Hi, everyone. We're glad you're here. This is the Three Lesbians and a Pen podcast. Get ready to have your world rocked. As we dive into the wild and sometimes wacky world of self-publishing. We are three fabulous bestselling authors. I'm your host, Kimberly Todd with my best friends.

K. C. Luck

and Jamey Moody. 

Join us as we discuss the joys of writing, challenges of self-publishing, and anything else that tickles our fancy. 

Hey there. Welcome to episode 23 of the Three Lesbians and a Pen Podcast. I'm Kimberly Todd I'm here with my fabulous friends, KC Luck and Jamey Moody. Today we're talking about plot and how we get our ideas for our stories. But first how's everyone doing? KC? 

Well, I'm doing really well, actually. I watched the Super Bowl yesterday, and the team I was rooting for won by a bunch, so that was a lot of fun. I'm not a huge fan of the quarterback for the red team, so watching him get knocked down was pretty awesome. Well, glad it wasn't a drinking game, because every time he got sacked, we would have had to drink, but anyway.

And, other news, I have started writing a book Try not to pass out. 

Whaaat? 

Yay. Yay. 

Oh, no.

Don't want to jinx it, but I'm 15, 000 words in.

It's a, actually the idea originally came from the Vella episodes that I was writing, but that got axed by Amazon, way before I got very far into it. So I actually picked up that.

Idea and I'm running with it. I know some people were hoping it would be another Billionaires and things like that, but I'm just not feeling those books. I'm feeling this one. So knock on wood. We'll see how far I can get. 

That's

it for me. That's great. 

Yeah, you gotta write what you're feeling. You can't, Yeah, It's 

for sure. For 

force it. That's for sure.

Yeah.

Well, I, went to a Super Bowl party last night and watched the game too. I happen to be for the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes. He is a Texas boy. But so is Jalen Hurts, who won the MVP for the Eagles. But, the big part for me was, is we had some betting games going on, and I won a hundred bucks. So, yeah, that was kind of fun. In, book news, my ARC team, has my, new release which will be out February 22nd and several of them have told me it's their favorite book of mine and it made them cry or tear up.

Yay.

I love it when that happens because they were happy tears.

So isn't that cool?

Mm hmm.

I know, I was very happy, so we'll end on that happy note. Kimberly, what were you up to?

Same thing, Super Bowl, but we have friends from Philly, so we were all about Philadelphia. So, yay! Yay team. 

Well, whatever. I'm a Dallas Cowboy fan, and so we can't be for Philly. Sorry.

Yeah, and my wife's family is from Texas, so they were all rooting for Kansas City. And then for me, I have started my, blurb for my second book. So as you know, I write my blurb as my

Yeah,

Your outline.

So that’s my writing news. KC, did we get any text? 

We did get some texts this week. We got one from someone new actually, CJ from Maine. She asked us a few questions for Ask. Ask Anything episode, which I'm looking forward to doing here in the near future. And also, they said that they get their ideas from newspapers, other novels, and they work with the older population and they tell them fun stories.

And they're very inspiring. And then we also got one from Cheryl who says, the plot just has to catch her interest and really all types, as long as the ladies catch her eye. So those were the big texts. No comments on social media. So I'm still hoping that people are following us along on Facebook.

We have like 700 followers on Facebook or something. So we should be getting a few comments now and then hint, hint, hint.

Sell it.

we got several emails. CJ also emailed us, which I'm glad she did. She listens to us on her morning walk and she sent us several beautiful sunrise pictures in Maine. She answered our, question on, what was the question last week on plot? 

What makes the plot believable.

Yeah. And she just listed several that she likes to see.

 Small town romance. Colorful side characters, accents, things like that. And then Bella, one of my ARC readers, emailed us, and she had just started listening to the, podcast and on the one that we were talking about dialogue tags. KC mentioned that she never uses giggled in her books, and there happens to be giggled in several places in the, book that she is reading for me right now.

Haha.

And the part that I really liked, because when KC told us that I thought, eh, whatever, because I use Giggle. And she said Giggle was a perfect word in these instances, which she 

Oh my goodness. 

Listed a couple of.

And she's right. It worked perfectly for those. So

ha ha

thought that

shall never use Giggle now. Never.

I'm telling you and then Manishka, emailed us again and said, we're making her laugh so much.

 She's gonna die. 

Yeah. She emailed me directly the same thing.

Said that 

I 

enjoying it very much. 

know I thought that was pretty good. It's nice to hear from some new listeners So if you're feeling it, please feel free to email us or for sure comment on the socials and Kimberly, you got some Insta news for us?

Yep. Jules wrote in and she said, she's had a good question. Actually, we keep mentioning show don't tell. and so I added that to our list for ask us anything question. And then as far as what makes a plot believable to her, she says being consistent. So if you have flying dragons, for instance, if they're just going to fly throughout the book, that's cool.

But if they start to talk all of a sudden, that's weird. So you want to make sure the dark dragon talks from the beginning. and then if a character has a limp and then all of a sudden, they run because there's danger, that's not really cool. And then, and for romance novels, I think this is a good one.

I think a lot of people would agree that. If you have an ice queen that's an insta melt ice queen, she struggles with believing that there's an ice queen. And then all of a sudden there's a pretty girl that smiles at them and then they melt.

So I think that's true. There has to be a reason why, how that person touches them or whatever.

Right. 

I agree.

So today we're talking about plot and how we get our ideas for our story. So KC, do you want to start?

Yeah. A big one for me is the whole write what you want to read. And that's how I come up with some plot ideas, because I think about what I really like to read. And mine is apocalypse novels. I am huge into books like The Stand by Stephen King or Alas Babylon by Pat Frank. Like anything that has to do with.

a scenario where the world as we know it has completely changed. And so I thought, gosh, that wouldn't that be the greatest book to ever write. And that's how the darkness series came about was because I decided to do more of a dystopian slant on an end of the world scenario with lesbian characters. And it turned out to be my best set of books.

So I'm really happy. I listened to my gut and wrote what I love to read. 

I know. Isn't it funny how these ideas just come to you? Because, mine just feels so random most of the time. And I know I've said this. And most of my readers will probably know this, but for example, the last series I did with the Sloan sisters, I drove by this shopping center. That was being built.

I drove by it every day on my way to work and on my way home. And I don't know how that became a series, but it did because I saw those three businesses and I thought that'd be perfect. And at that time, I hadn't even thought of them being sisters. But I thought let's do three different stores with three different people and how they interconnect and bam, that series was born.

it's just funny to me how those ideas come to you.

That's the golden stuff there 

when that 

know. And I mean, I can say that about just about every book that I've written.

Yeah.

And then for me, I was watching, a bunch of vampire, series cause I loved them and I was reading as many vampire books as I could. And I was at the pool. We lived in Florida at one point and I was at the pool and this girl came out of the pool and she looked like a vampire to me. I was like, I am going to write a Sapphic.

Vampire book. I told my newsletter this before, and what I thought was going to just be a one off book turned into a series.

Mm hmm.

Isn't that the way it 

works?

Yeah. Uh huh. Uh huh. 

I'm not necessarily the vampire person. I just happen to be that. And then for, Mafia Girl, Maybe? My family is Italian and there's just so many things that made me think of that.

And, we always watch our family, doesn't matter if it's Christmas or, Thanksgiving, we always watch the Godfather series. That's just stuff that I like. So that's where that came from.

Speaking of vampire novels, I wrote a vampire novel once because a reader begged me to do so. That's how I came up with an idea. Yeah. She was a big fan at the time. And she said, I would love for you to write a novel about vampires. This is my favorite genre. And I was looking for something to write at the time.

So I, and it was for actually, NaNoWriMo, which is that November, write a novel in a month. And I was looking for a topic and I was really scrambling for an idea. And I thought, what the hell, I'll try writing a vampire romance. And I just brainstormed ways it would work and came together into a nice little novel of a Venandi.

How about that? That's fun.

Yeah, she was thrilled, obviously I named one of the characters after her and everything. 

For, one of mine, it's probably the best-selling stand-alone that I have. I was finished with a series and just looking for a new idea because I wanted to do a stand-alone and I don't know where it actually started but I thought well I could write a small town and do a type of toaster oven coming out.

And I thought, so how could I do that? And I took my small town cause I thought, well, my gosh, I'm living here. I might as well do it. And I'm always talking about how there are no lesbians in this town and how it's hard as far as the dating pool goes. So I thought, well, I will take someone like me as the main character and I will just write my own romance.

And that's kind of what I did because. The scenes of the book of go along with this area that I live in and then things that happened in the town, are things that happened here and I just wrote my own romance type thing and that book ended up doing so well. I don't know happened to it, but it was just really funny.

And I even did the cover for it. I happened to find a picture that went perfectly with the people. I had to change the. hairstyle of one of them, but the pictures were perfect with the people and it just, it took off.

Yeah. It's probably because it was very authentic sounding. You know, if you can really put your heart into something like that, it comes across to the readers for sure.

Maybe I was like, well, let's see, where could someone come from that's going to sweep me off my feet or who am I going to sweep off their feet? And

it went from there. It was fun to write. I'll say that.

I also get 

get inspiration from people I know, for instance, in Mafia Girl, Maybe? I put an art dealer in there. And one of my really good friends is an art dealer. So it was kind of fun to just like, think of what she does for her career and I could incorporate some of that into, the book, and then also I love Smithsonian Magazine, and sometimes they have really good articles that just give me an idea.

And for instance, there was a article in there about bats, which I included part of the idea into one of the V.A.M.P. Books and I thought that's so cool. So you get inspired by many things, but for me, people in my life as well as things that I read.

Right. And kind of on the same vein, I, wrote a book, The Ruby Bar series based on a bunch of bars I'd been to over my life. And it was really fun because I could take all the best parts of it, you know, the sort of the dance floor scenario and how the bartender acted and stuff. And this combined it all together in this really fun bar that I would personally love to visit.

So that was a combination of what you're both saying is what I wish existed and, things that inspired me in the past. So that book set is pretty fun.

See, that's me that the first series I wrote, I was thinking, well, what’s something I would like to do other than what I am doing? And I thought I would love to have always owned my own fitness center. And so that's how that series came about. And there are three owners that were friends and decided to open their own fitness center.

And that opened all kinds of ideas because you could make it sporty or not, you know, and it's just funny how you just come up with things and then bam, there's a book or a series.

Mm

that's fun. Mm hmm.

 Yeah. And then I have, things that interest me. I mean, you have like, all of a sudden, you're interested in something and you're like, I'm going to read it anyways or research it. Might as well make it into a book because it'll be fun. You learn at the same time as you're writing it.

hmm. Mm

And and see, that's what I did with the series that I'm writing right now. I've always loved the stars. And I thought, you know, let me go out to that. Uh, let me do a little research trip and see, cause I'd wanted to go out there anyway, and it's turned into three books and I have just loved writing them because I had a little interest in something and learning more about it.

And now I go out every night and look at the stars. It's just kind of fun how that happens.

Can't really do that here. You get rain in your face. I know. It's the right season for it.

We have smog in New Jersey and New York, so.

No stars for you.

Well, let's, let's see what kind of, cloudy, 

Yeah, there you go

up with.

Sounds apocalyptic, KC.

There you 

The mist I think it's been done

And a little smog for you, Kimberly.

Yeah.

Speaking of things that you love I wrote a book about mixed martial arts. I'm was a huge UFC fan until the UFC owner became a really good friends with the president, but anyway, we're not going to get into politics, but anyway, I really love MMA and I've watched it, pretty much a whole life.

My brother got me into it and I've gone to some live events. It's really fun. And I thought it would be cool to write a book about it, but I wasn't sure if the readers would be on board. So I actually decided in a poll, I put a poll in one of their Facebook groups and asked, I'm going to write a sports romance.

Here are some categories. What would you like? And they went with MMA. So it was very 

Ah, 

to soccer or foot football, but uh, yeah, football was the other one, but it was very close. And luckily it was MMA. Cause I really wanted to research it. Cause at the time Amanda Nunez was the MMA, Best of all time.

And I've kind of modeled it a little bit after her character. So that was a lot of fun to research her.

Didn't, around that time, oh, I can't remember the name of the movie, but Kristen Stewart came out, in a movie that had something to do with that. Yeah. With, I think she owned maybe a boxing gym or something like that. And there was a movie about it.

No kidding. 

it yet, She has a romance with a girl too, right?.

I've got it. Yeah. Yeah. And I've got it ready to watch. I just can't remember the name of it.

What? You got to text me that. 

Yeah. I would love that. 

It's out now, streaming, so, mm hmm.

Cool. I just watch so few movies and I'm so out of touch when it comes to movies that, luckily my girlfriend is a little bit more into it. So she gets to me to some of the indie films, the small cinema we have here, 

 so,

This time of year, I like to try to watch, the ones that are nominated for Academy Awards, too.

There's a few out that are streaming 

 And the other thing that I do, which I think is actually kind of fun in New York when you're on the subway, or when you're taking the train into the city, if you're out, at a club or restaurant, I love, love, listening to other people. And a lot of times I will rip off what they're about, not verbatim, but I'm like, aha, like if they're talking about some scandalous breakup or they're, you know, it's gotta be something kind of fun.

And I love that. You never know if an author is sitting next to you people.

There you go. Yeah. Yeah. You can get t shirts that say something about that. It'd be nice to me, or you might end up in my novel. I know authors like to do that. Like when they go out to dinner or just sit around and listen to conversations in 

other parts of the restaurant or whatever, and get ideas from that.

 Okay. I have one really random one that I did for actually one of my short stories just for the fun of it is I had learned about a random story, a prompter where you would get three keywords. You get the environment and the action and a prop. And so I went with it. I rolled the dice on it and I got these different items.

One was a hospital gown and one was a mental hospital and the other one was like murder. 

So, 

 I wrote the book or the short story called the one, which if you haven't read it, it's kind of a fun twist. It's on Amazon for like a buck. But, yeah, it's one of my few that I did a thriller on, but it was all inspired by this.

This really crazy little random generator. I haven't used it since. Maybe I should try it again when I can't come up with ideas, but it was a 

lot of fun. 

Yeah. 

Okay, so for next week, we are going to be talking about plotting, beginning, middle, and end. And our question?

Our question is going to be for readers, what kind of plots keep you hooked? So when you're talking about, is it going to be something structured? Do you like a lot of structures? Do you know what's going to happen? Do you like a lot of twists? Do you like this to be random? Obviously, the person writing it doesn't really necessarily know where the book was going to go.

So it kind of keeps you guessing as well. And if you're an author, how do you approach it? Do you really have to have a lot of structure or are you one of those pantsers? Like some of the people on this podcast, I believe are. so yeah, is that your approach or are you a plotter more like me?

So anyway, those are the questions. So please comment and text and email us.

Okay, that's it for this week. Thanks for listening.

Thank you everybody. Talk to you next week.

Let me remind you that, KC is looking for comments on the social media and so is Kimberly. And thank you for emailing me. Bye. 

Thanks for listening. If you'd like to reach out to us, you can contact us by email at contact@threelesbiansandapen.com with the number three spelled out or on Instagram, Facebook and X at Three Lesbians and a Pen using the number three. And finally on our website, at threelesbiansandapen.com, we look forward to hearin