Sarnia de la Maré FRSA Author, Musician, Artist

🐎 The Taming of Lady Theadora Blunket A Mills and Swoon Romance Short by Sarnia de la Maré. Lady Theadora Blunket was widely considered a problem. Not a scandal exactly—although there had been murmurs after the incident with the racing stallion and the magistrate’s wig—but she was certainly a difficulty. At twenty-eight she possessed a respectable dowry, an alarming seat on horseback, and absolutely no interest in matrimony whatsoever. Her mother blamed the horses. Her father blamed the French. Society blamed Theadora. For while other ladies embroidered roses and fainted charmingly in drawing rooms, Lady Theadora preferred breeches, boots, and the smell of leather and tobacco. And, on certain evenings, gambling houses. It was just past midnight in the back rooms of the Golden Crown Gaming Club , where respectable gentlemen went to become slightly less respectable and lose their inheritance. A tall young “man” leaned against the far table, coat collar high, hat low, a glass...

  Welcome to the History of True Love Romance at Mills and Swoon. Tonight’s story takes us to the salons and drawing rooms of early twentieth-century London, where literature, art, and scandal often mingled freely among the cleverest minds of the age. It was here, in the unconventional world of the Bloomsbury Group, that one of the most intriguing love affairs in literary history unfolded between two remarkable women: Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West. Virginia Woolf was already establishing herself as one of the most innovative writers of her generation. Brilliant, thoughtful, and deeply introspective, she was fascinated by the workings of the mind and the subtle movements of emotion. Her novels challenged the rigid storytelling traditions of the Victorian era and replaced them with something more fluid, more psychological, and more daring. Vita Sackville-West was different in almost every way. Tall, glamorous, and aristocratic, she moved through society with a confidence tha...

Welcome to Mills & Swoon , my new series of droll, risqué romance shorts designed for modern readers who want quick escapism with plenty of spice.    Today’s releases include  The Velvet Listener  and Tara the Time Tourist , two standalone tales spanning contemporary seduction and futuristic time-slipping passion. Both stories are now live in Mills & Swoon Volume 1 , with podcast readings available on the Immersion Static channel. This marks the beginning of a playful new series that blends romance, humour, sensuality, and a touch of the unexpected. A Futuristic Mills & Swoon Short by Sarnia de la Maré In 2125, dating had become a clinically miserable experience involving algorithms, psych-screening, and compatibility contracts so invasive they made old-fashioned marriage vows look casual. Tara Summers was sick of it. So she booked the only holiday left that required zero algorithmic compatibility data harvesting, sort of. Look, they didn’t send you if ...

About the author SARNIA. DE LA MARE  https://share.google/Aw3KqzHkoM9CGcHLQ 💋 The Velvet Listener. A Contemporary Mills & Swoon Short by Sarnia de la Maré. Mara Lane had been the late-night voice of Heartline FM for three years, dispensing warm advice to strangers while living a private life that was anything but romantic. The truth was that Mara had become rather accomplished at helping other people fall in love precisely because she had stopped trying it herself. She had stopped dressing up and going out. She avoided dinner parties with friends who were forever trying to matchmake her with basically any man who happened to be single. The studio lights were low enough to be flattering in the way dim lamps flatter tired women. Her producer, Jay, waved through the glass: Caller on line four. “Heartline FM,” she purred. “You’re live with Mara.” She had perfected a sexy sultry voice that her fans loved. Little did they know, privately she had long given up any ideas of falling in...

Penelope Fairlie had never faltered. 'Faltering is for amateurs and the mentally ill', she would say.  At fifty-two, she was the embodiment of composure. That rare breed of Englishwoman who moved through life as if time itself obeyed her schedule. She was a beacon of virtue and as disappointing as a soggy digestive, though no one would ever tell her due to her ability to petrify anyone within her orbit, even other people's dogs in Hyde Park. She lived in a tall, ordered house in Belgravia with her husband, Charles, a respected tax barrister, and their Pomeranian, Bertie, whose coiffure was definitely worse than his bark, styled by an expensive personal dog groomer from Hampstead. There were no children, a fate that had become a new normal many years before. If one dared to asked Judge Penelope Fairlie when she last felt the surge of a carnal wave, she would probably tell you it was when she saw Julio Iglesias in concert for her twenty-first birthday Charles Fairlie was a ...

Lady Eliza Weatherford had always believed emotions were like sauces, best served on the side, and never allowed to stain the table linen. This ethos had been maintained throughout a long and highly successful career that was celebrated with business awards, international attention and way too many friends for any one human. Eliza was 52, a legendary hospitality consultant and cold-blooded perfectionist. She had money, a beautiful home, rather too many nieces and nephews whose names she had memorised, and doting parents who had remained in great health despite advancing age. Eliza boarded another private jet in Neice after salvaging a failing three-star restaurant in Monaco. Wearing an immaculate cream trouser suit, Prada sunglasses, and the smirk of someone who has fired a Michelin chef before breakfast, this was another ordinary day in the life of a happy milionairess. Then came Sebastian Knox, 29, tousled, charming, rumpled in that rich-boy-on-his-third-startup way. He is the co...

  📘  The Olive Grove Agreement: A Hot and Hilarious French Villa Romance – A Mills and Swoon Short Subtitle (optional): One reluctant heiress. One infuriatingly hot ex-chef. And one very firm agreement made over figs and fornication. Title: The Olive Grove Agreement A Mills and Swoon Short Where inheritance meets innuendo and everything smells faintly of rosemary and bad decisions. Cass Winter was not in the mood for a French villa. She had deadlines, a dodgy knee, and the last time she tried to drive on the right side of the road she’d accidentally parked in a fountain. But apparently, her great-aunt Iris had passed away and left her La Maison du Hérisson , a once-grand property in the hills of Provence. And so, armed with nothing but SPF 50 and mild resentment, Cass arrived. It was hotter than she expected. And louder. Especially in the garden, where someone was swearing in French and violently attacking an olive tree. She squinted. He was shirtless. Tanned. And ...