Something Wonderful This Way Comes
Something Wonderful This Way Comes
Announcing The Wonderful World of Hock — A New YouTube
Channel from Studio Hock
By Sophia Salazar, Editor-in-Chief
There are moments in the life of a small publishing house
when you have to stop looking at the spreadsheets and listen to what the
stories want.
The stories, as it turns out, want to be heard.
Not just read. Not just imagined in the quiet space between
a reader and a page. But heard—spoken aloud, scored with music,
carried by a voice that knows when to pause and when to lean in and when to let
the silence do its work.
That's why we built Studio Hock. And that's why, today, we
are overjoyed to announce the launch of our new YouTube channel:
The Wonderful World of Hock.
What Is The Wonderful World of Hock?
Let me answer that question plainly.
The Wonderful World of Hock is a YouTube channel dedicated
to audio storytelling from the Hocksbox universe. It is a place where
soundtracks, short audio series, and immersive narrative experiences will
live—freely, warmly, waiting for you to press play.
Think of it as a little radio station. A radio station that
broadcasts from a crooked house on a hill, where the kettle is always on and
the door is always open. A radio station that airs stories about a boy with
mittens walking through January cold, a gentleman arguing with a goat on a
Caribbean island, a detective with a permanently askew cap, and a supernatural
investigation team that can't agree on anything but somehow keeps solving cases
anyway.
That's the channel. That's the promise.
What You'll Find There
We are building this channel in layers, like a proper story.
Here is what's coming.
Soundtracks for Upcoming Books
Before a book arrives—before the final edits, the cover art,
the proofs—there is a feeling. A mood. A sound that the story makes in the dark
before anyone has written a word.
We will be releasing original soundtracks for upcoming
Hocksbox titles. These are not background music. These are the landscapes the
stories walk through. The weather they carry with them. You'll hear them before
you read the first page, and when you finally hold the book, you'll realise you
already knew this place.
Hocksbox Shorts — Mini Audio Series
Not every story needs to be a novel. Some stories want to be
short. Some want to arrive in your ears during the time it takes to drink a cup
of tea or walk to the bus stop or lie on the floor while the rain does its work
outside.
Hocksbox Shorts are exactly that—mini audio adventures,
released in series, designed to be savoured in small, wonderful doses. Each
series will run for several episodes. Each episode will leave you wanting the
next. And when the series ends, you'll miss the characters like old friends who
have gone home but promised to write.
From Lost in Paradise with Percival
Percival Featherstonehaugh is back.
For those who have not yet made his acquaintance, Percival
is the most hapless hero in children's literature. He fled England after his
beloved Emily Fairbourne's father expressed his opposition to the courtship
"with a firearm." He now finds himself on a sun-drenched Caribbean
island, accompanied by goats, baffled by street vendors, and writing letters to
a woman who may never read them.
In this new audio series, Percival's voice comes alive. You
will hear his dignified narration. You will witness his glorious failures. You
will fall in love with a man who cannot catch a break but refuses to stop
trying.
"I remain, as ever, with great ardour, steadfast
hope, and a faint aroma of goat."
Sherlock Lockwood-Little
Sherlock Lockwood-Little is eight and three-quarters years
old. His hair has its own weather system. His school cap is never straight. He
notices what others miss.
Together with his faithful companion Dickie Pembroke
Watson—round-faced, rosy-cheeked, built like a friendly Labrador puppy—he roams
the corridors of Saint Edwards Boarding School, solving mysteries that would
make his elders blush. The janitor, Mr. Magwath, watches from the shadows. His
cat, Tobias, watches from everywhere else.
In this audio series, you will walk those corridors. You
will hear the clues before Sherlock explains them. You will feel the thrill of
a deduction that clicks into place like a key in a lock.
Holloway & Graves: Supernatural Investigations
Dr. June Holloway did not ask to host ghosts. Edward Graves
did not ask to be a ghost. Aloysius Duncan did not ask to be banished to
Trinidad after shooting a bull (seven warning shots, all of which somehow hit).
Finney Montague did not ask to be a spiritual tuning fork. Toby the bloodhound
did not ask to be terrible at his job.
And yet, here they are. Together. Investigating hauntings,
curses, and other suspicious activities across the Caribbean.
In this audio series, you will hear them bicker. You will
hear them fail. You will hear them, against all odds, succeed. You will
understand why June keeps a machete in her satchel and why Edward still
complains about the humidity after more than a century of being dead.
Why a YouTube Channel?
Because stories are not meant to be trapped.
We have published audiobooks through our website. You have
bought them, downloaded them, listened to them in cars and kitchens and blanket
forts. We are grateful for that. Profoundly.
But we wanted a place where stories could be discovered.
Where a child could stumble upon a Holloway & Graves investigation while
looking for something else entirely. Where a parent could find a Percival
episode on a rainy Tuesday afternoon and press play without logging in, without
paying, without doing anything except being curious.
The Wonderful World of Hock is that place.
Everything on the channel will be freely accessible. Some
content will be full stories. Some will be samples, trailers, and
behind-the-scenes glimpses. Some will be soundtracks that you can listen to
while you work or draw or stare out the window.
We believe in the old model: give them a taste, and they
will come back for the feast.
What You Can Do Right Now
The channel is live. The first uploads are waiting.
Here is what we ask of you:
Subscribe. Click that button. It costs nothing,
and it tells YouTube that people actually want this kind of thing. The
algorithm rewards enthusiasm. Be enthusiastic.
Share. Tell one person today. Not everyone. Just
one. Someone who loves stories. Someone who has a child. Someone who used to be
a child and misses it. Send them the link.
Be patient. We are a small team. We make things
by hand. The uploads will come, but they will come at the pace of care, not at
the pace of content farms. Trust us. It will be worth the wait.
A Final Word
There is a moment in every story when the narrator stops
setting the scene and starts telling the tale. The furniture is in place. The
light is right. The characters are breathing.
We have reached that moment.
The Wonderful World of Hock is open. The door is unlatched.
The kettle is on.
Come in. Pull up a chair. Press play.
Something wonderful is waiting.
Subscribe to The Wonderful World of Hock on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/@thewonderfulworldofhock
Look, Listen, Linger, Laugh, and Love.
— Sophia Salazar
Editor-in-Chief, Hollyhock Books
Studio Hock | The Hocksbox Universe
P.S. The first episodes of are coming
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