Online Catalog of Studio CDs and DVDs

New Release. Now Available!

Order your copy today.

A great gift for anyone with a mini-van DVD player.

included on this DVD:

Approaching Storms - The Video Story

Story Background - Take a Walk with Bill

25 Audio Stories - Stories from the Last 25 Years

25 Stories in MP3 - Carry Bill's Stories in Your MP3 Player

Approaching Storms (A Video Story)

The story Approaching Storms as told by storyteller, Bill McKell, is the first in the Stories for the Journey series.  Bill's sharing of the story with a group of young people in the loft of his barn is interspersed with actual scenes from the story allowing the audience to watch the story unfold.

Known for many years as ”The Grandfather Story”, Approaching Storms has always been one of Bill’s most requested campfire stories.  In this story, an eleven-year-old boy learns important lessons about “doing the right thing” by listening to a story his grandfather shares and then by living out a story of his own.  The intriguing ending serves as an excellent beginning to some soul-searching discussion.

Stories for the Journey (A Storytelling Concept)

Stories make up the fabric of our lives.  They entertain.  They communicate our values.  They spark conversation.  They bring us closer to one another.

The stories in this series are designed to do just that.  The journey may be a simple road trip.  Or it may be the complicated journey from childhood into adulthood.  Or it may an inward journey of self-discovery, peace or faith.  Whatever the journey, these stories are intended to enhance the trip.

Combining the timeless art of storytelling with the modern art of film, Stories for the Journey create a post-modern art form that encourages dialog as it entertains.  Perfect for the mini-van DVD player, the kids in the back can watch the video as the parents in the front listen to the story.  And when it's over, everyone has the opportunity to share together.  Or pop it in the DVD player at home, school, scouts or church and allow it to spark some excellent dialog.  The Questions for the Journey in the enclosed booklet can help you keep the conversation going.

Bonus Stories (Stories in Audio and MP3)

In 1982 Bill McKell decided to write an original story and send it out as his Christmas card.  Bill’s annual stories are now a tradition in hundreds of homes each Christmas.  In celebration of the twenty-fifth year of this tradition, Bill has included all twenty-five of these stories in audio-only form on this DVD.  To listen to these stories, simply play this DVD in any DVD player.  The stories can also be downloaded in MP3 form for your personal use by reading this DVD as a data disk in a computer with iTunes or similar program.

Please be aware that several of these stories, including some stories about Santa Claus, were written for a teenage audience.  Please listen to each story before sharing it with younger children.

Price: $20.00

Tales from Windy Hill is a collection of stories related to Bill’s childhood summers spent at his grandmother’s farm in Kentucky. These humorous and poignant stories not only describe the special times Bill experienced as a child, but also share the magic of the campfires his scouts enjoyed while camping at Windy Hill Farm.

Stories included on this CD:
   Moonshine Lake
   If She Hadn’t Been a Coward, She Wouldn’t Have Been Cremated
   Skinny Dip
   Grandmother’s Cabin

Soon after my grandfather passed away, my grandmother invited her parents and her widowed sister to Kentucky to farm the land she inherited. They named the farm Windy Hill. Grandmother continued to raise her five children in the McKell family home in Chillicothe, Ohio, but they visited her family in Kentucky as often as possible. So they could spend their summers at Windy Hill, Grandmother had a primitive one-room cabin built near the top of the steep hill behind the house. Modeled after the summer camp cabins she had visited when she was younger, Grandmother’s cabin had screens and shutters for windows, only two electric lights, a simple propane stove and no running water.

When Grandmother's children were grown, she began to host her grandchildren at the cabin for weeks of “summer camp”. My siblings and I spent our weeks at Grandmother’s cabin with our Sproat cousins until I was about sixteen. They were some of the best weeks of my life. We explored constantly in the hay-filled barns. We played Pinochle by the yellow light of a bare “bug bulb” that hung over the kitchen table. And we walked—or ran—the quarter mile trail from the cabin to the lake for an afternoon swim each day. It was an idyllic life.

While I stopped spending time at Grandmother’s cabin when summer scouting activities captured my heart, Grandmother continued to spend her summers there for another fifteen years. After about ten years, I returned to Grandmother’s farm, not to spend the summer, but to take my scout troop camping there. It was on these campouts that I began to share my Windy Hill tales around the campfire.

I hope this collection of those stories allows you to share the magic we lived at Grandmother’s farm.

Price: $15.00

Every year, Bill McKell writes an original story to send as a Christmas card to family and friends. Christmas Presence is a collection of the first twenty stories of this Christmas tradition. For those who receive them each year, Bill's stories have truly become a Christmas Presence.

While at college, Bill began searching for a unique and personal way to extend Christmas blessings to his family and friends. In 1982 he decided to write an original story and send it out as his Christmas card. It was a hit and Bill’s stories are now a tradition in hundreds of homes each Christmas. Bill’s friend, Dave Rogers, shares in the tradition by providing a cover illustration each year. Eight of Dave’s illustrations are featured on these CDs, and his color illustration for the story Christmas Presence highlights the cover of this collection.

In 1991, Bill published a book containing the first ten stories. While all ten were truly Christmas stories, he wanted the flexibility to share other types of stories as well. In the ten years that followed, five of his stories were about Christmas while five were not. In celebration of the twentieth year of this tradition, Bill decided to return to the oral roots of his storycrafting and chose to record all twenty stories. This collection is the result of that effort.

The twenty stories are recorded on 8 CDs.

Disk 1
Introduction (5:45)
The Indian Princess (35:39)
Christmas Presence (32:29)

Disk 2
Saint Nicholas Street (29:55)
Within the Blazing Furnace (16:23)
Approaching Storms (26:11)

Disk 3
Gone Fishin’ (20:25)
A Christmas Wish (20:28)
When the Whole World is Gray (30:49)

Disk 4
Hannah’s Prayer (34:18)
A Christmas Trek (36:16)

Disk 5
The Soft Glow of an Old Lantern (19:36)
Oh! Christmas Tree (25:18)
Rekindled Memories (28:55)

Disk 6
A Nostalgic Illustration of Love (17:06)
Tradition (27:05)
The Secret Elf (29:20)

Disk 7
Rebekah’s Alabaster (16:07)
The Craftsman’s Code (57:40)

Disk 8
Cattail Lodge (60:06)
I Walk with my Daddy (5:57)
Bonus Track (5:25)

Price: $30.00 for 8 CDs

Every year, Bill McKell writes an original story to send as a Christmas card to family and friends. Christmas Presence is a collection of the first twenty stories of this Christmas tradition. These four volumes contain two disks each from the eight-disk collection.

Disk 1
Introduction (5:45)
The Indian Princess (35:39)
Christmas Presence (32:29)

Disk 2
Saint Nicholas Street (29:55)
Within the Blazing Furnace (16:23)
Approaching Storms (26:11)
Price: $15.00 for 2 CDs

Disk 3
Gone Fishin’ (20:25)
A Christmas Wish (20:28)
When the Whole World is Gray (30:49)

Disk 4
Hannah’s Prayer (34:18)
A Christmas Trek (36:16)
Price: $15.00 for 2 CDs

Disk 5
The Soft Glow of an Old Lantern (19:36)
Oh! Christmas Tree (25:18)
Rekindled Memories (28:55)

Disk 6
A Nostalgic Illustration of Love (17:06)
Tradition (27:05)
The Secret Elf (29:20)
Price: $15.00 for 2 CDs

Disk 7
Rebekah’s Alabaster (16:07)
The Craftsman’s Code (57:40)

Disk 8
Cattail Lodge (60:06)
I Walk with my Daddy (5:57)
Bonus Track (5:25)
Price: $15.00 for 2 CDS

Books and Studio CDs can also be
purchased at:
Praises Family Books and Gifts
235 N. Bridge Street
Chillicothe, OH 45601
(740) 772-4737 or (800) 397-4736