Ms. Turner grew up in Point, Texas, a very small town in rural East Texas, an experience that is evident in her writing. She attended East Texas State University (now Texas A&M-Commerce) where she was active in sorority life as a member of Delta Sigma Theta where she formed life-transforming friendships with wonderful women who remain friends to this day. It was those friendships and the valued friendships of the wonderful women who have populated her life since that inspired A Violet Butterfly.