Holidays are coming! That’s not what I’m going to talk about.
I found a last-minute appointment to put on my snow tires! That’s not why I’m here either. I have to get new glasses because my eyesight is improving! (I was so pleased I bought sunglasses too, so I’ll look fetching in all weathers.) But even that, exciting as it is, is not the reason for this post.
My posts are about story. And Mel and I have got to the point in our Camp FUNdament story where the main plot is about to get under way. My last chapter starts the chain reaction that will lead to our dynamic duo working together. I hope Mel will approve of the way I deal with the issue of male arousal.
I figure she’ll laugh, but will the gatekeepers? Or will they make that noise that gets written tsk tsk and refuse to order the book? Mel has a better sense of conventional okayness than I do. Almost everyone does. I work hard at inclusion and kindness, but tend to forget that natural bodily functions can be as triggering as any creepy insult or unnatural nastiness.
The incident in question in this book occurs during morning dip. It’s a co-ed camp. The boys and girls are diving and splashing as the sun comes up. And there’s a wardrobe malfunction.
Yup, that one.
Kyle, my thirteen-year-old hero, witnesses the malfunction and reacts spontaneously. As one does, if one is a thirteen-year-old boy.
Now, if you are a gatekeeper reading this – first, Hello! Glad to see you. May I say that you’re looking absolutely wonderful in that very stylish outfit. Have you been hitting the gym? Because, well, I’m impressed. Ahem. As I was about to say, there is nothing worrisome about the incident. Readers will not be provoked or inflamed. No body parts, or euphemisms for those parts, are even mentioned, let alone employed. The writing may not be elegant poetry, but it’s not triggering and there’s not a lot of it. Two sentences later, Kyle is in the lake up to his neck and Adele is running back to her cabin.
If you’re reading this and you’re not a gatekeeper, you’ll know what I mean. You’d do it the same way, right?
Also, Hi.
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