S. B. Barnes

she/her, writer and reader linktree

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Intro post I should have made two years ago

Who am I?

S.B. Barnes, author of queer romance

What books have I written?

Heart First and Second Chance, two murder mysteries set in the Hudson Valley featuring Tony, a mechanic, and Daniel, an academic, who have no business investigating crime

Minor Penalties, a four-part series of M/M hockey romance novels. The first two books, Two for Holding and Two for Boarding are out now and the third, Two for Charging, is available for pre-order! Available here or for non-amazon readers here!

Can you get in touch with me?

Yes, my askbox here is open to everyone, and you can also find me on Instagram, Bluesky, Threads, and my website also has a blog section

I am open to questions about pretty much all of the writing and publishing process and I am very happy to talk to people, though there are certain things (hateful language, threats, unsolicited attempts to sell me stuff) I will not respond to.

Where can you buy my books?

At your retailer of choice! I've linked the amazon pages above because that is where most people get them, but smashwords has slightly better conditions for indie authors and small presses and they do semi-regular sales. Note that my books are not on Kindle Unlimited, but you can get them on Kobo Plus. Also, you can go to any bookstore and ask for them, they will probably need to be ordered and it will take a few days but that option is always available!

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you gave your supporting cast depth and now i wanna know that the deeeeeeeaaalll is in the vanderbilts dmitriyev situation that is apparently less messy than it first looked but also has the potential for being even more messy due to being Complicated™️

and what's really on the russians' minds with the half our team is queer situation

and i suddenly found myself at least a tiny bit invested in hayes' after he's been on my shit list for two and a half books

and sean, what does that phone call from tom do with him? seemed like his marriage is in a weird place already... (thank you for sharing those oneshots, btw! i loved the glimpses into details of the minor penalties world)

(yep i just wrote you fan mail in the style of a "how dare you, evil author" ao3 comment)

Well I have some good news for you one of the short stories for book 3 is called "Vladi" and it's from Dmitriyev's POV

Sean...well, there's an easter egg on him in book 4 but it's buried deep and it's also a lil bit fucked up

Also I adore receiving thoughta about these characters I could go all day

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Cover cred to @tuiskuh!

Books available here

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I don’t know when the last time was when I was excitedly waiting for a book release!

I’ve grown really fond of Luca and Breezy throughout the other two books - which I greatly enjoyed as a balm of quality in a sea of mediocre-to-shitty romance novels - and today the first thing I’m doing once I have a minute is start Two for Charging :)

Oh I am so thrilled to hear that! I hope you have a great time reading!

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Today's the day! Happy release day to Luca and Breezy. A big thank you to anyone who preordered or got an ARC! This one is both a very light and silly read and also deeply personal to me as an acespec person writing about an acespec character. So no pressure, right?

Find the book here

And as a reminder, books 1 and 2 from the series are on sale all week!

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Reblog + drop a comment to participate!

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Two for Charging, the third book in my Minor Penalties series, comes out on Tuesday - so books one and two are on sale all week! Check out the series here

on amazon

or here with all retailers

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Yes.Okay, wait. Let's take a step back. And also sort this essay into manageable parts, because it's a complex topic and deserves to be thou

I saw one too many thread up in arms about Rachel Reid and/or Elle Kennedy being allegedly homophobic, racist, misogynist, or some other shade of awful, and I had a three hour blackout in which I wrote an essay about it.

This is the only time I will be promoting this piece of writing because I do not want the discourse in my house, I just had to get it out.

Alternate title: M/M Hockey Romance Author Takes Several Thousand Words to Say We All Need More Nuance

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look I lowkey (lol) think this marketing trend is a way to complain about how gen z is lazy and unprofessional but I also think the taglines I have to do are very lame and cheesy so here's my take on this

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Now with book 2

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And the trifecta is complete. Two for Charging is out May 26th, preorder available, etc etc

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look I lowkey (lol) think this marketing trend is a way to complain about how gen z is lazy and unprofessional but I also think the taglines I have to do are very lame and cheesy so here's my take on this

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Now with book 2

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look I lowkey (lol) think this marketing trend is a way to complain about how gen z is lazy and unprofessional but I also think the taglines I have to do are very lame and cheesy so here's my take on this

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Face now brought to you by @tuiskuh!

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As many of you possibly know, the Hudson Valley Murder Mysteries are set in a small liberal arts college in the Hudson Valley which is a stand-in for my alma mater.

Some nice elements make it in--the beautiful scenery, the small-town vibes, the kooky student body. Some less savory elements also do, such as the administrations approach to handling sexual violence on campus.

Anyway, today the long-time college president stepped down after his name appeared in the Epstein files. It's a good day to promote these books. You can order them here.

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just me and my 20 different covers of bruce springsteen's "i'm on fire" on my favorites playlist against the world

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Meet Chris in Two for Charging, out May 26th! Pre-order available now

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Preorder now available on amazon and all other retailers! If you preorder via NineStar Press, you get the book four days early!

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Sensitivity Reader Needed!

Once again, I am in search of a sensitivity reader, and once again I turn to tumblr, because honestly this is the platform where I have had the most luck and met the nicest people. The manuscript in question is a ~70K M/M married in Vegas romance novel, and the character in question is a gay, mixed race Black man who works as a teacher at an inner city public school in Milwaukee. The blurb is below. If you have the time and interest, let me know!

DRY LAND FISH - Blurb

A Vegas wedding isn't always a bad idea. Sure, for celebrities or politicians trying to cultivate a certain image, or billionaires with a fortune to protect, it's a bad look. But Markus is a middle-school teacher from Milwaukee. His admittedly rash decision to marry Oskar, a near stranger, is neither a mistake nor anyone else's business. If only his friends and family would get on board. Oskar wasn't trying to make any waves when he accompanied Markus on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Vegas for the weekend. He'd hoped for a chance to get to know one another better, maybe even for sparks to fly between them, but he has no regrets things went further. After moving to Milwaukee from Berlin, his life is in upheaval anyway. Being married to Markus could give him the one thing he's been searching for: A home. What seems romantic, if spontaneous, to both of them, is soon put to the test. Well-meaning friends and family question their commitment. The reality of being legally bound to someone before ever talking about money sends both of them reeling. Their jobs at Borchert Field K-12 School send them curveball after curveball with no time to slow down and take stock. Through it all, Markus and Oskar face the big question: are they two lonely men who made a rash decision, or is their connection real?