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 and welcome to episode 52 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 the holidays. Before we start, how was your week, KC?

My week was great as always. Can't complain. I actually enjoyed my Thanksgiving. So here in the U.S., for those listeners who might not be, we had Thanksgiving last Thursday and normally there's usually a big family get together, but some people are in Scotland for a wedding. People were in different places. So my mom is a member of the Elks Club, near where I live. And so for the first time ever, we went there for a free Thanksgiving dinner and it was free.

So interesting.

Interesting. Yeah.

I've never had turkey quite that way before, kind of in a sauce, I don't know, instant mashed potatoes and yeah. But I mean, they served hundreds of people, so obviously, you have to do things in huge, you know, mass produced things. So instant mashed potatoes are kind of the way they had to go. 

But yeah, so it was fun just from a festive atmosphere. Everything was decorated and everybody's in a super good mood and it was chilly outside and it wasn't raining, it was sunny. So it was just a beautiful Thanksgiving, but that was actually really fun. And then the next day. I played in a heads up poker tournament.

So if you've never played heads up poker or if you've never played poker at all, you're not gonna know what I'm talking about. But heads up poker is basically a tournament style where you actually go from bracket to bracket based on if you win against your one opponent. And it was super fun. I'd never done that kind before and it was super fun. It was also at an Elks club, only this one was in another town, so go figure. I apparently did Elks clubs all weekend.

Are you gonna be joining one?

Yeah, no, I'm a Veteran, so I get into all of them for free, so it works out fine. But yeah, so Ithat was my holiday weekend.

Other than that...

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Back it up, bitch. Did you win?

Oh, did I win? I got third. 

Oh, that's good. 

That's great.

I know. I went some money. It was great. Yeah, so, and people were impressed, you know, 'cause I was one of the younger people, 'cause it was the Elks Club and I was one of the few females in the, you know, poker tournament. And so they were all looking at me like, oh, she's gonna be a pushover. And then I whipped all these old guys' ass. So it was great. That part was the best part actually. Yeah. 

That's what I'm picturing. I'm picturing all these old men sitting around with a cigar hanging out of their mouth, you know, and throwing cards in the middle of the table and KC's over there going, gimme your money.

Mm-hmm. I sweet talked him. I sweet talked them. 

I love it. I love it.

But yeah, so other than decorating a little bit, you know, for Christmas coming up, that's pretty much all I did this last week.

Yeah. You know, the thing about Thanksgiving well in my family anyway, and we're not as big as we used to be, but everybody, you know, brings a dish and all of that and everything. And if you try to be, let's say polite and take a bite, you know, of each dish or whatever, man, my plate was full. You can't even, it's crazy how that works out. But it was fun. I mean, we had a nice time and everything and did the same thing. Let's see, because y'all know I'm sporty, so my sports for the weekend, Thanksgiving Day, we like to watch the Cowboys play. They played the afternoon game and they were playing the Kansas City Chiefs. And interestingly enough, they kept hyping that game saying it was gonna be the most watched football game on Thanksgiving ever, or something like that. And, it ended up being a really good game. And the Cowboys came from behind. No, they didn't come from behind. They ended up winning, which was surprising because they're not very good this year, but they started getting better. And so it's like, Ooh, do we have a chance? But it was really fun because, the Chiefs, Patrick Mahomes, who is their quarterback, who a lot of people know and everything, he was trying to bring the chiefs back right at the end and didn't, so it was awesome.

So then you follow that on Friday. I am a big, Texas A&M fan, and of course if you're in Texas, that's a big rivalry with the Longhorns. Can't stand them. And so they had a big rivalry football game that night, and Texas A&M has not been beaten this year, and I hate those rivalry games because it doesn't matter who's the best and who's the worst. It never happens that way in those rivalry games, I mean, things just happen. Anyway, they ended up beating us and it made me, eh, for the rest of the day and, night and the weekend. But anyway, it's just because I don't know if you're, I'm trying to think of how I could, if you're not sporty, something that you really like to do and something happens, you don't get to do it and it just makes you feel, you know, blah. That's kind of how it feels, and it happens to us nearly every year. So you'd think I'd get used to it, but then I'm like, why do I watch this stuff? You know? So. But anyway, but I love it. I'm sporty and I love it. 

 Then I did the same thing. I ended up putting my Christmas tree up, which we'll talk about that in the holiday part here in a little bit. The decorations and stuff.

Well, I went home to see mommy. And we did the whole Thanksgiving dinner. And I have to tell you, the Pioneer Woman has this brining recipe that you use oranges and you like soak the Turkey overnight. Holy cow. The white meat was so, I'm gonna say the word, I'm sorry. Moist and, and everyone loved the moist Turkey.

I was gonna ask you how that worked out?

Oh my God. It was fabulous. It was so amazing. Yeah. And it only took two and a half hours to cook and it was so good. And then I decided to do this thing. I've been seeing things on like TikTok or Facebook or whatever, and I decided to take, you know, do the same thing that people were doing.

And I kind of interviewed my mother, like asked her, you know, little tidbits 'cause she's gonna be 80. Asking about my grandparents and about her childhood and how she met daddy and all these different things like fun memories. And then the best part was we had, my mother is super competitive, which I'm not that way with games, but my mother is mental with games, especially if she's losing.

And we played Jenga. I think we played like 10 games of Jenga. And then, Sorry. So it was so much fun to watch her, but she was getting pissed 'cause she lost three games of Jenga in a row and I thought she was gonna blow her stack. I was like, mommy, time for wine. Time for wine. And she's like, yes, please.

Funny.

Let me add listeners that Kimberly is quite the chef, so that's one reason I wanted to know because I know that you made some delicious side dishes to go with that.

Yeah, it was... Sometimes it's a little intense because you make all these wonderful things and then you're like, all the time you're take, it takes like 15 minutes to eat everything.

Yeah. Yeah.

Like days of prep and then you're like, and good old Ina Garten, a shout out to her again. I love her and her stuff is amazing. Some of the things she has is not that intense, which is great. So yeah, it was a nice time. 

I had to had to share that because she is quite the chef. 

Thank you. Thank you. So did we have any texts this week?

We had a couple actually. Cheryl said she's looking forward to spending Christmas with her wife. A year ago, her wife was in the hospital for 49 days around the holidays, and so she was afraid that she would lose her love bug as she calls her. But she came home on the 22nd, and so now she's looking forward to a normal Christmas. But she also pointed out she has a Godzilla room, a Christmas Godzilla room.

Oh wow. 

I'm not sure what that would look like. I'm having trouble picturing that. I can imagine a Godzilla room or a Christmas room, but not a Christmas Godzilla room.

I'm not sure I want to picture that.

Maybe they have wreaths around the dinosaur's neck. 

Mm-hmm. 

Or whatever.

Yeah, maybe, you know, a little tinsel here and there, but we also got one from CeeJay says, they're looking forward to extra days off and the toys are in the nightstand.

Ah, okay. Okay. Well, I had an email from Cheryl about her toys. Y'all. This is the best. She said. She keeps them in a box that says, on the outside, in this beautiful writing, it says everything will be okay. And she's gotten compliments on the box and she just laughs because she knows what's inside.

That is fun. 

Mm-hmm. Cheryl, you're naughty.

I know, I love it. I love it. Cheryl, our naughty listener. Kimberly, anything on Insta?

Yeah, we got a couple, actually, we got one from J.D. Locke and she said what she's looking most forward to is her wife getting some time off before the craziness of next year, and she's spending Christmas Day at her sister-in-law's house, so there's no cooking or cleaning for her, and she's hopefully finding a little bit of time to do some amazing reading of sapphic holiday books.

Nice.

Then we heard from A Guardian Rock and they said what they're most looking forward to is just chilling and having a break from work. And they'll probably get a bunch of books. they're trying to make a goal of 30 books a year, and they're hoping that they can accomplish this. And then I got a few emails, and well wishes from CeeJay, Minishca and Cheryl. And I just wanted to shout out to all three of you as well and hope you have a happy holiday.

Nice. 

Yeah, Manischa emailed us too, just a little chatty email, so that is nice.

Yeah.

So that's it for text this week. And now we are gonna start our holiday episode. So Jamey, do you wanna start? You said you had some things you wanted to share.

 I decided to put my Christmas tree up, which I usually do it during Thanksgiving weekend because I have time off from work. I don't work as much as I used to, so that's not as big of an issue. But I got out all the decorations around the house and everything. And, I put a few Christmas lights up outside around my, front porch and it was really windy Saturday, so I thought, I'm not getting that in that to put these lights up. I'll do it tomorrow. So on Sunday I got up and it was like 40 all day. Hey. And I was like, I ain't doing it then either. So let me just tell you listeners, my outdoor Christmas lights are still in the box waiting. To be hung and they will not get hung today because once again, it's cold outside. That doesn't happen much in Texas. So.

Don't you own a coat?

They'll, yes, but I don't wanna be out there on a ladder and a coat trying to put up frigging Christmas lights.

Uhuh.

I'll get to it. I'll get to it. There's plenty of time. Oh, but I'll tell you one thing that I did do, Saturday. I wanted to say for the holiday part, my sister and I went to a watercolor class. Where you made, Christmas cards and you did the watercolor on the front of the cards. And let me just say listeners, I have painted before, done little painting in my time. Have you heard of Bob Ross? Y'all have heard of Bob Ross, right? 

Yeah. Yeah. 

Or nice hair. Yeah.

Well, I used to do those Bob Ross paintings, and let me tell you. It works.

A happy little tree. 

 Yes. I mean, it's really kind of cool. So I thought, yeah, this will be fun. Well, let me tell you, watercolors ain't my thing. When I was there doing 'em, I was like, my God, this is terrible. And so I did my cards and I got 'em home. And then I got to look at 'em a little bit after they dried really well, and I showed them to KC and Kimberly, and they even said they weren't so bad.

No, they were good. 

So, so, I mean, it was fun. And they ended up not quite as terrible as I thought they were. So I made a little, yeah, I made a little Christmas tree and a wreath and then we made a round ornament and she had swirls and different things on hers and no, that's not what Jamey does. I put a big ole "M" on mine for Moody, so, but it was fun and it was something different to do. Nice.

Yeah.

I put up, some Christmas decorations as well, only on the inside. I don't decorate outside much. Nobody really does where I live. And I love gnomes. I don't know if I've said this on the podcast before, but I am a gnome freak. I love gnomes, gnome for the holidays and things like that. So, that's what my decorations are, is I have little Christmas gnomes placed all over. I have gnome napkins, I have gnome everything. And I counted them. 22 gnomes.

Gosh. Are they all holiday?

Yeah, they're all Christmas ones. I have 'em for every season. I have a Thanksgiving one and stuff, but these are just Christmas gnomes, 22 Christmas gnomes.

 Are gnomes, magical... mystical?

Okay. I thought they were okay. I didn't know. Well, you've got all kinds of good juju going around then. 

Exactly.

Yeah. Well, we know Kimberly had her tree up early. 

Yeah.

You guys, we have a fake tree because we don't wanna kill trees. So... 

So is mine. Mine's fake.

Okay, so we have a tree and we happen to have room where we live, so we leave all the ornaments. It's beautifully decorated, and then I slowly on my bums, scooch it little by little by little into the back room. So every year I just drag it out and it's all decorated and all the lights are on it.

I think that's great.

I do. Hey, do y'all have any favorite ornaments? I bought some, cute little rainbow ornaments a couple of years ago, and I think those have turned into like my favorite ones. 

Yeah. 

I collect tin ornaments for, I don't know, 30 years or something. And they're all like little cars and little, reindeer and things like that. And they're all made outta the colored, tin. Usually they're made in Japan, things like that. They're very cool looking and very retro.

Yeah, that would be cool. I have a gnome ornament.

You do? 

Of course. 

That's cool. 

Yeah. Shocker.

Yeah. Yeah.

You guys can't see this, but Jamey has on a sweatshirt today that says, Tis the season for Hallmark. Hallmark Movies and I wanted to bring up that, Lifetime is having the Firefighter's Christmas Wish this year, which is a lesbian, firefighter movie.

And then we also talked about Hallmark. I think it's December 21st, is the Christmas Baby with Kat Barrell. So since you had that sweatshirt on, I thought I would shout out those movies.

Oh, nice. 

I'm looking forward to those. 

Yeah.

I was just gonna say we need representation, you know?

One other thing we did this weekend, or I did, not my wife, and I was very excited about it, is I don't know if there's any Stranger Things fans out there, but I totally binged the four episodes that came out. Holy crap. I cannot wait. Now we have to wait till December 25th for the next lot, and that is hideous. 

I was gonna say, I watched them last night. I've got the last, episode to go. I saved that for today 'cause it's like an hour and a half. 

Oh my God, It's so good. 

So there are gonna be more?

Yeah, December 25th, and I believe the next one is on December 31st, the final.

Thank goodness they gave you a really good recap because they take so long between seasons. I was like, I've invested in this for, I don't even know when it came out... 2019, something like that. But I thought, let me just look at this and see if I can remember what happened. But they gave a really good recap and they kind of captured you at the very beginning. So that's so funny. I did too.

Mm-hmm. 

Mm-hmm. 

You did too, KC?

No, I've actually watched it though. I know what you're actually talking about. I'm actually talking about, yes. Yeah, I've actually watched a couple episodes and I love the fact that it's set, I guess what, in the eighties it's like, it's a throwback. So that, part was really cool. 

The 80s stuff in there is amazing. 

Do you girls, have any, movies that you watch every year? Like, we're gonna definitely watch, It's a Wonderful Life and we love a Christmas story with Ralphie and the BB Gun. I don't know if you watch that one. That's one of my wife's favorites. And then of course, the original 30 minute Grinch cartoon can't go without that.

I like that original Grinch. I noticed this weekend they had Elf on a marathon. 

Yeah. 

TNT or TBS. One of those. 

Yeah. 

Mm-hmm. 

They had Elf going.

I did watch Gone With The Wind, the entire thing, over Thanksgiving weekend with my girlfriend who saw it years and years and years ago and had not seen it recently. And I've seen it many, many times. I love this movie and I love this book. And I was able to quote lines and oh. like, you're such a nerd.

I have a memory of Gone With the Wind I can share with you. I think when it came out I was a little bitty kid and my mom wanted to see it so bad. She bundled all of us up in our PJs and we went to the drive-in and of course I'm sure we fell asleep 'cause it's like three or four hours long. But, yeah, I remember that. I was like, okay. Gone With the Wind. 

I did see, Wicked For Good. Have y'all seen Wicked or Wicked For good? 

I don't musicals, but I believe you. 

Highly recommend, highly recommend, Ariana Grande. I don't know if you listen to her music. She could sing. We know that, but man, she can act. She's so comical and so good in it. But it was really good. That may end up being a holiday classic, I don't know. Hmm. 

I have something that's not holiday, but I just wanna talk about it 'cause I think Jamey's gonna go crazy or you might already know about it.

Oh?

Did you see that there's gonna be a Woman's Pro Baseball League? They had their first inaugural draft, and it's the first thing since World War II. And the first four teams are Boston, New York, LA, and San Francisco. And it's 120 players so far. So I thought you'd be excited about that.

Yeah, I think I heard something about they were gonna play. I'm not sure if they're playing in those cities. I saw something about they were gonna play at one spot, like in Indiana or someplace like that. I'll have to look back at it. Yeah. I knew it was coming.

Mm-hmm. Sounds exciting. Right?

All women's sports are like, going crazy right now. The WNBA is increasing teams. The soccer league is adding teams, 

It's kind of cool. 

We had to record the Nebraska Women's College Volleyball team over the weekend while we were away. And then we just watched it yesterday. 

Yes. 

Cause my wife's a big fan. 

Fun fact there. Texas A&M also, their volleyball team is really good and they're in Nebraska's part. Did you see last night they did the draw for the 64 team? Well, we're in Nebraska's end of the, I was like, oh great. Oh great. 

Hey. Hey. Goodbye. 

It's all good. It's all good. 

Another thing that happened that I didn't mention that's Christmas related is my book. Everybody Needs a Hero at Christmas, came out this last week and it's doing pretty well. 

I'm pretty excited with the response and the reviews have been good, so that's great. I've also decided to make it into a series. Go figure. It was not my original plan, but Everybody Needs a Hero and then Everybody Needs a Hero at Christmas, it was a second novel now. I, just randomly came up with an idea for the third one for them to have happen with them. So I don't wanna give away what it is, but it doesn't happen necessarily in Los Angeles, 'cause I've already beaten Los Angeles to death now. So they're gonna be away from there and something's going to happen to them. And I will write that in 2026.

These poor people, things keep happening to 'em. Right. That's the whole thing. But I mean, you know, that's the way it goes. That's right. There you go. 

Nice. 

You gotta give them something to be a hero for. 

Yep.

Well that's cool. The Wishing Star series is complete now, but what I wanted to talk about were Christmas books, because here we are in the holiday time. I have four different Christmas books that are available. And I just wanted to remind our listeners, they'll probably be inundated with 'em, but a lot of times Christmas books are shorter. They're novellas.

 I have three that are shorter and then one that's an actual book. But I just think they're perfect for this time of year, whether you kind of have the blues because it's the holidays, because I know some people do. Sometimes these Christmas books can lift your spirits and some people just love Christmas, so why not read a Christmas book?

And, One other thing, I finished a book over the weekend. That's always the best part. I don't write the end at the end of the book like KC does.

Me either. 

I like that. 

I Don't do that. 

Yep. 

I don't do that. But it just felt so good to finish the book because I was under a deadline for one. But let me ask you all this, it's always bittersweet for me. The bitter is I have gotten these folks to where they need to be, and so I have to leave them. The sweet is they're living there happily ever after, now, and I get to share it with my readers. So it's always a little bittersweet because, you know. 

I'm mostly sweet. 

You're tired of them and you wanna get done with it. 

Yeah. Exactly, I'm like ehhh. .

Sometimes I'm like that, but I tell you, I had the last chapter in the epilogue on this one to go, and I kind of felt like I was dragging my feet, and I know I say this about every book I write, I really like these characters, but these I really do like, and I think it's because this book is different.

This is my first attempt, maybe only attempt. I don't know. We'll see how it does at a sports romance. It's a basketball book. I use the WNBA. I've got a sportscaster and a player that fall for each other, and that's taboo because journalists and commentators like that can't really be friends with or have any type of relationship with a player because of journalistic integrity. So it was kind of fun. It ended up being a bit of a slow burn and then it's a secret, so they're hiding this and get caught and that kind of stuff. So that was fun to write, and then it was trying to figure out what they're gonna do, if they do get caught or what happens after the season. So anyway, it was just a lot of fun to write. I can't wait. It'll be out the end of February, 1st of March.

Okay, Kimberly. 

I'm excited. I have two books I'm working on. People that follow me in my newsletter know that one is completely different than V.A.M.P. and Mafia Girl. And I'm looking at covers now, for that book, and I'm very excited for it to come out soon. 

And then I was having trouble writing, as you have heard me say, I had writer's block. And so I was talking to the universe the other day and I was saying, you know, I don't know, I wanna write this book and I wanna write this book and I wanna write them at the same time, but they're completely different. So I was putting one hat on one day, and then one hat on the next day. But they're so far apart that I was getting nowhere fast.

So I said, let me know what I should be doing so I can focus. And I was driving home from the grocery store last week, and there was all these papers flying around in the road and I watched all these cars drive over it ahead of me and I drove over it myself.

And then I looked in the rear view mirror and it looked like a manuscript. I said, shit, I need to turn around. I can't leave that. That's someone's baby. Maybe I don't even know what it was. I turned around and I picked it up. And it happened to be a book, but the thing that happened is the page that was run over and open was from Joseph Campbell, the guy that writes the Hero's Journey in writing, hello? That's so weird. It was open to that and it said, " We must be willing to let go of the life we've planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us." And I was like, holy crap. So that let me know which book that I should finish. And this was just. Crazy to me. So anyways, I've put that in my newsletter 'cause I thought it was insane and I was like, okay, thank you for the answer. It did because it helped me focus. I'm gonna do both books, but it definitely helped me focus. So that was exciting.

Yes. Yes. That is awesome actually. And I totally agree that the universe was like, here you go. Here's a big answer for you. I did see that in your newsletter this morning, and speaking of split priorities. I've decided to take December off from KC Books, KC Luck, KC Knight books and write a nonfiction book.

So yeah, something completely different. Not sapphic at all, under another pen name. And it is, not something I think you would ever expect, but I will be of course, putting it on social media and telling my newsletter people about it just because I want, everyone to know why there's gonna be a lag in my books coming out more than anything else.

Mm-hmm. Well, you can be assured that Jamey Moody is gonna stay in her lane and continue to write Sapphic Romance. I have an inkling of an idea for what comes next after this basketball book, but man, I got nothing to share yet. I mean, it's just like, who knows? Who knows? 

Well, I think this is a good segue actually, that, we have some news for you as far as the podcast goes. We feel that we've taken you as far as we can go, as far as teaching you the book business as an indie author and what you can accomplish if you try and keep your head down and write.

So this is gonna be our farewell episode of Three Lesbians and a Pen Podcast, and we wanted to thank you so much for listening and taking this journey with us. And we are going to leave the episodes up till June of next year and you can find all of our contact information, all of our emails, 'cause we would really love for you to still email us and, keep in touch with us. And you can find all of those in the podcast show notes on every single episode. So we just want to let you know that.

Yes. It's been great. It's been amazing actually working with these, ladies. And I will miss our hanging out and I will miss interacting with the readers, but absolutely 100% agree that we don't wanna have these just be filler. 

Yeah. 

Yack about maybe some random topic that we pulled out of our ass. So.

Which we were going that direction, so...

We're headed that direction. Nobody wants to listen to that. So, and of course, as we mentioned, we're pretty busy with other projects, so, you know, there's a lot going on and this seems like the right decision, but I will miss hanging out with you hanging out with you both.

Yeah. 

Same here. 

So KC just said she was so happy to spend time with us, and I'm gonna say, yes, I think the fun part for us, well I was gonna say is spending time together every couple of weeks to record these. But you know what, that isn't true. I think the fun thing for us is helping other authors, because that's how we got our start. And this has just, you know, been great to help other authors and to hear from them. Like J.D. Locke, she published her first book through our podcast. You know, our podcast helped her. And then other authors have, reached out to us with different comments, and thank yous for helping them. 

Yeah. 

I had, something that I thought was pretty good for this. Sometimes you don't need advice. You just need to know that you're not the only one. And I think boy, being an author is just like that. We don't necessarily, have advice to give you, maybe sorta, but just know that you aren't the only one going through whatever it is you are on this author journey and we are here for you. All three of our, separate emails are listed. You know, just because we may not be podcasting anymore doesn't mean that we're not here to answer your questions or to help you out.

Mm-hmm. 

I do think the, major tidbit I have for you, and if you get anything from this podcast, I would say pay for a good editor.

Yeah. 

Yep. Rodger that. And cover. 

Cover and editor I mean, if you take nothing away from this podcast, besides, KC, Kimberly and Jamey are pretty cool folks, you know?

And never stop writing. That's the thing. Just write all the words and finish it, and then worry about everything else later.

Exactly. Yep. Get the book done. Mm-hmm.

Well, that's it for this episode. Thanks so much for listening. Have a good week. 

Thank you.

 Please email us if you have any comments or questions. Hootie hoo! 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 hearing from you. See you next week.