If you've ever wondered why my blog is titled Reading & Writing by Candlelight, you don't have to wonder anymore. I'm spilling....

If you've read my bio, you know I grew up on a farm. Surrounded by fields on four sides, my house had witnessed great events in my family. My grandmother was born in that house - yes, born in it. You can just imagine the stories it could tell about my family. But today, it's my turn to share.

During March of my junior year in high school, we experienced an epic ice storm. It wasn't unusual for us to lose power, well, pretty much anytime someone looked at the power lines the wrong way they'd go out, but this time our power wasn't just out for a few hours, it was out for five days.

On the farm, the water comes from a well. No electricity = no water. No running water, no toilet flushing, no shower, no bath, etc. (Not pleasant, I assure you.) It also meant no lights and no heat.

Either our nearby town was shut down or we were on spring break, I don't really remember, but I was basically trapped at home. The country roads were impassable, turning into sheets of ice as if an iceberg had settled over us.

It was cold outside, so cold, and in our ancient house we had to take some drastic measures to preserve heat. My parents hung blankets over the doorways to trap the heat in our only interior room, the dining room. Since we couldn't turn on the heater (electric heat, people, no gas heat on the farm), my dad set up a kerosene lamp in the center of the room. It provided us with heat, light and we could cook soup on top of it.

I had assignments for school, but I dove head first into the one I was most excited about - reading The Hound of the Baskervilles. I curled up on the floor in front of the kerosene heater, my body wrapped in a fluffy blanket with only my head and arms exposed.

I read like that for hours. I shivered, not just with the cold but also with the horror of the story I read. To me, I felt I had created a literary movie theater. Total blackness, save the flickering light, and my imagination creating the movie screen in my mind.

Have you ever tried reading in near darkness with only the images dancing in your head?

Years later, when I was on my own, I translated that experience to writing with my laptop, sometimes with candles, other times only with the glow of the screen. It's my favorite way to write and read - immersed in my own thoughts with nothing of this world to distract me.

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