Harlan County Horrors

Release Date: October 1st.

Harlan County Horrors is a regional based horror anthology edited by Apex Magazine submissions editor Mari Adkins, which includes a story of mine entitled "Spirit Fire".

Apex is currently accepting Pre-orders.

The anthology also features stories by Alethea Kontis, Debbie Kuhn, Earl Dean, Geoffrey Girard, Jason Sizemore, Jeremy Shipp, Maurice Broaddus, Ronald Kelly, Stephanie Lenz, Steven Shrewsbury, and TL Trevaskis.

Kick off your Sunday Shoes

Since my wife is a big "Footloose" fan, we reenacted the intro to the moive on her birthday.

Legging It Across Florida

This past weekend, six of us embarked on an incredible challenge -- running a continuous, 24-hour, 178 mile relay race across Florida.

You might say, "That's crazy! Are you insane?"
We might answer, "Quite possibly, yes."

Here is our story...our SAGA...

EPISODE 1 -- A New Start


EPISODE 2 -- The Pavement Strikes Back


EPISODE 3 -- Return of the Runner

OOOHHH, NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

That's right, kids. Mr. Bill came for a visit on Halloween night.
It's funny...he's actually much taller in person :)

The Critics Have Spoken!

And they voted "DeEr SaNtA" as BEST COMEDY in Florida Today's "90 Seconds to Fame" film contest!!!

Thanks to everyone who helped on the film. And to everyone who watched and voted.

Next stop...the Melbourne Independent Film Festival on Nov 14-15 :)

"Deer SAnTa" Update

Thanks to everyone for watching the "Deer Santa" and voting. Unfortunately, it did not make the top three in its category. But not to fret, the critics choice has yet to be announced, so there's still a chance the film will be shown in this year's Melbourne Independent Film Festival.

Speaking of the critics/judges, they had extremely nice things to say about the movie.

See video of critics comments: CLICK HERE

90 Seconds to Fame

My local newspaper (Florida Today) has begun its annual "90 Seconds to Fame" film contest. My film "Deer Santa" is available for viewing and voting! The movie even got a blurb in an accompanying article. The first round of voting began today and will run through the week. The top three films move on to the next round. The winner(s) will be shown at the Melbourne Independent Film Festival here in Melbourne, Florida.

So enjoy the film, don't forget to VOTE (more than once, if you like), and please spread the word :)

See "Deer SAnTa": CLICK HERE

Festivals of Film

I just found out that a short film I acted in, called "Monsieur Tall & Stella", has been accepted into the Washougal International Film Festival and to the SoCal Huntington Beach International Film Festival as an Official Selection for 2008. I play a mime in the film. If you haven't seen the trailer for "Monsieur Tall & Stella", CLICK HERE

Also, my film "The Door of Apex" played in the Hypericon Film Festival last month in Nashville, and was well recieved. If you haven't seen "The Door of Apex", then CLICK HERE

Surfing the Event Horizon

Thought I'd give a breakdown of where things are on the creative side of Robby's World.

1) I'm gearing up for a short film that I plan to shoot this Monday. It's for a local contest. I've been storyboarding and getting props together. I'll keep you posted on the development.

2) One of my short stories is being considered for an anthology. I'll keep the details under wraps until I hear more.

3) I just submitted the "prequel" to the above short story to Jim Baen's Universe, an online professional sci-fi/fantasy webzine.

4) I'm slated to write a story for an upcoming anthology called "Harlan County Horror". All stories are to be set in Harlan County, which is an actual place located in Southeastern Kentucky, where I grew up. I have a few ideas of what I'm going to do, but haven't narrowed it down just yet.

5) I'm about 75% complete with, yet, another short story (I know, I know). Unofficial title is "Warm Heart, Cold Blood". Subject to change, of course.

That's the top of the barrel. Now we'll see if any of it makes it out of my world and into someone else's :)

Three Gap

As you may or may not know, I'm an avid biker. Not the Harley-Davidson, leather chap variety. But the spandex, leg-powered kind. So when I recently took a road trip, I couldn't help but take my bike with me. My journeys took me to Dahlonega, GA, a small town located at the edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains. There is a popular ride that starts from there called Six Gap/Three Gap. It's actually one of the routes the pros ride during the annual Tour of Georgia. The Six Gap ride is a 100 mile route up and down mountains with around 10,000 ft. of climbing. The Three Gap is the half version of that, which is what I decided to do.

Since I was traveling alone, I stopped by the local bike shop there, called Dahlonega Wheelworks, told them my plans and gave them emergency phone numbers to call if I didn't make it back to their shop by closing time. These guys were great. They gave me their phone number, pointed out some things to be aware of during the ride, and even offered to come pick me up if I got stranded. Luckily, I did not. What I did experience was one that words cannot describe. The first climb was Neel's Gap, a winding 9 mile ascent that took me a good 45 minutes to do. But once I reached the top, stopped at the little store/hostel that sat along the Appalachian trail, and looked out at the spectacular view down the mountain, everything was good. And all the humdrum worries and baggage that work and life sometimes tries to weigh you down with seemed so insignificant. "Where ever you are, Be all there" read a sign by the store. Amen to that. After a long and refreshing ascent, came two more Gaps with similar challenges and views. By the time the ride was over, I had no legs left at all. Ah...but it felt sooo good. Truly one of the best things I've ever done.

Pretty as a Peacock

My wife took this picture while we were bike riding a couple of weeks ago.

I'M BAAAAAAAAAACK!!!!!

Yes! After a LOOOOOONG time, I can finally log onto my blog again from my home computer! The rumors were true. My computer, in fact, did think that google was located in the Ukraine. It was pretty wild. A friend at work suggested that I perform a "trace" on google, to see what path my computer would take to get to where google was located. Check this out:

My House --> Orlando --> Newark --> Dusseldorf --> Berlin --> Warsaw --> Ukraine

Is that crazy or what!!! I felt like I was in some spy movie or something!

Anyway, the trouble was that a HOST file somehow got placed on my computer (probably by a malicious source) that told it to do this. I found the file and deleted it. Now everything is back to normal.

Trouble in Paradise

Yes...believe it or not, I still cannot log into this blog from my home computer. It all started after last year's change to the Daylight Savings Time. I'm guessing something in my computer didn't agree with that. Who knows? Getting help on this has been futile and frustrating.

On a side note...check out the link below. It's to a trailer of a short film I've been acting in, entitled "Monsieur Tall & Stella". It's about a little girl and her two imaginary friends.

WATCH IT NOW

Those Technical Difficulties...

I have not been able to log onto my blog from home for quite some time now. Apparently, Google (who hosts BlogSpot), now thinks that I am logging in from the Ukraine. Don't know what happened there, but I'm still working the issue. I hope to be back with more regular posts soon.

The World is Flat

My little cousin Alexis has sent me a visitor -- Flat Stanley. He'll be staying at my house for a while before he has to go back home. Already, we've seen and done so much! Just a few days ago, Flat Stanley saw a dolphin for the very first time at SeaWorld. He couldn't believe that I see them playing in the river near my house.

He liked the dolphins so much, he wanted to swim with them. I insisted he, at least, take off his shoes and tie, but that Stanley is so silly. He just dived on in!

Sci-Fi + Horror = APEX

Yep, the two do mix, as proven by the quarterly print known as Apex Digest.

Just so happens, they are having a subscription drive this month.

If you like horror and you like sci-fi, you've got to check it out. It's quality stuff, with mainstream contributors and rising authors. And no, and I don't mean zombie authors that have "risen from the dead", though with Apex, you never know.

"Indigestion" for FREE

For anyone who missed out getting a copy of my first published short story, "Indigestion", here's your chance...

Jim Stitzel is giving away a copy of Apex Digest #6 on WEDNESDAY (Nov 7th). What's the big deal? Well, this issue has been sold out for over a year and is now extremely hard to find. All you have to do is leave a comment on Jim's blog post.

Of course, while you're at it, you can mention how much you like that Robby Sparks guy :)

You are Making me Very Angry

For Halloween, I dressed up as Marvin the Martian from Looney Tunes. Who knew that wearing tights over your head was so breathable?

Now if I can only find my P-32 Space Modulator...

Roll out the Red Carpet

My short film for the Films Under Five competition won!!!

The film entitled, "Playing With Fire", will be shown as part of the Melbourne Independent Film Festival (MIFF) VIP festivities!

Here is a complete list of films to be shown, as well as special guests.

I'm a "Hall of Famer" -- Again!!!!

Yep, the results are in for the second Answers.com Creative Writing Challenge, and I won an Honorable Mention again!!! Yes, a link to this very blog is still located on the Answers.com Creative Writing Hall of Fame page!

Here is a link to the blog entry that is my story, entitled...
"THE GREATEST DISH EVER".

In case you missed it, the details for the Creative Writing Challenge was to write a creative & original submission that is less than 750 words and includes each of the following ten words or phrases with hyperlinks to the Answers.com entry for each one. The words for this particular challenge were:

• horripilation
• opus
• agog
• simian
• abscond
• fug
• Kew Gardens
• gazpacho
• fifth-colum
• salad days