Remembering Woodland Press, LLC

09/10/2025

LOOKING BACK: Today, we remember the spellbinding journey that took place back in September 2010. We remember the release of a classic, Mountain Magic: Spellbinding Tales of Appalachia.

Magic and storytelling share a powerful truth: both use illusion to reveal deeper realities. With just a few words, they conjure entire worlds—and sometimes, they change us forever.

The Appalachian Mountains are steeped in mystery, legend, and wonder. In Mountain Magic: Spellbinding Tales of Appalachia, editor Brian J. Hatcher brought together thirteen authors from around the world to explore the magic rooted deep in these Appalachian hills. The stories are beautiful, haunting, awe-inspiring—and occasionally, deadly.

Inside, you’ll find unsettling sleight of hand, earthy fantasy, ghostly illusions, and the kind of raw, powerful magic that could only come from the mountain regions.

The curtain rises. The stories await.
Watch closely… and prepare to be transformed.

Featuring stories by:

• Foreword by Lucy A. Snyder
• William Meikle
• Frank Larnerd
• Kelly Ramsdell Fineman
• Steve Vernon
• Jean Rabe
• Stephen Couch
• Joyce Richardson
• Joshua Reynolds
• Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy
• Karin Fuller
• Wade German
• Beth Cato
• Steve Rasnic Tem

Coming to life beyond the page: during the 2010 book launch, Brian J. Hatcher planned one-of-a-kind magic shows and performed at select book events in recognition of the new release.

09/03/2025

I can’t stand reading a long short story that starts off brilliantly — with a gripping opening, an intriguing plot, believable characters, and sharp, engaging dialogue — only for it all to fall apart at the end. After being pulled in so completely, the reader is suddenly left to clumsily tumble off a cliff into a muffled thud of an ending. I really hate bad endings. Sigh.

— Keith Davis, 2015

08/18/2025

“I cannot remember the books I've read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson

08/06/2025

"Without Woodland Press and the books that specialize in the Hatffield and McCoys, our documentary ... would be missing authentic Appalachia content and images." — Laura Decludt, Thinkfactory Media co-producer of "America's Greatest Feud: The Hatfields & McCoys," a History Channel documentary. 2012

08/06/2025

"I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman where the Self Help section was. She said if she told me it would defeat the purpose." — Dennis Miller

07/18/2025

Remembering a great book event. Woodland Press Author and UFOlogist Kyle Lovern is shown at a book signing at Book Notes at Pikeville, Kentucky, around 2013.

07/13/2025

Remembering June 12, 2014 —

It was such a nice day to be at Huntington Mall Books-A-Million with award-winning authors Cat Pleska, Frank Larnerd, and F. Keith Davis. We were honored to meet and talk with a variety of interesting bookstore customers; and, of course, it's always a pleasure to be invited to Books-A-Million stores within the state's borders.

It was a great day to spend with friends, both old and new.

07/11/2025

🍉🍉💦

07/11/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/1ENeQ3ohcy/?mibextid=wwXIfr

In the 1700s, teens were accused of being… addicted to novels.
Not alcohol. Not gambling.
Reading.
Across Europe, a strange fear gripped adults. Young people were devouring novels at a pace never seen before. They read at the dinner table, in bed, even while walking through the streets.
This wasn’t seen as a harmless hobby.
It was called “reading fever” or “book addiction.”
Some claimed it would rot their minds.
Others worried it would damage morals, ruin posture, or lead to dangerous daydreaming. Fiction was accused of causing everything from laziness to madness.
Moralists and educators sounded the alarm.
Pamphlets warned parents. Schools debated limits.
It wasn’t just what teens were reading — it was who was writing it.
Books like Samuel Richardson’s Pamela (1740) or Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774) stirred emotion, imagination, and independence.
They were often written by or for women — a major threat to the era’s social order.
But despite the panic, teens kept reading.
And quietly, something revolutionary was happening.
This “reading mania” helped fuel mass literacy, gave rise to the modern novel, and encouraged generations to explore new ideas through story.
The so-called crisis?
It laid the foundation for modern literature as we know it.
Funny how things change.
Today, we beg kids to pick up a book.
Had you ever heard about the 1700s reading panic?
What do you think society would say if teens got “addicted” to books again?

04/09/2025

This volume, "West Virginia Tough Boys," is an intimate peek into Appalachian politics and the 1960 presidential primary campaign. Straightforward true stories are told of political tomfoolery, vote-buying, and eventual victory for Senator John F. Kennedy in the challenging Mountain State primary election—one often cited as the most vital primary for Kennedy's run for the Whitehouse.

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04/09/2025

This title is the first release under our new imprint, Guyan Ridge Publishing. For the FIRST time, “The Secret Life and Brutal Death of Mamie Thurman” is now available as an ebook at Apple Books, Barnes & Noble Nook, and Amazon Kindle. The book contains all the details from the original Mountain State bestseller, along with newly discovered additions and up-to-date revisions.

* AMAZON KINDLE: https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Brutal-Death-Mamie-Thurman-ebook/dp/B0BZJPV6Q6
* BARNES & NOBLE: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/secret-life-and-brutal-death-of-mamie-thurman-keith-davis/1005008662?ean=2940185757338
* Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-secret-life-and-brutal-death-of-mamie-thurman/id6446249330

02/19/2025

LOOKING BACK: Woodland Press authors Michael Knost and Frank Larnerd appeared at Borders Express at the Charleston Town Center on Feb. 19, 2011. What a great book event it became.