Mate in 3, i cannot find! :( but i know its possible.

All variations?

Qb1?

If ..Kc5, Qb7, Kc4 then Qd5#

If ..Kd4, Qb5, Ke4 then Qd5#

intense, you made it look so simple now that i see the solution, i really wish i could have figured it out on my own, just seemed so hard lol, seems like i need to just sit down and study mating nets.

yeah, when i was looking at it after* the first time i figured the queen needed to be on a white square to cut him off but i never thought queen b1 which is the only obvious square to keep the b file closed and block off d3 lol. im going to continue to look at mate in #s to continue my study of the net :D

The starting point is to look for mating nets.

In this case, you're unable to get the black King on to a back row, so it must occur in the middle of the board.. and a Queen on d5 would give you the coverage you need, so it's a case of working out how you can end up there in 3 moves without the black King escaping.

I solved it by working out how to stop the king escaping to d3 then to e2.