Michael Coombs

Short Stories

Career Student (pg. 56) | The Wake Review
A college student's not having a great day. She goes to see her teacher, but he doesn't help much.

Family Business (pg. 11) | Windhover
A young woman arrives at a ramshackle town in the middle of nowhere to visit her grandfather. Would be heartwarming if not for the fact that he owes her money, and the town is full of killers.
(Windhover used to have the second half of this story posted on their website, but that page seems to have disappeared. For preservation's sake, feel free to read it here in unaltered form.)

The Story Department | Dimension 919
In the future, North Carolina has become an overgrown wasteland full of hillbilly refugees. This story follows an odd couple in a cockroach-like profession that just won't die: door-to-door salesmen. Oh yeah, and one of them's a talking monkey.


I've got a Substack where I've published a series of reviews on the Fire Emblem series. I may migrate them over here at some point, but for now Substack's their home. Follow my account there if you'd like to catch each new entry.