Each night when Janet Beeler Shaw was a girl, she took out a flashlight and book hidden under her pillow and read until she fell asleep. She and her brother liked to act out stories, especially ones about sword fights and wild horses. Today, Ms. Shaw has three grown children. When they were small, she often pulled them in a big red wagon to the library, where they filled the wagon with so many books, they had to walk back home. Janet Shaw lives in North Carolina with her husband. Their two dogs sleep by her feet when she’s writing.