Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: The Girl on Rusk Street
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 1951?
WEBSITE:
CITY:
STATE: FL
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born c. 1951.
EDUCATION:College graduate.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer and novelist. Spent twenty years as president of a direct sales company specializing in home decor products.
AVOCATIONS:Oil painting, traveling, Italian food, seafood, and walking.
MEMBER:Born in Marshall, TX; married; husband’s name Steve; children: two sons.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Novelist Penny Carlile is a native Texan who was born in the city of Marshall and who spent her early years growing up in a house on Rusk Street. She uses this upbringing and her knowledge of Texas as background for her debut novel, the murder mystery/thriller The Girl on Rusk Street.
In an interview on the website Indie Reader, Carlile remarked that her goal with her novel was to “write a book about life in a small town in the early 1960s.” She also told the Indie Reader interviewer, “My book offers a depiction of small town life in what we think were much simpler times. It also deals with current issues that are important to young adults—race, hypocrisy, honesty, loyalty, consequences, trust, friendship, forgiveness and judgment.”
Set in the early 1960s, The Girl on Rusk Street explores what happens when a small Texas community is shaken by a violent murder. In the relatively carefree town, main character Bobbi Rogers, a ten-year-old girl, has the freedom to roam up and down Rusk Street where she lives. Bobbi and her best friends Katie and Law spend their time building forts in the nearby woods, watching the neighbors, and enjoying their summer vacation from school. Bobbi and her friends are intrigued when Lucille Harris, a twenty-five-year-old teacher, moves into the all-white neighborhood. Lucille is beautiful and widowed, her husband having recently been killed in an automobile accident. In many ways mysterious, an educator who has taken a position teaching piano and voice at nearby Bishop College, which serves an all-black population of students.
Lucille also offers piano lessons to local children, and Bobbi gets to know her when the young girl starts studying piano with her help. As much as she likes Lucille, Bobbi notices when she begins to form a friendship with neighbor Jim Tressel, a neighbor in his thirties whose wife is confined to a wheelchair. The quiet and innocence of Rusk Street and its residents comes to a devastating end when Lucille is brutally murdered in her kitchen and Tressel is accused of the crime. During Tressel’s trial, Bobbi and her friends are forced into unpleasant realizations that force them to confront adult-level issues before they’re ready. Was Tressel really the murderer? Did Louise somehow bring her killing on herself? Was racism somehow part of the crime? There are no easy answers for Bobbi, and once the dark heart of Rusk Street is exposed, it will remain on view forever.
Throughout the book, “Carlile writes in a colorful prose that deftly evokes the curiosity and naivete of her narrator,” remarked a Kirkus Reviews contributor. The “community of Rusk Street is skillfully drawn, and the mystery at the center of the novel is compelling and surprising,” the Kirkus Reviews writer further stated. A Publishers Weekly writer concluded, “plot twists and well-integrated historical content will keep readers.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, October 15, 2017, review of The Girl on Rusk Street.
Publishers Weekly, March 12, 2018, review of The Girl on Rusk Street, p. 61.
ONLINE
Indie Reader, http://www.indiereader.com/ (May 3, 2018), “Advice from Author Penny Carlile,” interview with Penny Carlile.
Penny Carlile was born in Marshall, Texas, and grew up, not coincidentally, on Rusk Street. Married for forty-four years to her husband Steve, she has two sons, four grandchildren and a dog named Eli. She enjoys creating contemporary oil paintings, traveling, dining out at great Italian and seafood restaurants and walking for exercise.
Advice from author Penny Carlile: “Write a good story that is easy for the reader to follow and then edit, edit, edit.”
May 3, 2018/in All About the Book, Guest Author, Interviews /by IR Staff
The Girl on Rusk Street received a 4+ star review, making it an IndieReader Approved title.
Following find an interview with author Penny Carlile.
What is the name of the book and when was it published?
The Girl on Rusk Street was published on August 30, 2017.
What’s the book’s first line?
“Kee-Wo-Kee-K-A-T! Kee-Wo-Kee-K-A-T!” I yelled from the bottom of the steps. My best friend, Katie Baxter, lived in the two-story house across from my home on Rusk Street.
What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.
A quiet East Texas town is truck by a terrible crime after a beautiful twenty-five-year-old widow moves into the vacant house on Rusk Street.
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
I grew up on Rusk Street in Marshall, Texas. I wanted to write a book about life in a small town in the early 1960s. My book includes actual events— the 1960 presidential election and the first sit-in in Texas which was part of the Civil Rights movement—plus some real places; however, the murder and trial in The Girl on Rusk Street are fictional.
What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
My book offers a depiction of small town life in what we think were much simpler times. It also deals with current issues that are important to young adults—race, hypocrisy, honesty, loyalty, consequences, trust, friendship, forgiveness and judgment.
What’s the most distinctive thing about the main character? Who-real or fictional-would you say the character reminds you of?
The main character is Bobbi Rogers, a ten-year-old girl, who is smart, curious, nosy and sweet-natured. Bobbi wants to be a detective when she grows up. She’s a loyal friend. Bobbi is based loosely on my own childhood experiences.
If they made your book into a movie, who would you like to see play the main character(s)?
I would like to see Nicole Kidman or Jessica Chastain play Lucille Harris since Lucille is a beautiful redhead. Matthew McConaughey who grew up in East Texas would be the ideal Jim Tressell. Reese Witherspoon and Mark Wahlberg would be perfect as Nita and Jack Rogers.
When did you first decide to become an author?
I majored in English in college, so I have always loved reading and writing. When I turned forty, I set a goal to write a mystery.
Is this the first book you’ve written?
This is my first novel. I wrote a collection of inspirational messages entitled “Points from Penny” for our sales force while I was president of a direct sales company.
What do you do for work when you’re not writing?
For almost twenty years I was president of a direct sales company that sold home décor products throughout the United States. I retired this past summer, so now I have more time to write.
How much time do you generally spend on your writing?
When I am working on a book, I spend 4-5 hours a day writing.
What’s the best and the hardest part of being an indie?
The best part of being an indie is that I was able to write and self-publish my book on my own timetable. The hardest part is determining the best way to market my book.
What’s a great piece of advice that you can share with fellow indie authors?
Write a good story that is easy for the reader to follow and then edit, edit, edit.
Would you go traditional if a publisher came calling? If so, why?
I would go traditional if someone came calling because I would love for more people to read my book.
Is there something in particular that motivates you?
I think that my book promotes an attitude of kindness that our world needs more of today. I love hearing that people have enjoyed my book—that it’s a good story.
Which writer, living or dead, do you most admire?
I admire Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, P. D. James, Elizabeth George, Agatha Christie, Louisa May Alcott and Robert Ludlum.
Which book do you wish you could have written?
I wish I had written Little Women by Louisa May Alcott and The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum.
The Girl on Rusk Street
Publishers Weekly.
265.11 (Mar. 12, 2018): p61.
COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
The Girl on Rusk Street
Penny Carlile. CreateSpace, $9.99 (226p)
ISBN 978-1-973939-02-3
An inquisitive, precocious girl grapples with the sometimes questionable actions of adults in Carlile's debut
novel. In June I960, 10-year-old Bobbi Rogers looks forward to building forts with her best friends, Katie
and Law, and enjoying summertime with her family and neighbors on Rusk Street in small-town Marshall,
Tex. When beautiful 25-year-old Lucille Harris moves into a formerly vacant house in the neighborhood,
she immediately draws attention from the locals. Her husband was recently killed in a car crash, so she's
taken a job teaching piano and voice at all-black Bishop College, located nearby, and Bobbi gets to know
her after she begins her own piano lessons. While it's not the primary focus of the novel, Carlile alludes to
racial tensions in Bobbi's all-white community, while referencing pivotal events in the growing civil rights
movement. A careful observer, Bobbi also notices as Lucille becomes close with Jim Tressel, a quiet 30-
something neighbor with a wheelchair-bound wife. Lucille's shocking murder and Jim Tressel's subsequent
trial force Bobbi to grow up quickly, and she learns that "some questions didn't have easy answers." Carlile
excels at dialogue that brings Bobbi, Mama, Lucille, and the other characters to life. Despite a rather
contrived resolution to Lucille's murder, plot twists and well-integrated historical content will keep readers
engaged. Ages 10-18. (BookLife)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"The Girl on Rusk Street." Publishers Weekly, 12 Mar. 2018, p. 61. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A531285169/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=bb5e2c14.
Accessed 17 May 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A531285169
5/17/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1526586502726 2/2
Carlile, Penny: THE GIRL ON RUSK
STREET
Kirkus Reviews.
(Oct. 15, 2017):
COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Carlile, Penny THE GIRL ON RUSK STREET Manuscript (Indie Fiction) $9.99 8, 30 ISBN: 978-1-
973939-02-3
A debut YA novel tells the story of a quiet Texas community struck by a horrendous crime. Bobbi Rogers
has an idyllic life in Marshall, Texas, in the early 1960s. With her best friends, Katie Baxter and Lawrence
"Law" Miller, she has the run of Rusk Street, building forts in the woods and observing the comings and
goings of their neighbors. She takes special interest when Lucille Harris moves to town to teach music at
the local black college. The young widow "looks like a real movie star," though her place of employment
raises eyebrows among her white neighbors. Bobbi quickly becomes enamored of her, as does Jim Tressell,
a gardening enthusiast and husband to a wheelchair-bound wife. Bobbi, age 10, is only beginning to become
aware of the bleaker side of life, like the racism felt toward the students of the black college or the "Peepin'
Tom" who was seen peering in through her neighbors' window. Bobbi's innocence is shattered for good,
however, when Lucille is brutally murdered one night in her kitchen. The citizens of Rusk Street quickly
start to speculate who the culprit is and whether Lucille may have brought the tragedy upon herself. Jim is
arrested for the crime, but as the trial unfolds, there are more questions unearthed than answers. Bobbi's
quest to discover her friend's killer will force her to examine the latent darkness at the heart of her beloved
Rusk Street. Carlile writes in a colorful prose that deftly evokes the curiosity and naivete of her narrator:
"Daddy said that when people were married for a long time, they started to look alike. I thought that was a
funny thing to say, but maybe he was right. Both of the Van Worths had stooped shoulders, gray hair and
pinched-in faces." The community of Rusk Street is skillfully drawn, and the mystery at the center of the
novel is compelling and surprising. The book is slightly bloated at 300-plus pages, and the ending is not
quite as sharp as it should be. But it still manages to call to mind a certain classic novel about racism and a
trial in the Depression-era South. An ambitious and affecting murder tale.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Carlile, Penny: THE GIRL ON RUSK STREET." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Oct. 2017. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A509243942/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=bbc5c87b.
Accessed 17 May 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A509243942