Yes, my adult fiction has sex. It’s only natural since I write about people and their relationships. Sex is a part of that.

But writing about something so personal without being vulgar is a bit tricky. My approach is to give readers enough description so they use their imagination. That’s the case in Peace, Love, and You Know What, the novel I am launching soon on Kindle and paperback.

The novel is set in the raucous early ’70s. Most of the characters are college hippies or lecherous professors aka members of the Dirty Old Bastards Club. There’s a three-day bash at a slummy college apartment. Of course, there has to be sex.

But being a comedy, I keep it a light-hearted. Playful. (That is not the case with my serious novels. In a couple of instances, sex definitely is not fun.)

So, the novel has raunchy talk by both genders. There are quick hookups. Lots of nudity and open flirting. Dirty professors get it on with their students — and don’t get fired for it — but one of them with a bad ticker does drop dead.

And Lenora, one of the main characters, has sex with three guys in two days, including a ménages à trois she initiates. Lenora is the type of girl who takes love very seriously, a trait she decides to drop during her last weekend before she graduates and splits for Europe.

Here’s a section called Skinny Dipping. It takes place at a pond following a softball game between two rival hippie factions — the Winter Street and Roach Motel tribes. Tim, Joey, and Manny are three of the roommates at 221 Winter Street who are holding the graduation bash.

Lenora sat with the happy hippies chilling at the pond and celebrating the Winter Street team’s come-from-behind win. She watched Tim, Joey, and Manny horse around in the water, dunking each other and making wild jumps off a large boulder. They were naked like the rest of the swimmers except for Big Ray, who was too embarrassed to be seen that way, so he rolled up the legs of his overalls and went into the water up to his knees. Lenora hadn’t been in yet.

Tim stood on the boulder, whistling sharply. He waved his arms and shouted her name.

Lenora shook her head and shouted back, “Too cold. The water’s too cold.”

She watched as Tim made a flat dive into the water, swimming toward shore until it got too shallow, and then he was running and grinning like he had something in mind. Pond water dripped from his naked body. She cowered and yelped as it splashed on her.

Tim got ahold of her wrists.

“Come on, Lenora, time for you to get in the water. You look too hot sitting here.”

She held back and dug her feet into the grass. She kept saying no. Her laughter was breathy and high.

“Okay, okay. Let me take my clothes off first. ”

Tim released one wrist.

“Sure, Lenora, but I’m holding on. I know what’ll happen. You’ll run off as soon as I let go.” He pointed toward her skirt. “Hurry up, or I’ll get Manny and Joey to help me.”

She looked toward the pond where their hairy, smiling faces floated above the water.

Joey hollered through two hands,“Come on, Lenora. The water feels great.”

“Don’t lie to me. It’s effin’ cold.” She kicked off her sandals and tugged at Tim’s hand. “What’s the matter? You don’t trust me?”

“Uh-huh. You’ll split as soon as I turn my back. You won’t even say bye.”

Her skirt slid down her hips into a dark purple bunch at her feet.

“I did say bye this morning, but you wouldn’t wake up.”

“Sure, sure, I went looking for you all over town. I even went to your apartment, but you’d vanished into thin air.”

“You must’ve just missed me. I had a million things to do today.”

“One of them didn’t include leaving a note, did it?”

She tucked her free hand on the band of her red satin panties. Tim gave it an appreciative glance.

“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” she said as she yanked the panties to her feet. “There’s no way I can take this top off with you holding my hand. You’re gonna have to let go.”

Tim chuckled.

“Only for a second.”

He grabbed her hand when she was done.

“Wait, my beads.”

He watched as she pulled each one over her head. She made a teasing smirk.

“I’m ready.”

“Okay.”

She ran with him into the water, screaming because it was so cold.

“Dive, dive,” he yelled, and when they came up for air, Tim dragged Lenora toward the boulder where Manny and Joey waited. She laughed the entire time.

ABOUT THE PHOTO ABOVE: A photo of me taken a long time ago at a railroad station at Bridgewater, Massachusetts. I renamed the town and its state college Westbridge in Peace, Love, and You Know What.