Happy Birthday Mr Candy

69! John would have been 69 years of age today, instead, he is 43 forever.

As well as it being John's birthday, it's also Halloween and let's face it, it ain't Halloween without Candy! I recently read that John enjoyed Halloween more than he did his birthday, he liked to make things about everyone else instead of about himself. He loved dressing up, he loved spending time with his kids, entertaining, I imagine he made Halloween just magical.

Make sure you go and watch that Candy movie today, share that meme, reminisce about your favourite movie of his, send some love in his direction.

I love some of the old traditions of Halloween. The Day of the Dead - when the astral and earth plane is meant to be at their closest, those who have passed are celebrated as it's believed they visit us. What a lovely tribute, celebrating all those we have lost with a party! Samhain is more Pagan- the thanking and welcoming of the harvest and the darker part of the year. Either way, the coming together warms my heart, and since it's John's birthday it always makes me feel a little bit closer to him too.

In tribute to John, I am just about to release a new mini-book, on 4th November via Amazon, called The A to Z of John Candy. It has been beautifully illustrated by my friend, Gary McGarvey, or Horse, (as his design company is known). My dear old friend, Joe Shooman, stepped up to edit for me again, and Rhys Perry wiped the tears and gave words of encouragement as usual, and well the result is beautiful and something that I'm very proud of. Chock full of facts and trivia, I'm hoping it is a lovely addition to any Candy fan's collection, it's worth it for the art alone.

Writing The A to Z of John Candy was great fun, you'll even find some facts that aren't included in Searching For Candy. Find out about John's connection with Donald Duck, Divine stories and the secret to those Uncle Buck pancakes!

Finally, I would like to thank you for all your support this year. Usually, in John's birthday post I would mention the biography and how I hoped it would be out next year, this time I don't have to do that because it's now in existence. Thank you to all who have bought, read or reviewed it, it really means a lot.

So big love and a happy birthday to John and a Happy Halloween to everyone else.

Much love as always,
Tracey xx

Who Wants to be Mary Poppins Anyway? Uncle Buck Rules

I love seeing the John Candy memes fly around social media, I always get a kick out of them. One of the new kids on the block is, "I always thought when I had kids I'd have it together like Mary Poppins, but turns out I'm more like Uncle Buck". Is that insinuating it's a bad thing?

As a kid I always wanted an Uncle Buck. Okay Mary Poppins was alright, but she was quite straight laced. I would have loved to have rode a carousel horse, but I don't want a spoonful of sugar to make my medicine go down, I'd much rather go bowling, eat ice cream and have someone cook me giant pancakes and garbage.

Okay Poppins would ensure your house was clean, she had no problems trying to get the goddamn washing machine to work, your socks would never be microwaved, but where is the fun in that? If your ex does the dirty on you, you don't want someone breaking out into a rendition of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!, you want someone to take out their ass with a golf ball.

If anyone sees this meme and thinks, 'that's me', congratulations, you are a shit load of fun to be around, you will gain respect for all the right reasons.

Anyway, who was really the one unable to commit? Poppins never hung around - she would soon move on, Uncle Buck is for life.

In other news I did a book signing at Hoo Fest - Comic Con On the Farm this weekend and had an
awesome time, thanks to all involved! The book is going well, if you've read it and not reviewed it yet I would love to hear what you think. It's not everyone's cup of tea and that's okay, but hopefully, if nothing else, you'll love the John Candy stories you'll find within.

I've been working on another book related to John that will be out before Christmas. I have also started working on my next Searching For... I'll share more info about that a little further down the road.

I hope you are all well, big love and thanks for your support as always,

Tracey xxx

PS If you haven't bought Searching For Candy yet and you fancy a copy, it's available worldwide on Amazon

Floating through space

Hi everyone,

As you probably already know I have finally released the book! Phew! Well I had a sigh of relief and two minutes of pride, then I turned into the biggest ball of anxiety. Would anyone buy the book? Would anyone like it? Would John like it if he could read it? Argh! So I stopped writing blog posts and just worried instead.

I figured I needed to break that habit, so here I am.

So far the book has done OK, I've sold some, I've had some lovely reviews, I've had the odd one that wasn't so great and that's OK too.

I think my biggest thrill has been John's friends and colleagues Rob Salem, Juul Haalymeyer and Jonathan O'Mara telling me that I portrayed John well -  the love shined through and that means everything.

I've been lucky enough to talk to some great people about the book, including Jim Hawkins (listen here), Mark Woodyatt (listen to the Mark and Me podcast here), been interviewed by Liam Pritchard (read here) and featured on the Franky Slawson show (you can check him out here).

I did a lovely book launch at Shrewsbury Library (thanks to all who came, and to the library for accommodating me).

Press wise I then got stuck. It's like I'm waving at people and no one can see! I'm a nobody, I get that, the competition out there is fierce, but John, John is very much a somebody and he deserves more - so on that front I feel like I'm failing.

So here is my plea. If you can share or RT or spread the word in some way please do. If you work in journalism, you blog, have a podcast, a radio show and would like to chat about the book or review it please get in touch.

Meantime I'm working on a second edition that should hopefully be released next year with even more stories and interviews, if you read this and you have a John Candy story you would love to share please get in touch with me! I also have another book I'm planning - if you love John I'm pretty sure you will also love my next subject, but it's going to take some money, so I'm saving for that one at the moment.

I guess all that is left for now is to say how much I appreciate everyone who has supported me so far, it means the world and I am so very grateful.

If you would like to grab the book you can find it here Amazon Canada, Amazon USA, Amazon UK and anywhere else you can get Amazon, just check your national site!

Big thanks and love to you all, I promise to write soon (maybe with an unpublished story from my interviews about John!)

Tracey xx

25 Years On

Picture by Odandiee

Dear John

Well you should see the world today, full of love for you, it's like you are still here. And you are. I believe that.

Time means nothing when you leave such a legacy.

The impact you have made will never be lost. Millions of people still admire and respect you, you still crease us with laughter and make us cry with an expression. You should see all the famous twitterati talking about you - I wonder if you ever knew just how much of an influence you would have in the entertainment world and beyond?

For me, you are an inspiration. Your kindness makes me want to be a better human being. Thanks for getting me through the last seven years, I'm not sure I would still be here without you.

Sending big love to you, your family, friends and fans.

Thank you John, I hope I've done you proud,

Tracey xx