S. B. Barnes

Final bonus short story for Two for Holding is available for free on my website www.sbbarnes.com/post/_sean

books2read.com/two-for-hold...

www.amazon.com/Two-Holding-...

Petrol background with a black bar at the top reading "Who is S.B. Barnes?". Centered is a photograph of the back of a woman's head. She has light brown hair in a fancy up-do with a wire of pearls over the top of her head. Surrounding her are arrows with various attributes. They read: disembodied head, no face, writes, reads, knits, eats, sleeps, teaches, mom of 2 cats and 1 human, German (sort of), teaches two languages, still sucks at punctuation, teaches computer science, still can't do decent graphics, author of queer romance, terminally online

petrol background with a centered black bar reading "My Books". On the top right are the covers for "Heart First" and "Second Chance" beside a text box reading "Hudson Valley Murder Mysteries. #1: Heart First (2023), #2: Second Chance (2024)". On the bottom left is the cover of Two for Holding and behind it three blank boxes for the future installments of the series. Beside it is a text box reading "Minor Penalties: #1: Two for Holding (2025), #2: Two for Boarding (2026), #3: Two for Charging (2026), #4: Two for Roughing (2026/7)"

Petrol background with a centered black bar reading "Hudson Valley Murder Mysteries". The cover of Heart First is in the top right corner. It shows a bridge over the Hudson River in a grey-ish color scheme as well as the title with the "S" in "First" red. The bottom right shows the cover of Second Chance, which shows a view of the Hudson Valley on the bottom and a mechanic working on a car above it. Surrounding the books are attributes of the books: One couple, multiple books; found family; academic x mechanic; non-LEO main characters; single POV; 3rd person present tense

Petrol background with a centered black bar reading "Minor Penalties". The cover of Two for Holding is in the top left corner. On it we see the title "Two for Holding", the author S.B. Barnes and the series "Minor Penalties Book 1". The art shows two hockey players in a locker room. One is shirtless, sitting on the bench in the background, staring at the other. The man in the foreground is wiping sweat from his forehead with his teal and navy jersey. He's holding a hockey stick in a suggestive position. In the bottom right are three blank covers for the remaining three books in the series. Surrounding the covers are various attributes: 3rd person past tense, dual POV, homophobia, racism, sexism, Islamophobia in professional sports are major themes, one couple per book, hockey romances, MCs of different ages, races, religions, sexualities

💫💫 Intro post about me and my books! 💫💫

Petrol background with the headline "Playing defense never won the game...or the guy". The cover of Two for Holding is centered. On it we see the title "Two for Holding", the author S.B. Barnes and the series "Minor Penalties Book 1". The art shows two hockey players in a locker room. One is shirtless, sitting on the bench in the background, staring at the other. The man in the foreground is wiping sweat from his forehead with his teal and navy jersey. He's holding a hockey stick in a suggestive position. Surrounding the cover are various tropes: M/M hockey romance, inexperienced older man/experienced younger man, practice kissing, opposites attract, slow burn(ish), mild animosity to lovers

background with the headline "Microtropes except the author doesn't really get microtropes". The cover of Two for Holding is centered. On it we see the title "Two for Holding", the author S.B. Barnes and the series "Minor Penalties Book 1". The art shows two hockey players in a locker room. One is shirtless, sitting on the bench in the background, staring at the other. The man in the foreground is wiping sweat from his forehead with his teal and navy jersey. He's holding a hockey stick in a suggestive position. Surrounding the cover are various tropes: "we have to get along for the good of the team", MC1 teaches MC2 he deserves nice things, inexperienced older man/experienced younger man, supportive best friend, emotional moments in the locker room, standing up to homophobia, "we're just practicing, it doesn't mean anything", mild bashing of St. Louis and hotel breakfasts

background with the a centered black bar reading "Minor Penalties". The cover of Two for Holding is in the top left corner. On it we see the title "Two for Holding", the author S.B. Barnes and the series "Minor Penalties Book 1". The art shows two hockey players in a locker room. One is shirtless, sitting on the bench in the background, staring at the other. The man in the foreground is wiping sweat from his forehead with his teal and navy jersey. He's holding a hockey stick in a suggestive position. In the bottom right are three blank covers for the remaining three books in the series. Surrounding the covers are various attributes: 3rd person past tense, dual POV, homophobia, racism, sexism, Islamophobia in professional sports are major themes, one couple per book, hockey romances, MCs of different ages, races, religions, sexualities

Two for Holding is an M/M hockey romance for people who love hockey and romance but can't defend the reality of the NHL

🏒 First in a 4-book series
⛸️ Opposites attract
🏒 Dual POV 3rd person
⛸️ Drift compatible (but for hockey)
🏒 "Practice with me"

#questpit #P #R #A

Cover of Two for Holding with excerpts from positive reviews

🎊🎉🎊 buy my book so I can hire someone else to make graphics like this because they make me anxious 🎉🎊🎉

Amazon: www.amazon.com/Two-Holding-...

Other retailers: books2read.com/two-for-hold...

🌈📚#HappyMMBookReleaseDay 🎉
Rebecca Rathe
Hinsel Meyer
Tessa Kane
Amy Aislin
TJ Nichols
Kevin Klehr
S.B. Barnes
Lyla Dane

Universal Links at mmbookwormreviews.com

#MMReaders #GayRomance #OctoberMMBooks2025 #LGBTQIACommunity #NewMMBooks

Cover of Two For Holding with header "available now"

Excerpt from Two for Holding in which Jax flirts with Tom despite believng him to be a homophobe, like any rational well-adjusted adult would

Excerpt from Two for Holding in which Jax tries to convince Tom to get laid for his own good and not at all because Jax has a crush the size of all four Scandinavian states

Two for Holding is out now! Swipe to read a short excerpt as an enticement or maybe a deterrant. Order here: www.amazon.com/Two-Holding-... or here books2read.com/two-for-hold...

in romances featuring kids many readers dislike explicit scenes where the narration doesn't say door is locked

my toxic trait is not caring about the door--I care when one of the kids is small and the characters don't pause to check the baby monitor because that mattress squeak might be the baby

Two for Holding comes out in two days! You can pre-order on Amazon, or send me proof of a donation to You Can Play to win a free copy!

www.amazon.com/dp/B0FWF1GQP...

Now pre-orderable on your platform of choice! Out October 28th!
www.amazon.com/dp/B0FWFJ4CB...

This is so gorgeous!

Microtropes for Two for Holding

As far as I can telll, microtropes are just...things that happen. Preorder Two for Holding here to get it four days earoy! ninestarpress.com/product/two-...

Art by @tuiskuh.bsky.social

Trope map for Two for Holding

Out on October 28th! Pre-order here and get it early! ninestarpress.com/product/two-...

Excerpt from hockey romance Two for Charging

Excerpt from hockey romance Two for Charging in which the love interest's comically big dick is revealed

Mourning that I won't get back to these guys till December

is anyone else essentially a cat on the hunt for the right napping spot except it's writing programs and utensils that allow you to focus for ten minutes put together?

Cover and trope sheet for hockey romance "Two For Holding"

So tomorrow's my birthday and I am working my way through the second round of edits on this book. And if you follow me on social media a really cool birthday gift would be to shoot me a question anywhere about this series!

Cover for a hockey romance novel with one player sitting on a locker room bench shirtless while the other uses his jersey to wipe sweat off his brow. Title: Two for Holding. Author: S.B. Barnes. Tagline: Playing defense never won the game...or the guy. Tropes: mild animosity to lovers, m/m hockey romance, inexperienced older man/experienced younger man, slow burn (ish), opposites attract, practice kissing

am i doing this trope sheet thing right?
cover art by @tuiskuh.bsky.social

Book covers of Heart First and Second Chance with the Text "Half-Price at the Smashwords Summer Sale"

Both books available for 3.24$ each on Smashwords! If you want to read about an anxious academic and a gray ace mechanic falling in love and solving crimes, look no further! www.smashwords.com/books/byseries/99625

the only things tagged "foryou" that are actually for me are those sped up videos of pastry in the oven

love writing wish I could do it without using so many words

hemingway said "write drunk edit sober" but I choose to follow the cersei lannister method of "doesn't matter what part of which process, have a glass of red wine handy"

Ideally I don't want to have a legacy as a person/creator, just my books. Those I hope provide comfort, distraction, amusement, catharsis.

Book covers of "Heart First" and "Second Chance" side by side. Below them text "40% reduced in June! Use coupon code "PRIDE2025"" in fluorescent pink

If you're interested in queer academics not trusting the police to competently solve murders, both Heart First and Second Chance are 40% off for the whole month of June! ninestarpress.com/product/hear...

Book cover for Second Chance by S.B. Barnes. Tagline: Will solving the crime mean losing his lover? Cover shows the Hudson River Valley in upstate New York in the lower third and above that a mechanic in coveralls working on a car

Proud to announce Second Chance has now sold 69 copies. Nice.

It does suck that "AI" now means both generative AI (boo hiss) and a whole basket of incredibly useful machine learning techniques.

There are two wolves within me. One wants to gain enough recognition that people read my books. The other one wants to continue being totally unknown online.

that's a relief

are there people out there who can just be working on one thing? not editing one thing and drafting another and brainstorming a third and always thinking about something new?

trapped in the editing hell of my own making, I once again ask: what's so bad about adverbs? And why did I use so many?