About Author - Phyllis L Humby
Phyllis L Humby lives in the touristy municipality of Lambton Shores, Ontario, where she ruminates on plots and storylines while roaming the beaches of Port Franks and Grand Bend. And that’s during the winter months. Summers find her on the verandah in Bayfield, her laptop always in sight and stories brewing.
Before surrendering to her obsession for writing, Phyllis spent nearly twenty years in the lingerie fashion industry which provided an endless pool of material for her memoir Hazards of the Trade (April 2020). During a trip to Newfoundland she fell in love with the province and its people. The upshot is her novel, Old Broad Road (October 2020). Life experiences balance the fictional connotation of writing. There are no fairytale endings.
Phyllis’s short stories, often scheming, twisted, or spooky, appear in anthologies and journals in Canada, the U.S., and the U.K. She won a spot as Fringe Reader at the Eden Mills Writers’ Festival for her humorous entry, and that same year, a chilling crime submission awarded her second spot in the YMM national competition, followed by the Bony Pete Award for Best Short Story at the Crime Writers’ Conference in Toronto for a 40s period crime fiction.
In addition to her fiction writing, for nearly a decade she has penned a monthly tongue-in-cheek opinion column, “Up Close and Personal” for First Monday, a Sarnia/Lambton County magazine.
Tina Crossfield –
Old Broad Road was an Atlantic Books Staff Pick for Fall Fiction 2021.
Here’s their review: “Before the thrill, Humby reels us in, cradles us. Then thrusts us into the hard parts. This change of pace represents real-life trauma and creates a powerful reading experience. Humby expertly explores the culture shock of coming from Toronto to Newfoundland, reinforcing the cruciality of adaptation and resilience.”