Maine writer Sis Boulos Deans is the author of several middle-grade novels and nonfiction works, picture books, and stories and plays for adult readers. Her 2001 novel, Racing the Past, garnered awards and critical acclaim as a hard-eyed view of one boy's attempt to find meaning in his life in the wake of death in the family. With her 2003 work, Every Day and All the Time, she again deals with a death in the family, focusing this time on a young girl's attempts to cope. Both novels handle difficult issues, including alcohol abuse and loss.

Deans, a surgical technician by training, is a busy woman. "I'm hyper, work well under pressure, and require little sleep," she once commented. Her home is always a center of activity. She shares a farm in Maine with her husband, their three daughters, two horses, two dogs, a cat, a rabbit, and three chickens...