Books4Guys - Candace MacPhie

Candace MacPhie shares her inspiring journey of traveling across four continents, writing a compelling three-part book series (will be five-part), and reflecting on her life experiences. Discover how her adventures and personal growth shape her storytelling and inspire others to share their stories.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:15

Twenty-five percent of the guests I've had on this podcast have been based in Canada, which is yeah, ri interesting, right?

SPEAKER_00 0:25

Yeah, yeah, it is interesting.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

Yeah, a lot of authors up there.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

There are. It's cold here. We need something to do, you know, during the winter months.

SPEAKER_01 0:35

Yeah, that's right. Maybe that's it. I didn't even really think about that.

SPEAKER_02 0:38

But absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

Yeah. Also kind of funny though, Candace, as we kind of get into things, you know, you had said you'd never been to Nashville, which I'm surprised because as I was learning about you, uh, I didn't realize you have professionally, you've worked on four different continents. I was like, okay, so Candace is a world traveler, but you hadn't been to Nashville. You got to add that to your list.

SPEAKER_00 1:01

Yeah, I haven't. I've done quite a lot of work in the U, not a lot of work, but enough work in the US and different places, but not Nashville. So it's like I said, it's definitely on my list. It's always been an intrigue to go. And I love, you know, I love country music, so I should go. Yeah. I should get there soon.

SPEAKER_01 1:20

Yeah. No, it'll be uh whenever you come, yeah, you'll enjoy it, especially if you love country music. But no, Candace, super excited to talk with you today. As uh I've been doing a lot of research into your books, and it's a you have a very unique and very cool, um, I guess just life that you've been able to live, and now you've been able to start putting that into your books. And so I would love for you, because again, I kind of mentioned already, you've worked on four continents, you have your MBA, and now you're writing, you've got a three-part book series out. And I guess I was the first question I was gonna ask you, is the third book the end of the series, or is there gonna be more to it?

SPEAKER_00 2:00

Yeah, yeah, I know, right? Just keep going and going. No, I um I started, I thought this was gonna be one book, which was actually kind of funny when I started to write it, and the words just sort of blew up. But yeah, it's five parts. It's um all broken down by geography. And yeah, so the third book takes place in the Middle East, in part in Europe and then in the Middle East. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

Yeah. Okay, so we're right in the middle of it then.

SPEAKER_00 2:26

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 2:27

I was gonna mention so all three of your books. So the first one that came out was Finding Color.

SPEAKER_02 2:33

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 2:33

The second one, Life Strikes Back, and then the newest one, Hello, I Am Here.

SPEAKER_00 2:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:40

Which just came out. So that means we've got two more. But yeah, can just tell tell your story. I I want you to talk about it in your own words of just how you became motivated to share your journeys and and just how you have broken each one down, like you said, geographically and experience-wise. Just just talk a little bit more, like give your personal overview of it all.

SPEAKER_00 3:03

Okay. Well, um, everyone has story. It's just um, you know, whatever, you know, shapes or everyone has has their entry points that shape their life, right? And um, mine was um that my mom was sick for a really long time. And uh she got sick when I was 14 and she died when I was 22. So it was a pretty impactful time for anybody, right? In terms of, you know, those those years spent, you know, being silly and getting to know yourself. I was a caregiver with my family. We looked after my mom, which is great. You know, we had the opportunity to do that. But it definitely shaped me in a way where I um I felt a little lost after she did she died because I didn't I didn't know what to do with myself. I didn't know who I was. So that was the catalyst for me leaving and doing this trip that I'm writing about now. So I did the trip and it took a long time. And then I ended up um back in London and I worked for quite a significant period of time in corporate and did all of that sort of, you know, what you should do kind of stuff. And then uh moved back to Canada and had a couple of kids and worked, worked, worked. And then I just kind of looked at my life and went, hold on, you know, I am living this, you know, this life, which is great. I have this great job and this great house, but I was so tired and so busy just because being able to work the types of hours I was working and then, you know, trying to get to know my kids. I didn't know them very well. And I just thought, mm-mm. So I quit my job, and that's when I started to write. So um I thought writing would be like everything else in my life. Just kind of into it. And let me tell you, I didn't. I thought I was good at this, I was very good at PowerPoint, I was very good at um whipping together the most compelling argument to sort of make a project happen or whatever. But writing a story, no, I wasn't very good at that. So um it took me a long time to learn the art of writing and to uh be able to sort of tell this story in a way. And when you talked to me about the structure, um, that was an interesting one because I was trying to figure out how to structure it. But that was something I I got. That was something I was good at. I was very good at structuring stuff. So um by the time I started like said writing and writing and all the words were like glowing up, I realized this wasn't just a one and done, not in terms of what I wanted people to experience, was I wanted you to experience the time period. I wanted you to be dumped into the 90s when nobody had a cell phone. Well, I didn't have a cell phone. And when you I didn't know what anything looked like because there was no internet to sort of look stuff up, and you had one like travel book with just like little teeny tiny words with no pick with barely any pictures to be able to sort of guide your travel some guide your way around. So I wanted you to experience that. I wanted you to experience the people in that time period, what it was like to live there. So the words just kind of blew up. And, you know, this is it now. I mean, you have to take this journey in this time period where all this stuff is happening. And I have to say, I I just don't know if you would have that type of adventure now. I go on holiday now and I plan where I'm having coffee, like in between sites, you know. I'm like, okay, where's the best coffee shop? You know, that doesn't it doesn't happen so organically and just kind of stumbling into stuff. So that's kind of what this is. It's just a real crisp, clumsy, crisp but clumsy and just crazy thing where you meet these people. So that's what this is.

SPEAKER_01 6:38

Yeah, that's amazing. And yeah, I uh I talk about this all the time with people. I'm like, wouldn't it be so much fun if we could just do more without our phones and make things a little more adventurous? It it's always better when you're kind of on the fly and on the cusp and you just kind of you know nonchalantly come across things to do and meet people, and I'm sure your experience. I I guess my question for you is how how fun has it been to be able to kind of relive that experience and those memories and to to write about them? I'm sure there were things maybe you kind of forgot about until you kind of really started trying to remember and and writing things down. I mean, just what was I guess what's that experience been like to to just in some way relive that trip or and that part of your life?

SPEAKER_00 7:27

Yeah, I think there's a couple of things. I giggle, like I giggle and I write and I I giggle. There's there's there's that. But I think the thing that um has surprised me more than anything is that in order to have a compelling story, you have to really dump a lot on the pages in terms of feelings and thoughts and to get it to a point where it's refined enough to be able to share, if that makes sense, just because you don't want to just dump like a diary, you know, you need to be able to, it needs to tie into the story and it needs to show character growth. And um, so articulating that was work. And I think from my perspective, it was this really interesting journey, just getting to know myself a little bit differently. And because it was so long ago that this happened, it does feel like I'm writing about a character because I'm such a different person than I was then. And um I I kind of like that person, you know, I kind of like that sort of carefree person. She was an idiot, I'm not gonna lie. And there's a lot of things that I'm really embarrassed about. And it to, it was really hard to write some parts. And this one part in book one where I maybe do I make some good choices, but I thought, okay, either I just take it right out and just skip over it. I'm very sort of real about it and just write it. And it was hard. It was hard to look and open up your your sort of all of your sort of look how much of a jerk I was, and just sort of put it there on the pages. But I thought, you know what? It's okay. I'm gonna do it. It was a long time ago, and I'm gonna just lay it out. So you go.

SPEAKER_01 9:06

Yeah. No, so I mean, you it I I can only imagine just the fun, the challenges, maybe some excitement, some all the feelings, frustrations, you know, we should have done this differently. Oh, I missed this, you know, wish I could go back through this again.

SPEAKER_02 9:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:24

I again it's I think about a lot of memories. I haven't sat down and done like a write-out, but sometimes I I think I should. Because I I like what you said too at the beginning. Everyone has a story. I think everyone should write some sort of a memoir or write a journal and just keep notes of things or remember things and write them down. Because we all have certain experiences that we you know we need to share. So it's I think it's really cool that you're doing it in this process. And so what's funny is though, you really had no intentions of probably ever writing a book, much less a series of five, right?

SPEAKER_00 10:03

No, you know, I thought as I was I was an avid journaler, so I have wrote every day in my journal, and uh reading back, it definitely is the foundation in terms of structure, but it's so there's a lot of crap in there too that just needs to stay in the journal.

SPEAKER_02 10:18

So you didn't let everything out.

SPEAKER_00 10:22

Nobody needed to read some of that stuff. Anyway, I think I maybe had like an inkling of a hope that one day I would do this, but it felt like such a long, like a long dream. So it felt like such an outside chance of actually doing it. And also because it's a deeply personal story and I needed a lot of space before I could write it. I felt that, you know, if I had tried to write this right after it happened, I think I don't know, it wouldn't have been as real. I don't think. I think I would have hit a lot of stuff because I would have been embarrassed or, you know, feel like, oh, that I can't really tell people that. Like it's just too close. No, I don't care. You know what? Like you can have whatever opinion you want of me because I feel the same way. As I was writing it, I was totally cringing, going, oh my god, I was such an idiot, but it's actually pretty funny. So I'm gonna put this in. So I think there's this freedom of, you know, space and time, and just people say, Oh, whatever, I'm just gonna put it down. This is what happened. So, you know, it's um it's fun. What I wanted was I wanted people to laugh, I wanted you to have a good time, I wanted you to cringe, I wanted you to go, my god, she's being an A. Oh my gosh, that's funny. Or and um, I wanted you to be sweaty, I wanted you to be scared, I wanted you to be upset. I want I wanted you to feel everything as you went through, and you do. There's there's parts where I get, you know, direct messages from folks saying, oh my gosh, I laughed out loud at this part. And I'm like, gosh, I didn't think that was funny. Okay, but good. I'm glad you thought it was funny. But it was just everyone enjoys different parts of it. So there's lots of um different experiences in there for folks to enjoy.

SPEAKER_01 11:58

It's funny as the older we get, the less we care about what anyone else thinks. And so you're like, oh, whatever, I don't care.

SPEAKER_02 12:05

I don't care.

SPEAKER_01 12:06

But I also think it's cool too, because I think most people probably have in some way some relatable experiences where we all feel like idiots, and we've all done things we're like, oh my gosh, like they're so stupid. But it's all it's nice to have other people say that too, and you're like, okay, I can relate. Like, I'm not the only one who was an idiot. I'm not the only one who was doing dumb things in my twenties.

SPEAKER_00 12:28

And exactly. Exactly. And I think it's um it's refreshing. And you know, there's so many times now we I was laughing with some other parents the other day or saying, Oh, you know, nobody ever loses anymore, nobody ever, you know, everyone's always coddled, but man, it was dumped right in. Like there's no, like it's sink or swim. So yes, it was uh it was fun to just be real and just put it out there and say, you know what, just have have a good time, read it. And and if I've had people as well come to me and say, Oh, I did something like this, or even older folks who've said, Oh, my kids did something like this, and I can picture them doing the types of things you did and just going around and having fun.

SPEAKER_01 13:09

So it's there's a lot of connection there. There's a lot of connection you can make with that and all those stories.

SPEAKER_00 13:15

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:16

Where all did you go? Because I know this is a five-part series and you've broken it down. Where all where all did you travel to during that time?

SPEAKER_00 13:23

Right, right. Well, the story starts in in I lived in Toronto at the time, and then I go to Greece, and then I start, and then that sort of kicks it all off, and then I go to UK and uh Ireland and then Russia. That's the first book. And then second book goes basically from Russia all through the Baltics through Europe to um and Prague, I think it does. And then the next book picks up in Prague, and then it's a bit of Europe, Oktoberfest, that kind of thing, and then goes to the Middle East, which um is Jordan, Israel, Egypt. And then the fourth book, which I'm working on now, which is like so different again, and I am really laughing writing this one. This one is actually an overland safari from Nairobi to Harari, and it's with 30 people who I don't know, and I'm on my own camping and I've never camped before. I don't even know what bush camping was. I thought that was just like bush camping. Like, isn't all camping happened outside? But bush camping is not that actually. It's actually where there's no toilets, no water, no nothing, and you just have to kind of, you know, anyways, there's a whole huge learning curve there in terms of my naivete around camping and interacting with all the animals and all the people too. So it's a lot of fun. And then the last one is um North Africa, Namibia, Australia, and then uh back to London again. So it goes all the way around the world.

SPEAKER_01 14:44

Yeah. Wow. And you did all of this within what was the time frame? Couple years?

SPEAKER_00 14:50

It was a little over a year. Yeah. I think, you know, I think I amazed myself. I, you know, the um one of the things that is so it kind of hurts my heart a little bit now that it's so different in terms of life, because we measure life in terms of two-week holidays, week holiday, you know, and then I have my stuff to do during the week. But my life was so opposite then. It was I have this much money and I have endless time. So I am going to need to drag out my money. So the more I save each day, it adds another day at the end of the trip. And then the longer I can stay out here on the road. And that was kind of it was such a different way of thinking. So, you know, you don't just hop in a taxi, you take the bus, or you know, and you take third class on the train, and you, you know, you you walk and you you get some food and eat on a sandwich you eat a sandwich on a bench in a park instead of eating out. Like you just make these choices because you know that those couple of dollars that you save will be a couple more days at the end. That could be some sort of magical amazing experience or a place that you really wanted to go but couldn't afford to if you didn't sort of tighten your belt. It's a very, very different way of living that um it was pretty refreshing, you know. Like I have my backpack and that's it. Like, that's that's what I have. So, you know, this is my stuff.

SPEAKER_01 16:08

That's that's amazing. I you're kind of like sparking some memories in me. I didn't do anything near as long or visit as many places as you, but I do have some friends, they've done some smaller backpack trips in Europe, and then I did a four-week program in Costa Rica and Central America. So, like, I remember being out of my my zone, but appreciating it so much, just like what I got to experience from culture and people. It's kind of like you. I remember having like I'm on a college budget, you know, I don't have a credit card, so like I only have so much money I can spend. So I'm like choosing where to eat and and how to like balance that out too. So I'm like, but it didn't feel bad. I was like, this is actually amazing. I love this.

SPEAKER_00 16:50

Yeah, and you appreciate so much, like if you do, you know, splurge on a sliced pizza or something, you're like, wow, you know, this pizza's pretty good. So, you know, and it's just this real, this real purity to to it, you know, and and just finding like a cold diet coke in the Middle East, that was like huge. We're like, oh my god, they have a fridge, like we're eating here and getting up a lafel on a cold diet coke. And it was like, it was just the most amazing thing.

SPEAKER_01 17:16

So well, it's just so real. That's that's real. We live in like this most of the time, I think it was just this fantasy land. Like, there's so much we're getting introduced to and so much information, and we're just like, you see all these nice things, you think you should do this and that, but like we really don't need that much as people to be happy. You know, it is nice to have certain things, but like every those experiences, you just when you think about them, you just smile. You're like, that was such like a simpler time, and it was just so enjoyable. I'm like, why don't I do that more often?

SPEAKER_00 17:46

It was so wonderful just to have this real freedom of being able to move around. And then when I lived in London, I remember I could move in a taxi, and I thought, if I have too much I have too much stuff if I can't move in a taxi. And that was all I had, right? The stuff I could move in a taxi because I was moving one apartment to the other or whatever, not one flat to the other. And there was this real sort of like now I live in this house, I have all these kids, and I have this stuff, and Amazon's delivering parcels to my front porch. And it's just, it's it's overwhelming, like with stuff. And I'm like, need more stuff. Need a toy. Yeah. So, anyways, there's a lot of things around stuff, and but um yeah, so it's uh it's it's it's just this experience that I hope people go and have fun and read it. And and it's funny, like it's funny, it's a journey, it's it kind of gets you into the spirit of wanting to travel, or just be like, oh, I don't want to do that. Yeah, yeah. So, but you get to experience it either way.

SPEAKER_01 18:41

So no, I love that. Just a couple more questions for you, Candace. While we're on just the the overall experience of travel, what was your what was your like absolute most favorite place to spend time? And then what was the place you were like, I don't care if I ever go back here?

SPEAKER_00 18:58

Good questions, good questions. Well, I so I'm writing about Africa now and I loved Africa, and it's it is like the whole place, like it, you can't sort of not get sucked into the magic of just the this smells different, it feels different, you know. It just has this really neat thing. And then I would say another runner-up is Rio de Janeiro. I went there for work, I didn't do this on this travel, but I got off the plane in Rio, and honestly, I was no music, but I could hear it in my head because this just got this vibe, Rio de Janeiro. It's so amazing. But if you're asking me around this feeling, I would say hands down Croatia. It's a very popular spot now, but at the time there was nobody going there. This was before Game of Thrones, before Cersei had to do her shame walk through Dubrovnik. Like it was all like so, so, so um easy, you know. Every town we um, I was with another girl and we rented a car and we drove down the coast. And you could just pull into this little town with this peninsula and just, you know, walk around as hot to dump your bag. You know, we always wore a bathing suit under a dress, like we could all go for a swim, come back out and just sort of drip dry until you walk around. It's just this most beautiful, um, amazing place. And the people did not give one care. There'd been so many places I'd gone to where it's constant harassment and people are on you, and they're just you know, just sort of yap, yep, yep, yep, yep, whether they're physical or not physical, like a lot of uh there's a lot of masturbation that happened, like just walking by and guys would just whip it out. And I'm like, oh my god, seriously. So oh, so many times. So, anyways, just this place, like nobody cared. So it was wonderful. Um uh yeah, so I would say Croatia, places that I never want to go to again. I had a really tough time in the Baltics. Um, at the Baltics at the time, they're opening up, they're in loads of movies like Lithuania, Latvia, they're in like all sorts of Avengers movies, they're rolling around uh all those places. But um I I really struggled there. It was at the time it was super tough, and there was no English. I know French, but I don't know anything else. And French and is not anywhere associated with any of those languages, so it was it was a tough go, and folks were not always kind. So I wouldn't say that would be my favorite place, but now I think it's way different. They're opening up to tourists, and people are enjoying like rolling around Estonia and you know, just enjoying their time there, but yeah, it was a tough go otherwise.

SPEAKER_01 21:37

Yeah, interesting. Yeah, and I'm I again you you were in so many places in like a short duration of time. Like I can only imagine just everywhere being so different and people being different, and just the experience of of the constant change and learning. I just think that's it's a once in a lifetime thing you got to do. And so it's so cool that you're now reliving it and sharing it with others. It's even like my Like I'm super interested. So I'm like, I've never been there. Like, what did she think about this? Or how did that go? So I'm sure there's gonna be so many other people that are the same way as they read your books. Yeah. Just one one more question for you. It's kind of a two-part question. So obviously, you know, you talk about journaling, and then now you're I mean, you're a published author now. Like it's a huge deal. Did you grow up enjoying like reading a lot? Or was that something you didn't do and you kind of picked up on later in life? Because I can imagine if you're gonna write a book, you've had to have had some sort of inspiration from reading some works of others too. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm just always curious like what's your reading journey looked like.

SPEAKER_00 22:42

I tend to steer very clear of memoirs or any kind of books like that. I just I was petrified when I was learning how to do this that I would be influenced by someone and just be sort of called out as, oh, it's just like, you know, and I I thought, no, I don't. I want to be my own. So I um I steered clear of that. But what I do do is I've in terms of reading when I was growing up, I wasn't a huge reader. I did, um, I did read a bit, you know, but I really picked it up, I think, when my kids were little. I was pretty loamy. Being a mom with little kids is really tough. Like that's, you know, and my kids were all like crying then and then like they weren't, they weren't like, oh, I'm gonna go to the park and the stroller kind of kids. They were like screaming their heads off, I need to be in my crib, kind of like cat. So it was it was a real learning curve for me. So my reading, my joy of reading really started there. And um, I read trashy romance novels. I love trashy romance novels. I will die on that hill that I have no problem sort of throwing it out there that I love to read them. So um I but where I get to now is that I'm quite peaky choosy about what I read because like a movie. So when you watch a movie, I get frustrated now when I watch a movie, because after spending the hours and hours and years that I have editing books, I get very frustrated with the movie when they haven't when I feel a director has been liberal and put in a scene because it was pretty or because you know they want it to show something, but does it add to the story? And I feel it's very indulgent if folks put something in that doesn't add to the story. So for me, I'm very ruthless in terms of it doesn't add to the story, even if it's interesting. Like if I can't make it add to the story, then it has to go. So um yeah, so I I enjoy books when they're um they're really well written and I love sort of figuring out how authors kind of um you know put their words together and they how they can sort of uh what I like to say is like economically put me in a scene and really, you know, with with minimal words, I'm there and I I can dump be dumped right into something. So um that's something that I've had to learn and it's something I also appreciate and I watch for in a book. And another thing I tell people that they don't they don't think about f I don't know if you've ever noticed, but when when you're writing, you can write like I don't know, I'm no sort of machine in terms of I can do a five page in a day, right? Or four pages in a day in terms of really good crisp pages, and then you pick up the next day and you kind of go through and sort of it it's very iterative. But the folks that don't edit as well, I find it's interesting because you use similar words for about four or five pages, and the next four or five pages, they might a few of the words might repeat, and then the next four or five pages tell it's a different day when they were running and they have different words on their mind. So it's this real interesting thing about going through and making the book cohesive and um spending hours editing anyway. So I could go on about for for a long time, but that with the um what I find interesting.

SPEAKER_01 25:56

Yeah. No, I've actually talked with authors about that specific thing where they were talking about how it's it's interesting your writing style and what you're writing, even in one book, like something may happen in your life where things are different, so you're thinking differently from the start to the finish. So just influences that could happen that just kind of make subtle little differences in in books, especially if you write a lot, obviously, like from five years ago this book to now, like maybe some things have changed. But I was talking with a couple authors and they're saying, like, that can happen in one book.

unknown 26:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:29

Just depending on like what's all going on in your world and just kind of the way you're thinking, it's hard to like have one narrow focus for the entire time just because of everything that's going on in life. So I thought that was really interesting because I haven't heard anyone describe it like that before. Because I'm not I'm not a writer, so I'm like, oh, that makes a lot of sense though.

SPEAKER_00 26:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:49

So it's very interesting. And you you answered my second question. It sounds like romance novels are are your go-to and your favorite books to read.

SPEAKER_00 26:55

So Yeah, yeah. Uh I love, yeah, love them. Just just totally addicted. I can just it's just easy. It's like watching brainless TV for me in terms of going through. And then there might be three or four words or groups of words in each book that I might find interesting. And I'm like, oh yes, okay. So every time I learn and watch in terms of it's like a learning for me. It's like on-the-job training, if you will, in terms of what I've enjoyed, or if, you know, sometimes if you're reading a book and then something happens and then the next scene they talk about it with someone, and I'm like, uh, I didn't need to see this again. You know, I'll just flip through my remote my Kindle or whatever. But anyways, so yes, I am a little ruthless, but I enjoy it. So it's good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:39

No, love that. Well, Candace, this has been a joy. And we've got we'll have all your books on the the Books for Guys website. We've got one of them now. We'll add the other two, and then obviously as you complete the series, we'll have those spotlighted for you as well to share. And so anyone who's interested in following along with your journey and laughing and and maybe having memories of their own, they'll be able to do that. But no, thank you so much, Candace. This has been amazing.

SPEAKER_00 28:06

Thank you. That was fun.