ari b.

Cover of Home Ice Advantage by Ari Baran. A black and white photo of a man with dark hair and a beard wearing a dark hoodie. The title and author's name are at the bottom in an ombre of yellow/green/turquoise

Day 19 📚🏳️‍🌈 Home Ice Advantage by @aribaranwrites.bsky.social - work rivals to lovers with a backdrop of pro hockey. Part of a series, I've only read this one so far.

I love a cranky protagonist, in much the same way I enjoy those videos of cranky dads loving the pets they initially didn't want.

a cranky dad loving the pet he didn’t originally want really does summarize their relationship perfectly too lmao

i’m always surprised when something at my day job is so
bad it genuinely upsets me, a person who has been reading and writing about horrific occurrences for years 😔

if my brain could chill on the churning up ideas beyond my talent and intelligence level front so i could get back to trying to finish literally anything that i’m not giving away for free that would be awesome thanks

the tragedy of them having their own minds, haha. rip 😭

i'm actually in the process putting together a series bible for myself so i have an easier reference for this in the future 😩

this is referring to old man yaoi and it isn’t wrong

this book is “what if you said ‘i can fix him’ but instead he made you worse”

Straight to the Heart Battle Beast · Bringer of Pain · Song · 2017

not writing this book but also why is this leo unsportsmanlike conduct about devon unsportsmanlike conduct…. open.spotify.com/track/5CgFJ4...

thinking about leo cohen and the book i will probably never be able to write

This is a really fucking good book if you’re so inclined to reading

🧡

my favorite of my books is on sale right now just fyi.

when you talk to an author friend who confirms something you already knew and it’s both validating but also kinda terrifying!

If you like Sad Men who use the unrelenting pressure of professional sports to distract themselves from having one human emotion, have I got something for you!

No jokes though, these are some of my very favorite books, ever, so you should definitely pick them all up

Listen. I just really really really love these books and these sad and slightly less sad hockey players and also the most Boston man to ever live.

🥲

enemies to lovers! friends to lovers! one sided enemies to lovers and one sided who are you again to lovers! under-negotiated kink! very sad hockey men and some less sad hockey men! a scene involving dept of player safety dirty talk and other thought experiments my editor did not make me remove!

so i know, i know, … but if you’re subscribed it’s a good time to read them! in the series you will find:

i'm sorry :( i completely get it though

ari baran on Substack thank you so much for reading, and i’m so glad you’re enjoying the books. :’) unfortunately there isn’t going to be a book for murph because it would be pretty boring—it would involve a lot of indiv...

a reader asked me about a murph book and i had a lot of thoughts about murph, ryan, and ryan's relationships generally!
substack.com/profile/1041...

i could do this all day tbh

thank you so much. 🥹 i really appreciate you taking the time to tell me! i always put a lot of myself into each book but goaltender interference was probably my most personal and best-loved book that i’ve finished so far, and it means a lot to know people enjoyed it. 🥲

i agree that this helps sometimes, but other times (like this one) i find that "small stuff" ends up being a big project, too 😅

the other mc in the werewolf book

i need to finish this wip but instead i'm writing little scenes of the werewolf book i'm not supposed to be starting yet

me toooooo

posted a rough little short on the extras section of my site. it's about raf (slogging it out in the ECHL) and oli (montreal's most expensive draft bust), who have a complicated history from juniors, reconnecting over the course of 24 hours after a chance encounter. it's Sad. www.aribaran.com/extras

thank you. it was a sex scene and they're FINALLy done 💀

i finished one (1) scene on my wip that i've been stuck on for months. the last few weeks have really just been kicking my ass. 🫠