International Women's Day

On this International Women's Day, it seems appropriate to honour the great female writers and characters out there.

First up, a few of my favourite books by female authors:

• Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg - a powerful book that really hammers home that you can do anything you put your mind to, glass ceilings be damned.

• We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver - a book about the strength of a woman and about a family torn apart.

• The Enchanted by Rene Denfeld - I read this very recently, and it grabbed hold of me and still hasn't let go. Brutal, heartbreaking and so worth the read.

• Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell - just a perfect, perfect read that is funny and nostalgic and sweet and hurts a little bit (but just a little).

Secondly, a few of my favourite female characters:

• Sara from The Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett - one of my favourite books from childhood, I really wanted to be Sara. 

• Katniss from The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - kicks arse, sacrifices herself for her family, brave. What more can be said?

• Cress from The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer - I guess Cinder or Scarlet would be the more obvious choices, but I like that Cress clearly goes from being a scared little girl to being a woman in her book, and that we see that development.

Some famous women that I think rock:

• Malala Yousafzai - seriously, she is amazing. If you haven't see it (and why not?) here's her speech to the UN. 

• Hadley Freeman - my favourite fashion writer, she's got a sense of humour and I'll read just about anything by her, even if I'm not interested in the subject matter. Here's a link to her Guardian profile.

• Kate Mosse - one of the founders of the Women's Prize for Fiction, Mosse is one of the loveliest people I've ever interviewed, not to mention a brilliant writer.

Next, if you haven't seen it already, here is the longlist for this year's Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction. 

Womankind has put together a list of books if you're doing a women's book group, and you can find them here.

For a bit of fun, why not take this Guardian quiz about the best fictional females in children's books?

I'd love to hear about your favourite female writers and characters, so let me know in the comments below.

Elmore Leonard's 10 rules of writing

In honour of Elmore Leonard, who has died after having a stroke, I thought I'd take a look at his 10 rules of writing, so many of which I agree with wholeheartedly (especially numbers three and six). 

Leonard was a talented writer who'll be missed, but he has left us with his lessons and words of wisdom, which will be around for a long time.

For a more detailed extract from his book 10 Rules of Writing, published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, click here.

In the meantime here's a summary of the 10:

1 Never open a book with weather.
2 Avoid prologues.
3 Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue.
4 Never use an adverb to modify the verb "said".
5 Keep your exclamation points ­under control.
6 Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose".
7 Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
8 Avoid detailed descriptions of characters, which Steinbeck covered.
9 Don't go into great detail describing places and things, unless you're ­Margaret Atwood and can paint scenes with language.
10 Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.