Please buy my mom's books

Mom publishes books faster than I can hawk them.

2008-04-12T19:06:00.000-07:00

Coming any day -- my mom's latest historical from Avon. Order HIS DARK AND DANGEROUS WAYS now!

My Mom's Latest Book!

2007-08-27T07:59:00.000-07:00

My mom has yet another novel about to hit stores -- it's coming out tomorrow. Romantic Times gave it a whopping 4 1/2 stars! And Coffee Time Romance said of her latest, "This fabulous read is pure joy and delightful in every way."

But why should you buy her book over all the other fabulous historicals in the world? Because she is very romantic. Proof below:

Doggies, babies and her heroes and heroines all feel the Layton love. (click to see full size)

Wow, right? And if you buy her book, who knows, maybe she will get romantic with YOU!*

Yes, now you are convinced, and dying to read her latest book. Well fret not, dear blog reader, you can buy it right here! Aint technology great?

PS Tomorrow look for my mom guest blogging on Romance Vagabonds!

*Don't hold your breath. Also, she's going to murder me for that line. Snausome!

My mom interviewed on Romancenoveltv.com

2007-04-30T09:50:00.000-07:00

BREAKING: MY MOTHER NOT A MORNING PERSON. ALSO, IS HER JUDGE JUDY HABIT SPIRALING DANGEROUSLY OUT OF CONTROL?

Watch this exclusive author interview on Romancenoveltv.com and find out!

(snicker, snicker)

Note: x-posted from my other blog.

2007-03-10T04:44:00.000-08:00

Recently the pros at romancenoveltv.com paid a visit to interview my mom!

Here she is being made beautiful-er:

Check out all the make-up on the kitchen table...

Here's mom showing off the original paintings of some of her book covers.

Lights! Cameraman! Action!

Afterwards, I took some pictures of mom posing with my 4-month-old reason I haven't posted recently on this site.

Grandma Layton? I can hardly believe it myself!

When the interview at romancenoveltv.com goes up, I'll post it here, so stay tuned!!

My mom's new historical -- in stores now!

2006-12-03T08:58:00.000-08:00

My mother is publishing books faster than I can blog about them.

"Queen of Shadows" marks her first book published under her real name, Edith Felber. Well, one of her real names, anyway.

Pick up a copy of my mom's latest wherever books are sold. Except maybe on a homeless person's blanket/bazaar. I find they, the homeless vendors, usually have a limited selection, limited to cookbooks, bestsellers and old copies of Penthouse.

Mom's Pirate Available for Pre-order!

2006-08-02T07:48:00.000-07:00

Order now! This pirate is HOT!

Unlike this pirate, which is just sort of creepy...

Shiver me timbers, kiddo -- your eyeliner is perfect!

Mama's got a brand new blog!

2006-06-19T13:33:00.000-07:00

Word Wenches: Serving up saucy verbage since 2006!

Not content with producing one fabulous blog (where you really should go), my mother has recently teamed up with 6 other best-selling romance and historical author pals to produce the fabulousness that is wordwenches.com.

As mom describes it on her blog,

"We have seven authors blogging -- one for everyday of the week! And what a crew: Mary Jo Putney, Patricia Rice, Jo Beverley, Loretta Chase, Sarah Gabriel, Susan Holloway Scott, and me! Please do come visit us!"

I really enjoy Word Wenches because it mixes the personal (like how one author has been known to write her books in the car while her children are at ice hockey practice) with serious musings on the three R's: research, writing and romance. Oh and when these authors do trivial, it's so well-written and clever, there's nothing trivial about it.

So go on already! Visit the wenches here.

Required reading of mom on the Wenches: Her take on Bad Cover Art.

Now featuring...

2006-05-10T09:54:00.000-07:00

My Mom’s latest book, How to Seduce a Bride, snagged a featured review!

And what a doozie of a review! Check out this little bit:

With intelligent characters and a masterful blending of compassion, sensuality and wicked humor, Layton's exquisite finale to the Botany Bay series is a jewel of a book.

A jewel! Masterful! Wicked humor! Wowsers, right? And you can check out the whole rave online right here:
http://www.romantictimes.com/books_review.php?feat=1

Yeah, I'm proud.

Mommy & Me

2006-03-14T08:14:00.000-08:00

Attending a wedding of a family friend
@ Chelsea Piers February 2006:

Do you sense a pattern here? How about three or more?

2006-02-08T07:16:00.000-08:00

Always Happy to Help

I am flattered when my mom the historical romance author asks for my help naming her latest book. Thing is when she's really stuck for a title she canvasses a select group of family, friends, other writers who are friends, her dry cleaner, the postman and all Wal-Mart greeters within a 50 mile radius.

In any case, she needed a title for one she just finished and according to my Gmail, she started asking us all for title suggestions on this one in November. In her words, this is what the book is about: The hero is a prig, his father was a highwayman, and his greatgrandfather a pirate. The hero looks like them, and the heroine is halfway in love with him because of that...

Arghhhh me mateys be lookin' to get Edith a comely title!

On December 1st, the best title they had was "Shady Lady" (yikes!) and I suggested these:

A Pirate's Heart
To Love a Proper Pirate
Gentleman Pirate
Pirate's Promise
Pirate Heart
Pirate Past
A Pirate's Past
Son of a Pirate Man
Dude, Where's My Parrot?
You're a Prig, But I Love You Anyway

Flash ahead over a month later. Still no title. Her editor had some good ones, but they were still searching. When asked, I provided these... if there are repeats, it's because I have a day job and almost two damn months had past. Cut me some slack:

Pirate's Heart
Pirate's Pride
Pirate's Past
Treasured Love
Doubloons in my Pants
Parrot in my Past

The best part? I just found out Mom sent all my suggestions along to her editor. Yeah, including the 'tarded ones. Because she knows her editor is cool like that.

Anyway, they decided on a final title yesterday. The book will be called:

For the Love of a Pirate

I really, really like that one. I think it was her editors suggestion. My only regret? I didn't think of the perfect title until it was too late:

Brokeback Parrot

Possible cover inspiration?

Photo cred for this totally adorable photo: Aikinai

Note: something similar to this post was originally on my other blog. But so what? It belongs and is even better here.

Great New Review and Interview with my Mom!

2006-01-25T05:10:00.000-08:00

My mom is this month's featured author on WNBC's Romance Buy the Book!

How cool is that? Here's the direct and probably more permanent links to the WNBC Review of Edith Layton's Gypsy Lover by Michelle Buonfiglio and here's how to go directly to the interview, or "AuthorView" with my mom: Edith Layton

I don't know how Ms. Buonfiglio came to find mom, but I'm so glad she did. I just checked out her bio and it's pretty amazing. Michelle is a former beauty pagent queen who graduated college with high honors, she's a devoted romance fan and she gives a great shout out for organ donation. Note to whoever cares: I signed my card! You can read Michelle's entire profile here.

Good stuff all around.

Article about this site -- for reals!

2006-01-19T14:05:00.000-08:00

It's amazing but somehow I never linked to this awesome article in the New York Daily News that happens to be about this site. It appeared 12/18/05 in the Sunday paper.

I'm a crappy publicity whore, I am.

But seriously, check it out. It's groovy. And FYI, she found me, not the other way around, as if it matters. Which it does, to me, somehow.

Mom Reading Tomorrow Night!

2006-01-17T14:11:00.000-08:00

My mom is reading tomorrow night at an "erotic reading series" produced by my friend RKB. Mom's totally worried her stuff isn't explicit enough to be included. I've told her it's not about that. I'm having dinner with her beforehand to calm her nerves. It's a very cool lounge and I encourage all NYC'ers to come. It should be a hoot.

IN THE FLESH EROTIC READING SERIES
WEDNESDAY JANUARY 18th at 8 PM
AT HAPPY ENDING LOUNGE
302 BROOME STREET (B/D to Grand, J/M/Z to Bowery, F to Delancey)
www.happyendinglounge.com
Admission: Free!

Stay warm this winter with the hottest and juiciest words in the city! January welcomes a stunning mix of performers, including romance novelist Edith Layton (Gypsy Lover), fiction writer Danyel Smith (Bliss), and erotic storytellers Iris N. Schwartz (Stirring Up a Storm) and Rob Stephenson (Best Gay Erotica), along with a naughty tale from host Rachel Kramer Bussel. Also: free candy and erotic book door prizes!

In the Flesh is a new monthly reading series held the third Wednesday of every month at the appropriately named Happy Ending Lounge, and features the city's best erotic writers sharing stories to get you hot and bothered, hosted and curated by Village Voice sex columnist and acclaimed erotic writer and editor Rachel Kramer Bussel. From erotic poetry to the down and dirty, these authors get naked on the page and will make you lust after them and their words.

Rachel Kramer Bussel is a New York City-based author and editor. She is Senior Editor at Penthouse Variations and a Contributing Editor and columnist for Penthouse and writes the Lusty Lady column for The Village Voice. Her erotic stories have appeared in over 50 anthologies, including Best American Erotica 2004 and 2006, and she’s edited her own collections, including Naughty Spanking Stories from A to Z 1 and 2. Rachel has also written for AVN, Bust, Mediabistro.com, Metro, New York Post, Punk Planet, Time Out New York and Velvetpark.

Edith Layton is the author of over 30 novels, including Alas, My Love, The Return of the Earl, To Tempt a Bride, The Devil’s Bargain, and her latest, Gypsy Lover. She has received she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Romantic Times, and excellent reviews, awards and commendations from Library Journal, Romance Readers Anonymous and The Romance Writers of America.

Iris N. Schwartz is a fiction writer, poet, and editor whose story, "Hedonics," is included in the anthology Stirring Up A Storm: Tales of the Sensual, the Sexual, and the Erotic. Her novella, The Fruits of Her Labors, is in That’s Amore! Her erotic fiction has also been anthologized in The Big Book of Hot Women’s Erotica 2004, Down and Dirty 2003, and elsewhere. She’s had poetry anthologized in An Eye For an Eye Makes the Whole World Blind: Poets on 9/11, and in the U.K.-based Listening to the Birth of Crystals. In addition, her writing has appeared in on-line and print publications such as Ducts Magazine, Erbacce, Ludlow Press, Pikeville Review, and Vernacular. Iris is Articles Editor for the Web site Littleviews.com. She has performed her work at many venues, including Bowery Poetry Club, Collective Unconscious, KGB Bar, and The Knitting Factory, as well as on WBAI, WBAR, WNYE, and WSTR radio stations, on-line, interactive TV, and cable TV.

Danyel Smith is a former ed-at-large for Time Inc. and a former ed-in-chief of Vibe. She writes around for Elle, Cosmo, Essence, wrote once (!) for the New Yorker, will show up in Rolling Stone sometimes, still reps in spirit for the San Francisco Bay Guardian, and wrote concert/album reviews for the New York Times back in the day. Smith is the author of the San Francisco Chronicle-bestselling novel, More Like Wrestling, and she wrote the introduction for the New York Times-bestseller Tupac Shakur. Her second novel, Bliss, was published in July 2005.Rob Stephenson's writing appears over fifty publications Rob Stephenson's writing appears in over 50 publications online and in print including: Skin and Ink, Between the Palms, Blithe House Quarterly, BUTT, Dangerous Families, Problem Child, Best Gay Erotica, Best Bisexual Erotica, Tough Guys, and Perspectives on Evil and Human Wickedness. He is co-founder of the Erotic Authors Association.

Nominated!

2006-01-16T16:05:00.000-08:00

Oscars, Schmoshcars... My mom is up for an AWARD!

BREAKING NEWS: One of my mom's books from 2005 was nominated by Romantic Times. Alas, My Love was chosen as a nominee for the Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Award in the Historical Romance category for 2005.

From the Romantic Times website: "Reviewers' Choice Awards honor the best books of the year. The winners are selected by our staff of over 40 reviewers representing the readers' voice in the women's fiction industry."

How cool is that? Very cool.

Some more goodies from the past...

2005-12-12T08:41:00.000-08:00

and the recent past...

In making the slideshow for my mom's book party last month, I went through our old photo albums and mom's clippings and scanned my ass off. Here's a few more highlights from her career.
Mom at her first book party, for her first novel, held at our house on Long Island in 1984.

This next "I love the 80's" pic was taken in England on one of her many trips for book research. Thanks IRS!
Doesn't she look adorably Pat Benetar?
Love IS a battlefield, eh mom?

Here's a neat article from the same era as above. Picture was taken by my dad.

OK, this next one is going to be too small to read, but here's the idea... In the 70's mom wrote for newspapers. She wrote an opinion piece for Newsday about discovering Barbara Cartland when she threw out her back and her English friend brought her a bag of books. It was an article that admitted genuine admiration for Cartland's fairy tale books, while also pointing out the downsides (froth, repetition). Months later, a telegram came from Barbara Cartland herself. The telegram from Barbara Cartland is the yellow bit you see below...
How Cartland came to read this article we'll never know...

Cartland wrote in the above telegram, "THANK YOU FOR YOUR WONDERFUL ARTICLE IN NEWSDAY I WAS SO TOUCHED AND DELIGHTED LOVE BARBARA CARTLAND"

Now here's an article from February of 2005 that included mom. It was a Valentine's Day piece about Long Island romance writers. It was cool because so many of mom's neighbors had (and still have) no idea a novelist lives among them. I think it was thanks to mom's friend and fellow romance writer Barbara Metzger that she was included.

And finally... HA CHA! Here's my mom as an aspiring beatnik:
She's got a book and she's not afraid to use it!

BOOK PARTY!

2005-11-15T17:11:00.000-08:00

Note: This was x-posted on my other blog

Last night's book party for Edith Layton a.k.a. mom. More photos and Snappy Captions TK.

Mendel! Sara!

Rob! Kambri! Andres!

Rose! Julian!

Diane! Sharon!

Gardner! Scottish guy! Richard!

Cake!

Floyd! Lori! Chase!

A Felber! Knutsen! RKB! Mo!

Books!

Mom 'n Avon!

Bob & Amanda!

Wow, Jew Ferrigno showed up!

Book Party Prep

2005-11-15T17:08:00.000-08:00

This post originally appeared on my other blog yesterday, but should live and be seen here...

Book party for Mom -- TONIGHT!

Yup, tonight's the night. After more than two decades, and 30 published novels, my mom is having her second-ever book party. This time in Manhattan, and this time not at her house so she doesn't have to make the Sanka. And yeah, she's worried it'll make her look like an egomaniac. I mean, two book parties in 21 years? Girl, PLEASE! Anywho, blame me, this was all my big idea.

I made a cool-ass slideshow for the party. Scanned like a fiend. Here's a wee preview of some stuff that made me happy.

Mom wins a play prize & the attention of two dudes drinking out of coffee cups.

Mommy & me enjoying a smoke.

Mom when she was a journalist & aspiring novelist. Note her patented two cups of wine writing technique.

And finally, enjoy an embarrassing pic of my brother...

Hey mateys! It's NPAAARRRRH's Adam Felber!

Private to Adam: Better be nice to me... 'cause I have recently obtained a picture of you lounging in a velour Star Trek chemise, and I am prepared to use it.

Private PS to Adam: MOO HA HA HA!

Party!

2005-10-29T12:05:00.000-07:00

So after months of looking, I've finally found a place for mom's first book party in over 20 years. It's in a little over two weeks. Live in NYC? Wanna come? Read at least one of my mom's books? Get in touch and I'll hook you up!

Book signing this SUNDAY

2005-09-30T14:09:00.000-07:00

Hey! Do you live anywhere near the original Woodstock concert site? Then come on by to the Bethel Woods Fall Harvest Festival, where my mom will be signing her books this Sunday. Groovy!

About my mom, historical romance author

2005-09-27T00:29:00.000-07:00

<-- This is my mom.

She's a published romance author.

Her pen name is Edith Layton.

But once upon a time my mom was just another unpublished, aspiring author. In the 1970's, mom wrote books on the kitchen table, on an IBM Selectric, while my brothers and I were at school. Then she'd pack up her work and make dinner. Nothing fancy, always tasty, usually a roast chicken, some veg and potatoes or pasta. Actually we had chicken so often, it became a signature dish of hers we called, "Chicken Again."

My mother started with no agent, and no connections. She had written a romance novel, a horror novel, and a fantasy. She decided to go with whatever genre sold first.

Nothing sold.

At one point, after enough rejection slips to "wallpaper a bathroom" (her words), mom gave up. When she did, my father started secretly sending her manuscripts out under the dog's name. Little did editors know they were sending words of encouragement, critiques and rejections to Gustav and Otto -- our German Shepherds.

It's a long story. But the short of it is she first got published in 1984, without an agent. Here, in 2003, are some FAQ I wrote about my mom's books.

My mother is still writing. In fact, she has a new novel and a new novella coming out next month. She's currently hard at work, under contract for a trade historical and more historical romances.

She now has enough awards to fill a bathroom.

She writes a great book. All I want, is what she wants: for more people to read and enjoy them. She loves writing books, but truth is it's a lonely job. It's not glam and 99% of the time, you don't get rich writing romances. If money is your goal, I'd tell aspiring writers to get out now. Mom's been continually publishing romances for over 20 years, is published in many languages and most middle managers out earn her. And plus, Oprah has said she won't recommend books with happy endings, so whatayagonnado?

This blog is my mash note to her, to show my support and admiration. It is also my blatant attempt to generate publicity for her. But since I think she deserves it so much, and the product is so good, there's nothing skeevy about it. My advertising budget is zero-whatever comes out of my husbands pockets when I do the laundry. Before you get the wrong idea, he does the laundry too. It's just that he checks the pockets first, and I don't.

That's about it for now. I would love it if you would scroll down to see her upcoming books and then take a look around my mom's website (she's even blogging!) and then, I'd be overjoyed if you gave it a whirl and ordered one of my mom's books or looked for them at your local bookstore.

PS The fabulous pic of mom was taken at my apartment by my friend Lisa Whiteman. Mom's had no surgery or "injectables", had no makeup artist during the shoot (although I insisted she try my favorite lipstick), and is seen here in natural light. She's beautiful, but doesn't know it. Which makes her... a woman I guess.

UPDATE: I bought an ad on Dooce (and Dooce only) for 1 week as an experiment and it started running today. I did it simply because I really enjoy Dooce's site -- I'm addicted more like -- and I thought her readers might be able to relate to this -- my flimsy but sincere Internet sandwich board for my mom.

My Mom's Upcoming Books

2005-09-26T00:30:00.000-07:00

Buy this novel...

Gypsy Lover

And this collection of Christmas novellas set in the Regency...

Regency Christmas Courtship

Mom's books to help Katrina victim

2005-09-21T07:55:00.000-07:00

These signed collections of mom's books on Ebay are donated and the proceeds will go to a fellow romance writer, Leslie Ferdinand, who lost everything in the storm.

You can see all the romance writers who donated and bid on their books here.

The auction and adoption of Leslie is thanks to the writers who banded to form the blog Squawk Radio.

About me, About this site

2005-08-23T07:48:00.000-07:00

I'll be adding to this blog now and again with updates and more about being a romance author's daughter.

You can leave comments on this site or you can email me if you do decide to read her books. Or email me any thoughts at all. I'd love to know what you think.

Here's my address in web friendly spam fighting code:
susie.felber [at] gmail.com

Here's a picture of me. It's way more flattering than most, thanks to my friend Wyatt being an awesome photographer.

Hooray for flattering pics!

Anywho, I really truly appreciate your stopping by.

Best,

Susie Felber