together his memories of the last two years in search of an answer. How could he have possibly ended up here when all he wanted was a 401K plan to impress the woman he loves? Join Danny as he sifts through the web of conspiracy theorists, potentially crazy bosses, and a myriad of shadow organizations on his way to the truth.
An autobiographical account
Today You Write the Book
TODAY YOU WRITE THE BOOK: The Keys to Start Your Novel, 2nd Edition, is the quick-read, no-nonsense guide to survey all aspects of novel writing. Not only does this bold text cover story elements; it also provides invaluable advice about the enormous benefits and occasional pitfalls of contact with the writing community. Get unique information about The Word Count Paradox, The Idea Factory, The Hammer Method, and more. Note: It takes about one hour to read this book straight through. It takes six hours to absorb the information and work through the exercises properly. It is NOT a book that helps you write a terrible mini-novel in a week or a weekend or a minute. It may, however, take years off the process of learning to write a terrific novel that you could be proud of.
Non-fiction handbook