The Tick Licker - From Calamity Jane to Christine Cannary and Beyond (Paperback)

Fictional love as a middle aged "night life" reporter from Kansas City is forced to retire early, purchases a motor home and stikes out to discover what's out there in the literary world on his own. He meets a gourgous, troubled female on his very first day of freedom. He wrangles an interview for purely selfish reasons and dicovers that she is a distant decendant of the fabled Calamity Jane from (1863) Princeton, MO. Christine Cannary McClanahan, (the gorgous red head) becomes John Bikerdyke's love interest and with several setbacks and ironic developments, the couple eventually embark on a plan to do biographical interviews of ordinary, but unusual life stories of people of interest. About half the book is about Christine's life in a small town as an owner of a quick-stop and her descriptions of the life of her great, great, great grandmother, Calamity Jane, when she was a child, age eleven to thirteen. Documentation taken from a delapidated 4th grade reader with signatures and twelve entries (scribbles) believed to be from Jane, herself. Other biographical interviews are produced by the traveling duo (John and Christine) for television purposes involve a wonderful, true story about James and Luisa McGuire, a WWII couple that survived war in Italy and witnessed the hanging of Musolini. (The Italian Girl and the Soldier)-self published by this author. A heartwarming and very descriptive interview with miraculous events that eventually lead to a ranch in Missouri, sixty-five years later. The biographical couple (John and Christine) continue to interview and tell stories of outstanding and spellbinding experiences of ordinary people. Verna's story is exceptional, in that she is eighteen and pregnant, when she and her younger brother hop a frieght train in Fargo, North Dakota during the great depression and the dust bowl days, to pick apples in Yakima, Washinton. Verna was ninty-six years old during this interview and she now lives in Sun City, Arizona. She made it big. This book is 173 pages, mostly true, except for the fictional characters and imbellishments that I have added to make it an interesting read. There is some sexual tension but no vivid descriptions of love. There are a few mild curse words. It's a good, clean book.