For his choice from Issue Eight, Andrew Roe picks the story by Ryder Collins:
“This one knocked my socks off. That hasn’t happened in a while. So I was happy to have them, my socks, knocked off.
I like a good title. And ‘We Were Listening For The Shattering’ is a great title.
There’s also a rhythm and economy and confidence here that really works. So many quotable lines, but my favorite was probably this: ‘We were passing a new whiskey bottle around, except for Baby who’d lost her Nuk. She’d never get another, but we didn’t have the hearts to tell her yet.’
And this too: ‘The whiskey went round again and you were squeezing on me and it almost felt good. I almost forgot for a sec.’
Squeezing on me. Not squeezing me. That little change, that tweaked turn of phrase that surprises and delights — that’s the sign of a writer who knows things, things you want to know about.
I want to know what Ryder Collins knows.”