What to Read Next Podcast Recording - Laura Bishop and Laura Yamin

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[00:00:00]

Laura Yamin: Hi Laura.

Laura Bishop: Hi. Thank you so much for having me.

Laura Yamin: So happy to have you here. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Laura Bishop: Okay, so my name is Laura Bishop. I am a debut author of the upcoming novel, love Me, stalk Me. It's like a dark rom-com, so it's like dark, but hopefully also funny. I live in Florida. Drink a lot of caffeine. I need to pull back on that.

And yeah, I love all things like pink

Laura Yamin: all right, so we're gonna talk about Love Me, stalk Me

Laura Bishop: Yes.

Laura Yamin: has an interesting premise.

Laura Bishop: Yeah.

Laura Yamin: has an obsessive hero,

Laura Bishop: Yeah.

Laura Yamin: a heroin who's doing so well in work,

Laura Bishop: Mm-hmm.

Laura Yamin: a shitty personal relationship

Laura Bishop: ~That's right. Yes. Yes.~

Laura Yamin: ~and it is just basically, it's just, ~and she finds herself in a situation where her coworker is. Kind of obsessive and may have hacked, may have used the security expertise and, presented another option for her.

Laura Bishop: Yes.

Laura Yamin: darker,

Laura Bishop: Yeah.

Laura Yamin: it's a,

Laura Bishop: That's right. I really love blending [00:01:00] things that don't work together. That's my brand, things that don't work. It was just fun for me to write this book where it was dark and also kind of funny. I just loved the idea of blending those two things.

'cause we usually don't see those two things together. When you think Dark Romance, you have these really heavy books where people are really toxic towards each other. I just thought what if we did dark in a lighter way? And that's how this is. So it's dark, but it's light

Laura Yamin: like he's obsessed with her and it's like,

Laura Bishop: As he should be,

Laura Yamin: with you

Laura Bishop: yes.

Laura Yamin: basically just doing whatever it takes and shows you the shitty option. The men in finance may not be the one you wanna

Laura Bishop: That's right. ~Yeah. ~No, I mean, so I always tell people about this book, like this book is very personal, like the female main character and ~every, like, ~all of her internal thoughts are me. And it's so funny to read reviews about the book, which I read literally every single review. I know people are like, you shouldn't read reviews.

It's bad for your mental health. And I'm like, that's fine. My mental health is already in the toilet, so it's. Totally fine. And so, I read every single review, so if you write a review, I [00:02:00] will read it probably twice. And people are just like, there are a few people out there that are annoyed by the actions of the female main character.

And I'm actually really happy because I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm so happy that you are annoyed by her. And by her decision to stay with this guy longer. 'cause it means that you as a person have never experienced being in a toxic relationship where you feel very trapped and you don't know what to do.

Like that actually makes me happy for the reviewer. 'Cause this book is super, super personal for me. So these are things that I have experienced and that a lot of other women have experienced this idea of like, I know it's wrong, but. I don't have a number of things. My own self-confidence, my own like, and it happens to women in a variety of ways.

Like my own self-confidence to leave, my own money to leave. Like there are reasons that women stay with men, that they shouldn't stay with them. And the book is really about her finding her own inner self worth and giving her the ability to break away from something that is bad for her.

Laura Yamin: Yeah, I think it, [00:03:00] in some ways it reflected back to me. I agree. I've been in toxic relationship, I've been touching from my body, like, just all these different things and it really, what it does is like it shows you're your own worst Santa. Me

Laura Bishop: Yes.

Laura Yamin: she's killing it.

Laura Bishop: Right.

Laura Yamin: that she's doing well.

She has a family that cares for her. Like she has unconditional love, even though it might not be the way she wanted

Laura Bishop: Yeah.

Laura Yamin: so being in this relationship, it's encapsulates the idea like, how am I brave? Like, because. tells us that we gotta get married and we wasted the F of like

Laura Bishop: Yeah.

Laura Yamin: all this time and then you have nothing to go for.

Laura Bishop: Right.

Laura Yamin: telling you, I experienced that when I moved to Chicago. Before the pandemic, so I actually lived in New York and then I moved to Chicago for like two weeks before the pan, before the

Laura Bishop: Oh my goodness.

Laura Yamin: And I was in Chicago for about a year and a half. And I remember being like, no, this is not the right place for me.

And I was like, but I was like, but I was committed to it. I was like, how do I get out? And obviously I did get out.

Laura Bishop: Good.

Laura Yamin: Ended up like, my [00:04:00] job was like, you kinda have to move. And I was like, well, I guess I'll have to move and I'll have to find somewhere else. And I think in some ways I should take that on new option that's uncertain and it's like a little bit scary, a little bit toxic or what?

It seems to be toxic end up in Florida. So, so it's like,

Laura Bishop: We're having coffee, ~it's gonna be~

Laura Yamin: ~so, so it's like in a way like, ~but taking that brave action and not being your worst enemy and not being in that place of what your head space tells you,

Laura Bishop: mm-hmm.

Laura Yamin: the mind is ruminating. It's just noisy and you're just like,

Laura Bishop: Yes.

Laura Yamin: am I supposed to do?

Laura Bishop: Yeah.

Laura Yamin: sometimes it's a brave action is like, do the thing that's a little bit

Laura Bishop: Scary.

Laura Yamin: and scary.

Laura Bishop: I think that's right on, right? Because a lot of the times, not even just as women, but as human beings, we stay with what's safe and what we know because it's the fear of the unknown

Laura Yamin: yeah.

Laura Bishop: Like it does take a lot of confidence to get yourself to a point where you say, okay, you know what, this is actually, I might know this and it might be safe, but it's actually not healthy.

And trying to break those types of patterns and things like that. So yeah, I mean that's like a big [00:05:00] theme in the book. You know that the female main character, Izzy, is like working through and she does, she works through it and she has the help of our male main character,

through this situation where he has access to her phone and she's downloaded an AI boyfriend app, right? Like you were saying, ~like ~at the behest of her best friend, who basically forces it onto her phone. She downloads this AI boyfriend app and then he sees her and he's instantly obsessed with her.

So he takes over the app. So she's talking to the app and she thinks she's talking to a computer. And in reality, she's actually talking to her coworker. Who's obsessed with her this is where I tell people, it's dark. 'cause that's stalking and that's illegal and that's not okay.

In the real world, right? This is fiction. But he doesn't use it for a bad purpose. He very much uses it for like, I want to you to see the better version of yourself that we all see. And he's trying to get her to a point where she has the confidence to do what she needs to do for herself. And so, yeah.

So he helps her with that. And we all need [00:06:00] someone in our life, like romantic or otherwise. That is gonna be in our corner.

Laura Yamin: We need that people to just be there, like a ride at eyes who can actually walk us through and actually can give us a different perspective, can hold our hand when we take that brave action, whatever that is. Whether it's leaving a toxic relationship or whether it's just not embracing is something different and

Laura Bishop: Mm-hmm.

Laura Yamin: and

Laura Bishop: Yeah.

Laura Yamin: not alone.

Laura Bishop: Yeah.

Laura Yamin: but this book is also a walking red flag

Laura Bishop: Yeah.

Laura Yamin: we may not wanna accept, which is stalking.

Laura Bishop: Yes. It's very like, let us suspend disbelief, right? Like these are things that, like in reality, if this happened to you, you should definitely run the other way. But it is fun to explore these themes in a safe, fictional way,

Laura Yamin: So talk to us about your publication journey, because this was initially not supposed to be traditional published, but it got picked up,

Laura Bishop: correct.

Laura Yamin: it is exciting. So talk to us like, how did you get there? How do you get from point A to point Z?

Laura Bishop: I wish that, I could tell people ~and, ~so that they could duplicate, but it's just been kind of a crazy road. I had this idea for [00:07:00] this book. I just remember having it and I just had to write it I love reading.

I love writing. I was the nerdy girl in middle school, like everybody else would be ~like ~socializing before school started. And I would literally be in homeroom sitting there with I read a lot of high fantasy, so I would like sitting there with my ~like ~Mercedes lackey book, ~like ~totally reading about Griffins and other magical creatures and stuff.

~And so, and then ~in high school too, I had ~like ~one really close friend and ~like ~our fun thing to do when we got our license was go to Barnes and Nobles. Right? I mean that was, we were those girls. And it's so funny because I, especially when I was younger, if it had romance in it at all, I was like, I am not rid this.

~And so it's like how far we fall. But yeah, so I just like. I've loved writing. ~I've always loved writing, I've always loved reading, and I had this crazy idea for this book. And I just, I don't know. I think maybe I had things going on in my own life where I felt like I wanted to express. These feelings in a way that ~like ~you can only do through the written word.

Like I expressed what I was feeling about certain situations that were going on in my own life through this female main character. And in that way, [00:08:00] like it was a safer way for me to express them. Right. So I wrote this book so fast, it just poured out of me. It was like a compulsion. I just had to write it.

And then I gave it to a couple of friends to read and they were just like, this is. You have to publish this. Like, you can't just sit on this, this is something that other people should read. So I, I just like, I don't know, I have this idea for it and then I just decided to like, okay, like I'll try and publish it and we'll see what happens.

And it was really fortuitous, like during the cover reveal a book scout, saw the cover, asked me for a copy of it. I sent her a copy of it. She read it and was like, oh my gosh, I love it so much. Are you okay if I share it with ~like some, ~some other people that I work with?

And I said, yeah, ~like, ~please do. So then the next week, I was getting a phone call from my now agent. Who, was like, Hey, this person got in contact with me, said You have this book, can I read it? And I was like, sure. So she read it and they loved it. [00:09:00] And then all of a sudden I had an agent ~and then, ~not even a week later, she was like, okay, so I pitched this to Atria and they wanna offer you this deal ~and ~do you wanna take it?

And I was like. Oh my god. Sure. It was such a whirlwind. I couldn't have planned it. ~It was, ~I certainly didn't plan it. And ~I'm so, so grateful for all of the it's been all women. So ~I'm so, so grateful to all of the women who have read this book, who have connected with it and really changed my life in a way that I had not anticipated.

It would be like this. 'cause I just thought. I'm just gonna ~like, ~put it out there and, hopefully people will read it or connect with it. ~I just, ~I wrote it for myself. Right. I didn't write it for anybody else to read. I really wrote it for myself. So, ~so like, yeah. ~That's the process.

And I know that's ~not, that is ~not the process like for really most people. I have no idea, but I'm very grateful and I hope women continue to connect with this book. 'cause that's really like what means a lot to me,

Laura Yamin: yeah, I think it's an emerging trend. We're seeing romcoms to be a little darker, a little bit spicy, a little bit different than

Laura Bishop: Yeah.

Laura Yamin: see, and I think it's just right place, right time,

Laura Bishop: yeah. ~Yeah.~

Laura Yamin: ~do. It's like, it's just, ~[00:10:00] sometimes that's you. Strike of luck.

Laura Bishop: Yeah.

Laura Yamin: I think this also like the idea of like looking at things in a different lens and matching those other genres helps. It intrigued me when I got the pitch. ~'cause I was like, oh, it's just because I get pitches all the time and~

Laura Bishop: Okay.

Laura Yamin: But I really was intrigued. I was like, wait, how does this work? And then when I read it I was like. Oh, this makes sense. And not only, that I can identify even from the authors now, like I can identify for the first, the specifics. So I was like, no, this is a journey, but I enjoy it.

Laura Bishop: Oh, good. I'm glad.

Laura Yamin: So let's talk about your social media presence, because you've been building bus and it's just been fun to watch,

Laura Bishop: I.

Laura Yamin: You're creating ~to ~dream

Laura Bishop: That's so funny. Oh my gosh. I know. And I have a street team, and then I even have one of the bikers who is like really nice and I, lowkey loves the attention and he's like in the group chat with the girls. So it's fun. And a friend of mine was actually like, I think he's like, I think like it's your street team, but now he posts all of his reels to the group too, so it's really become his street team too.

Laura Yamin: you're

Laura Bishop: It's totally better.

Laura Yamin: these ~their straps,~

Laura Bishop: ~Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Yeah. His are tasteful. His are tasteful. But no, I mean, so listen, ~the main male character in this book [00:11:00] drives a motorcycle, right? And not to drop too many spoilers, but for the rest of the series, especially in book two, the idea of the biker guy is a much bigger thing too.

I just had this idea where I was like, there's so much crossover between bike talk and book talk on TikTok. And I was like, wouldn't it be fun to film with bikers and stuff? Right. And so, it's amazing what you get back when you ask, right?

And so I, just started like searching on TikTok for my area and bikers, and then I started scrolling and I would reach out to these guys and be like, Hey, I have a book coming out. I was hoping to make content, at Barnes and Nobles, would you be willing to wear your helmet at Barnes and Nobles with me?

And it's amazing 'cause they all say yes. You would think that they would be like no. But I think I've filmed with like three or four different people now at Barnes and Nobles. I'm pretty sure that Barnes and Nobles rolls their eyes every time I walk in.

'cause I walk in with like a different bike. Fine. It's totally fine. But [00:12:00] yeah, I mean, it's just fun and it's like a new, it's just a different thing to look at for everybody and it's just like, and why not? Right? Like, why not, so it's just a lot of fun. ~And I will say it's a growth thing for me too.~

'cause like even this morning, so I was walking out of Barnes and Nobles the last time that I was there with my content manager Sydney. And we couldn't get a biker to like show up that time. We were devastated. And then we were walking out and then like the cutest biker, tall blonde hair.

Was like in the cookbook session section. It was so wholesome. And he's just got his helmet there and he's just like looking at cookbooks and I was just like, oh, I am approaching this man. So I like walked up to him and I gave him the whole spiel and I was like, so yeah, like, would you wanna film with us?

And he was like, sure. And then literally like I get messages from him like the next day and he's like, Hey, my buddy's gonna be in town. Like, is it okay if he also comes in film with us? And I was like, oh. Course. And then he said he had another friend that also wanted to film with us.

So it was like three of them one of them couldn't make it. I was there this morning but it was the two of them and it [00:13:00] was so fun and it's perfect and it's just fun, you know what I mean? It's just a fun way. To market the book and the guys are so sweet. They're all so sweet and really nice.

I buy every one of 'em a book, right? Like that's the deal. Like you come and film with us, I'm gonna buy you as much coffee as you want, and then you can pick out whatever book you want. Our cookbook biker picked out a cookbook today, which was great. So I got to buy a biker, a cookbook which is like

Laura Yamin: kind of books did they pick up?

Laura Bishop: adorable.

Laura Yamin: ~of the like genres. Did they pick up, did they pick up? Like~

Laura Bishop: Well, today's was a cookbook.

Laura Yamin: cookbook?

Laura Bishop: Today's, yeah, today's was a cookbook. Yeah. The other biker that we filmed with, like, he respectfully declined. He was like, I'm all set. I was like, are you sure? Like, I'll buy you more coffee. I'll buy you more food. But yeah. ~So, ~so far it's been a cookbook, which is adorable.

Like literally. So cute.

Laura Yamin: this. Oh my

Laura Bishop: I know.

Laura Yamin: So excited. But you know, it is a job as the Kim Kardashian says,

Laura Bishop: A fulltime job.

Laura Yamin: and you know what, it takes brave action to go and talk to guys and ask them to create content.

Laura Bishop: Yeah.

Laura Yamin: It's unknown. It's basically you kind of

Laura Bishop: Yeah.

Laura Yamin: own your way of marketing

Laura Bishop: [00:14:00] Well, and that's the thing. 'cause it's, I'm gonna tell you like I still like, despite the fact that I wrote this book that was ~like very, like ~body positivity and things like that, I still very much struggle with seeing myself and being comfortable with myself, like that is something that I really struggle with.

And so even this morning, ~like ~filming, I look at myself on camera and I'm like, Ugh. You have those moments where you're just like, I don't look the way I want and it's all in your head because everybody else sees you as so beautiful. I wish we could all see ourselves that way.

And so I just keep trying to remind myself that, I think it's a good thing that I'm pushing myself to go ~and to like, and to ~do this and put myself out there. I think it's a good thing and I need that, so.

Laura Yamin: It is a great thing. The more you put yourself on camera, the more you just let go of the perfectionism, let go of the specific things. It gets easier and then you start seeing, like, you look back, it's like. When we look back childhood pictures, like I was like, oh my gosh, I was so skinny.

Laura Bishop: The moment you hate, you hate on yourself so much and you're like, ~why? Why did I do that?~

Laura Yamin: oh my gosh, ~I pretty,~

Laura Bishop: ~Yeah,~

~I know. So, yeah, ~so it's a good thing and it's fun. Like we just have fun. Like today we went and we had fun. And then I get to tell people like, they're like, well, [00:15:00] what did you do? Well, it's like, well, I encouraged a biker to like hang one handed from a street post so that we could do the Maui Hui trend.

Right. Like while holding my book, like that's what I, that was my morning, so Totally.

Laura Yamin: I love this. All right, so talk to us about the books you read now,

Laura Bishop: Mm-hmm.

Laura Yamin: do you read Romans or are you still reading fantasy or reading all over the place? What does it look like right now?

Laura Bishop: It's actually really sad. I just don't have time to read as much as I want to, and I really do want to get back into reading. I've been writing book two in the series. ~I, it's just, and then ~editing and, going back and forth on edits and things like that, it's just taken a lot more of my time.

So I just haven't had as much time to read as I want to. I miss reading if it, like, I really do miss it and I think it's so important for authors to read because it takes you out of your own world. Like I'm very much in my own world right now and I need a break. ~Like ~I need a break from my own world and I need to be able to go into somebody else's world.

I did this like low key. With tv 'cause ~I found this, like ~I got really sick over the summer and I was ~like, B ~bed laden for like a week. I just like, couldn't get outta bed. [00:16:00] So there was nothing for me to do. ~Like, I wasn't, I couldn't, I just, ~I couldn't write, I couldn't do anything. I couldn't work. ~And ~I found this ~like.~

Really cool. Dark ~it, it's like a ~dramedy. ~So ~it was dark and funny, just kinda like the stuff that I like, which is ~I think ~why I loved it so much. It was about a hitman, there was no overarching plot to it. It was just ~like ~this hitman and ~like ~his. Life and him trying to ~like ~date women.

And he had, he was divorced, he had a child. Like, it was just about his life and I was so subsumed by it. ~And so, ~and I found that really good for me because ~I, it was a time where ~I was able to get out of my own world and I ~like ~entered this guy's world and it was very refreshing for me. So I need to do that more.

But yeah, if I were going to go back into reading, I definitely feel like I might start back in with some fantasy. And I might ~trust to ~try and stay away from romance just because I'm writing it now, so ~I don't, you know what I mean? Like ~you don't wanna be influenced too much by other people's styles and stuff, like in the genre you're doing.

So I would love to go back to reading Fantasy. ~That would be so nice.~

Laura Yamin: ~so what was the name of, ~what was the name of the show?

Laura Bishop: Oh, it was called oh, what was it called? Oh my God. Mr. In between.

Laura Yamin: Ooh.

Laura Bishop: Yeah. Oh my God, it was so good. It's an [00:17:00] Australian dramedy everybody should watch it. I'm still so obsessed with it. I'm so upset that it's over.

~I don't know what I'm doing with my life now.~

Laura Yamin: Oh my gosh. Thank you for giving us a TV recommendation.

Laura Bishop: yes. You're right. Yeah. You're welcome.

Laura Yamin: someone who

Laura Bishop: It.

Laura Yamin: needs better long form content just to escape from

Laura Bishop: Mm-hmm.

Laura Yamin: we're just consuming so much short form content that it just becomes our mind.

Laura Bishop: Yeah.

Laura Yamin: sometimes it's like a good TV show can just ~like skew write in.~

Laura Bishop: Yeah.

Laura Yamin: Just don't have to think about the world.

Laura Bishop: I binge watched that show. It was so good. ~So~

Laura Yamin: ~Awesome. ~Laura, tell us we can find you online.

Laura Bishop: Okay. You can find me on like, all my socials are supposed to be Laura Bishop author, so I'm on TikTok, I'm on Instagram. So I am on Instagram and on TikTok as Laura Bishop author. So that's where you can like watch me and all these bikers. It's perfect.

Laura Yamin: Awesome. Thank you, Laura, for being a show.

Laura Bishop: Yeah, of course. Thank you so much for having me.

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