Top Ten Movie Countdown Blogfest

Today Alex J Cavanaugh is hosting the Top Ten Movie Countdown - something I thought would be easy when I signed up for this. Even though I've toiled over this list all weekend, I couldn't come up with a strong top ten. It's so much pressure and responsibility coming up with the best ten movies of all time that I blanked. In fact, I could only come up with two (1) The Princess Bride and (2) Life is Beautiful. So I cheated. I googled "top ten movies of all time" and found more to add to the list that I shall call my "close enough list." In no particular order:

1. Princess Bride
2. Life Is Beautiful
3. The Shawshank Redemption
4. Inception
5. It's a Wonderful Life - Here's where my cheating really pays off - I never would have thought of this one
6. Slumdog Millionaire
7. Forrest Gump
*And here's where it gets dicey*
8. Something from Disney - either Monster's Inc or The Little Mermaid because of the whole red-headed princess thing.
9. Some kind of action movie with a romantic interest (even better if it has humor and/or Matt Damon in it) The Bourne Identity perhaps?
10. I'm leaving this one blank with the hopes that Silver Lining Playbook (which is exactly my kind of movie) fills it. I've heard it isn't as great as I want it to be, but I love the idea of the plot and the characters so much, I have to keep a spot reserved for it - just in case.

Alright, which obvious ones did I miss? Anyone?

Contest Circuit: March 12

I haven't had much time to round up a ton of contests and blog hops this week. I'm a day late posting as is. But the ones I do have sound too fun not to mention! Happy Monday Tuesday!

Contests:

Brenda Drake is once again hosting Pitch Madness on March 26-28. Submission window opens on March 15. Get your 35 (max) word pitch and your 1st 250 ready to pitch.

Blog Hops, Flash Fiction and Giveaways:

The A-Z Challenge is less than a month away for the whole month of April. The sign-up list is already up along with plenty of suggestions on how to survive it. 

Amy Sonnichsen, Andrea of Maybe It's Just Me and Chista Desir are hosting My So-Called Teenage Life Blog Hop. Find a piece you wrote at some time in your teens and post it. The last time Amy did this, the entries were hysterical. ;) March 25.

The ladies at Falling for Fiction are hosting the Matchelor. Fill out their questionnaire and they will match you with a CP/Beta reader. Matching is March 25-29.

Daisy Carter is critiquing query letters and/or the first 250 of your WIP on her blog. To submit your work, send her an email which can be found on her site.

Mark Koopmans will be hosting the Who's Your Paddy? "Got Green" BlogO'hop Version 2.0. Save the date. March 15. Details to come - already sounds like fun.

Akossiwa Ketoglo is giving away an ARC to one person who leaves a comment on her post about YA books. Ends March 15.

Alex J Cavanaugh will also be hosting Top Ten Movie Countdown Blogfest on March 18. List your top ten favorite movies.

Winter Doldrums

The end of February and the beginning of March is, without a doubt, the absolute worst time of the year. If you have a birthday or anniversary or some other type of fabulous, wonderful celebration during this time of the year, go away  consider yourselves lucky that you have something to look forward to. I don't. So I hate it. And even though I prepare myself for it every year, I can't seem to do anything to get myself out of the pissy-pisserton funk I fall into. During my funk, I'm awful to be around. I'm stressed, anxious, gossipy and above all horribly, horribly, horribly insecure. While I've given up negativity for Lent, I'm cheating right now because we're allowed to be negative and insecure in our group (right?) with the promise to end on something positive. 

Things I'm horribly insecure about:

1. I have not read a book in its entirety since August. August 12 to be exact. Yes, Baby Boy #2 was born on August 14, but that's not an excuse. Not one book since then? That's pathetic.

2. I have not read a manuscript in its entirety since August. AND I'm sitting on two FABULOUS manuscripts by two very talented writers. EVERY SINGLE TIME I pick one up and read 5 more pages or 10 more pages, I love it!! And then I get called away and I don't pick them up for another two weeks and I HATE THAT. (And I'm so, so sorry about it too!)

3. I have not sent a query or written a new manuscript in...a long, long time. Even my current editing is going SLOW. 

4. I have three new shiny ideas that I'm dying to write about and even though I've outlined them and taken pages of notes about my ideas, I haven't started them.

Rant over. Lent back on (because that's the kind of Catholic I am). 

Okay. My two positives. 

1. Earlier this week, we bought a house. We are leaving our fabulous city life behind for the burbs and (I never thought I'd say this about leaving the city) it's exciting. ;)

2. I read a wonderful post last week at Operation Awesome by R.R. Russell that makes me feel okay and even good about having other things going on in life - even if that means writing life is slower than I'd like it to be right now. Need something positive? Check out: Writing Is Not My Life. I hope you all love it as much as I did.

Anyone have any more positives? I'd love to hear them.