OK,

So you have a fantastic business idea that’s totally going to rock the world as we know it, and you need three partners. Women who are intelligent, hard-working, know how to get the ball rolling. Who do you choose?

My picks:

1. Corinna Chapman from Kerry Greenwood’s series. She already has her own business – a successful bakery that manages to do well despite the popularity of what I assume is the Victorian equivalent to chains like Baker’s Delight. Plus, we’d never go hungry in our late-night brainstorming sessions.

2. Scarlett O’Hara. Yes, I know she cheated people at every opportunity that presented itself, but you know what? I reckon a big chunk of that came from the fact she hardly ever had anyone in her corner; they were all too busy judging her while expecting her to put food on their table. I think if she were in a team of women who were all pulling their way and appreciated her because of her brains and work ethic, she’d be more inclined to adopt an ‘all in this together’ attiude.

3. Caroline from Two Broke Girls. Her business plan makes sense and she’s really enthusiastic about opening a cake shop with Max. Mind you, between their cupcakes and Corinna’s pastries, we’ll go into a diabetic coma any second now…

Your picks?

OK, this week’s challenge: you’ve had a tough week/month/year. You want a night out on the town, going absolutely wild, possibly involving jail at some point. Which three fictional woman would you want to make it a night of unforgettable fun?

My picks:

Charlotte Beaumont from All Saints. Early-season Charlotte, that was (circa season 6) – before they made her a frazzled single mum. Many of Charlotte’s stories tend to begin with ‘when I was in Turkey/Thailand/Melbourne’ and end with ‘and that’s how I wound up married/in jail/Sydney’… and she makes it sound like such fun.

Mother from Matthew Reilly’s books. Because she quite literally has a hollow leg – a prosthetic following hand-to-hand combat with a killer whale (Mother: 1; whale: 0) can get out of almost any sticky situation (eh, what’s the West Australian Police Department/a gang of drunk teenagers going to do against a woman who’s bested most of the world’s terrorist organisations and, oh yeah, a killer whale?) and though it doesn’t really get illustrated in the books, I got the impression she has a ‘work hard, play hard’ attitude and seriously knows how to party in her downtime. I reckon she could drink her own volume in straight spirits while telling the most amusing stories. And getting us out of sticky situations. In fact, come to think of it, it wouldn’t surprise me if Mother and Charlotte hooked up at some point in our drunken shenanegins. Mother seems very fluid about these things, and since this is Charlotte when she was still cool and fun, it’s also Charlotte when she was still a lesbian.

Starbuck from the new Battlestar Galactica series. I know, I know, Starbuck has a destructive streak about the same size as the Galactica, but she can also party until dawn and then only stop because she’s quite literally drunk her cohorts under the table. And given those cohorts would include Mother and Charlotte, dawn, what’s dawn?

Your picks?

(Of course, your night out doesn’t have to involve alcohol… just that mine does. And lots of it. And since this is fictional, bring on the expensive Belgium beer by the crate, please…)

Thanks to Sunless Nick for this one!

OK, so this week’s theme is mentors. Which three women would you choose to mentor you, who would be happy in your success, even if you eclipse them?

My picks:

Phryne Fisher. She wants to see women ahead, and I’m sure that’s even if they get ahead of herself. Hell, she’s a 1920’s woman with a 70’s mindset, surely she would love to see a a protege of hers reach a 2030 mindset?

Sam Carter from Stargate:SG1. Because whatever problems the show had, Carter was intelligent, ambitious and was aware of the feminist divide.  And really, the stuff she knew, who WOULDN’T want to learn?

Jackie Collins’ Lucky Santangelo. She’s had half a a dozen professions, excelled from them all. She wants to see women succeed. I generally don’t like Collins, find her too gorgeous-heroine for my liking, and Lucky is definitely in the category of ‘achieved ridiculous amounts’… but I still like her no-bullshit approach to life.

Your picks?

OK, so you’re throwing a small, intimate dinner party; half-a-dozen’s a good number, don’t you think? So pick five women you’d have as your dinner guests, weather it be based of wit, charm, style or the great stories they have to tell.

My picks:

1 & 2. Lucky Santangelo and Venus Maria from Jackie Collins’s series colloquially known as the Santangelo series. OK, it’s definitely cheating to have two women from the same universe, but Lucky and Venus have been best friends for thirty years. Not only would it be mean to invite only one, but they’re likely to neither go if one is snubbed. Venus is an expy of Madonna – controversial, envelope-pushing singer/songwriter/actress still going strong at forty-plus, and Lucky builds empires the way most of us buy cars; that is, several in a lifetime. She’s been a property tycoon, shipping magnate, boss of a Hollywood studio that produces smart movies featuring strong women.

3. Phryne Fisher from Kerry Greenwood’s series. She’s intelligent, stylish and makes a routine job out of out-smarting the Victorian Police Department.

4. Inara from Firefly/Serenity. Glamorous, intelligent and without the slightest bit of snobbery in her; she’s good friends with women like Zoe and Kaylee who would be considered ‘beneath’ her. Why, I don’t know. I would have invited them both, except I was already cheating with Lucky and Venus, and besides, I wanted…

5. Darla from Buffy/Angel. OK, so she might be inclined to see us as dinner, but can you imagine the stories she has to tell? The people she’s met, the history she’s seen? So, how did you start that Russian Revolution…?

OK, so I’d probably be acting bartender/cook/maid to these awesome, glamorous, intelligent women, but still, I’d get to boast that I had them at my dinner party…

You know what? I’m bloody sick of men getting all the credit for solving crimes. So my challenge to you: If there was a difficult crime that needed solving, who would you pick as your investigative team?

The rules: They have to be employed in a professional capacity in some kind of investigative/crime-fighting position. I will allow PIs and such so long as that is their job.

My picks:

Catherine Willows from CSI. I only ever watch the show on-and-off but I was always impressed by her cool professionalism and the way she always got the bad guy. (I always missed the eps that promised ‘Catherine gets emotional’, or to that effect.)

Dr. Temperence ‘Bones’ Brennan from, you guessed it, Bones. She’s absoluetly awesome at understanding how someone died, and often why, by looking at their, well, bones.

Val McDermid’s Kate Brannigan. A PI by trade, she often solves the crime before the police do. And on a shoestring budget.

Your picks?