sparkling mead isn't quite what I would call "beginner's" material. But if you want to give it a try, go for it. A basic recipe is 1 part water to 4 parts honey, and if you want 1 part fruit. A good place to start is with an orange melomel. Make sure to use either fresh squeezed orange juice or clear juice that doesn't have any of the "fruit-cal" junk in it, unless of course you want to harden up your water with calcium hydroxide. Tropicana is a no-no. As far as honey goes, try orange blossom honey to capture the true essence of the orange, or you can also try clover, wildflower, or my personal favorite, lime. Avoid buckwheat, which is a common beginner's mistake (mead wasn't meant to taste like hay). Bring the water to a boil and then allow it to cool slightly so it isn't steaming before adding the orange juice. When it cools to around 80 degrees or until you can bear to put your [sterile] hand into the water, then add the honey and stir to dissolve it. Pour the must through a FUNNEL (don't siphon it) into the carboy so that you get it oxygenated. If you feel the need to further oxygenate it, beat it with a sterilized whisk or an egg beater for a bit. You should add just a little tannin since the orange lacks it. Pitch the yeast or add the starter and you're good to go. When it's dry, rack into a secondary and age it until it's crystal clear, then bottle it. If you want a sweeter mead, use a sweet mead yeast or one with a lower alcohol tolerance. Or you can stabilize with sorbate and sweeten with more honey (let it sit in the carboy a few more weeks so that if it restarts the fermentation it's no big deal). To carbonate it, put just a little sugar on the bottom of the bottle and rack the unstabilized mead ontop, but keep in mind that it will be dry. For a sweet carbonated mead, you'll have to force carbonate it with a CO2 cannister.
PS don't loosely cork your bottles; it's just asking for trouble. Use thicker bottles like those for champagne and beer and then wire down the corks. Bottle grenades aren't a problem if you just make sure you don't overprime your bottles or for a still mead that your mead is stabilized.