WELCOME TO GIRLFRIEND FICTION
R.M Corbet
As a teenager, Robert Corbet constantly fell in love with blonde girls called Michelle. At university, he always fell for clever girls with long velvet dresses and short, dark hair. Finally he met a girl in pink overalls who rode a motorbike. After a long, agonising courtship, they bought a station wagon, had three children and were happy ever after.
His other books with Allen & Unwin are The Passenger Seat and Shelf Life.
What did you like reading when you were a teenager?
OK, I'll fess up. I was a boy. I read books for boys. That means action-thriller stories with names like "Ice Station Zebra", "Wyatt's Hurricane" and "Where Eagles Dare". The characters were a bit cardboard cut-out and they were always punching each other in the solar-plexus. I didn't know where the solar-plexus was, but I was pretty sure it hurt to get punched there. There were always dams bursting, helicopters decending into volcanoes and submarines travelling under ice-packs. It's as if the books I write now are the opposite of those books. They're about real-life people in real-life situations. No helicopters. No Zebras.
Tell us about an embarrassing moment from when you were at school.
This thing that happened was so embarrassing I can't stand to think of it. I was just an ordinary kid, trying to fit in and stay under the radar. Outside of my peer group, I felt invisible and I was comfortable in my anonymity. Then one day a new girl arrived at our school. She was very cool and very beautiful and within a week there was a rumour going around that she was interested in me because I looked like her ex-boyfriend. What was I meant to do? What happened was a worst-case scenario. When the rumours and stirring finally became unbearable I had no choice, I decided. I marched up to this girl at lunchtime and told her she was dropped - before I'd even spoken to her. Two weeks later she was going out with the coolest boy in the school, leaving me to regret how stupid I'd been.
Did you enjoy school? What was your favourite subject?
I was mostly in a state of confusion at school. I did fine on paper, but my head was a mess. It's a turbulent time for everyone, I think, regardless of how 'together' they seem.
What's the best piece of advice anyone ever gave you?
"Don't worry what other people think about you because they don't."
Is anything in Fifteen Love based on real life?
There were a number of people who liked the character Shelley from my first book, The Passenger Seat and encouraged me to write more about girls. I was invited to speak at the State Library on the subject of 'Girl's Stuff'. I thought I'd better do some research so I cornered four teenage waitresses and asked them what they thought about boys. The answer I got was: "Boys are immature. They only use one per cent of their brain." It became the opening line of Fifteen Love.
What made you want to write a story like The Boy/Friend?
Everyone is going to parties and clubs, hoping to meet their true love. But maybe your true love is someone you already know. Instead of a handsome prince on a towering white steed, he's that guy you've been whingeing and whining to, the one who's seen you without make-up, in your tracky-daks, bleary-eyed and blotchy. Instead of hoping for a fairy-tale ending, I thought about how maybe you'd be better off with someone you can actually talk to. Someone who will accept you for who you are. Someone close. Someone real.
