Meet Gary Robbe | Educator and writer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Gary Robbe and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Gary, what do you want your legacy to be?
My legacy… well, obviously I’d like to be remembered as a good father and grandfather, a good husband (when I was married) and a good friend and person. I was a teacher for close to forty years, working with students with severe behavior problems and students on the autism spectrum, and I would like to believe I made a positive impact on a number of lives. As for writing -it was more of a side hobby and distraction from work during my teaching and parenting years, and always took a backseat to career and family. The closer I came to retirement, the more serious I approached writing, and now it’s an enjoyable (and time consuming) post retirement activity. I’ve had some moderate success in publishing a number of short stories, and I’ve been very appreciative for what writing as a creative effort has done for me, as well as the many people who have helped me. I’ve been fortunate to have opportunities to help other writers (as a founding member of the Denver Horror Collective and as an associate editor with Bewildering Stories). I doubt that any short stories or podcasts I’ve written will have any lasting impact after I’m gone, but I hope something will live on in the words of other writers.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Writing was more of a hobby than anything else when I was teaching and when my sons were little. I had some success with screenplay writing and a few short stories when I was younger, but essentially I took a long break from creative writing when the demands of teaching and family became more important in my life. The challenges for me, even now, are following through projects to completion, and the business of getting something published. I hate the promotion side of the writing business, but I do it to a limited degree. One thing which has helped my mental attitude is that I’ve never taken my writing career too seriously. I expect rejections, and while disappointing, I’ve learned to brush things off and move on. Persistence! I’ve had more rejections than I can count, but a pretty good percentage of acceptances, and I feel good about that. I accomplished most of what I set out to do – now to finish a novel I’ve been working on for, well, forever. I did publish poetry in the past few years, as well as a collection of short stories, Not Buried Deep Enough.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Well, the mountains of course. Aspen, Telluride, Steamboat Springs, Breckinridge. Hike Rocky Mountain National Park, and any number of hiking trails in the state. Maybe a baseball game. And breweries. There are many good ones! Ghost tours. The Stanley Hotel. Boulder – lots of good eating places and shopping there.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
There are too many individuals to thank but definitely the Denver Horror Collective, the Colorado Chapter of the Horror Writers Association, and all the great folks with Bewildering Stories. My family and all my friends!

Twitter: @garyrobbe

Facebook: Gary Robbe