[4] She knew she was a writer since first grade, where her teacher encouraged her to write a story that she thought was so good, she asked Turnage to read it to third graders.

Turnage began writing Three Times Lucky more than four years before its publication when she kept hearing an 11-year-old girl named Moses LoBeau say to her in her imagination, “You have a minute?

The popularity of the Newbury Winner kickstarted the Mo & Dale Mysteries, which includes Three Times Lucky (2012), The Ghost of Tupelo Landing (2014), The Odds of Getting Even (2015), and The Law of Finders Keepers(2018).

After ending the series, she wrote a standalone historical fiction middle grade novel called Island of Spies (2022).

After the national crisis caused by the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the US President decided to keep hush about the German boats on the East Coast to keep Americans from worrying so the islanders had to defend themselves.

She has been attending the same creative writing class at Pitt Community College on and off for thirty years and its instructor, Patsy O’Leary, had a huge influence on her novels.