If you put trouble-making teenagers in summer camp without adult supervision, you know what to expect... Comedy, chaos, and someone crapping in the shower.

Troop 99 will have to survive a twisted game of paintball, outrun a rabid buck with tasers mounted to its antlers, and avoid getting in trouble with the camp staff if they want to stand a chance at winning the Golden Plunger.

Fifteen-year-old Do-Over wants to win Camp Winnebago’s coveted Golden Plunger to score a free trip to a high-adventure camp with his fellow Adventure Rangers. But when the rival Troop 100 shows up, he knows it’s going to be an uphill battle. Do-Over and the rest of Troop 99 are notorious for their terrible behavior, and they start living up to their reputation as soon as they get to camp.

Turbo Cakes falls in love with the camp nurse, Uncle Ruckus tries to get rich quick with chocolate laxatives, and Shovel becomes a walking target for bullies. Their antics snowball into an unstoppable sequence of events that may get them banned from camp forever...

Join Troop 99 on their annual summer trip to Camp Winnebago and experience their epic misadventures as they try to win the Golden Plunger. This fast-paced story is full of hysterical male adolescent humor that will make you laugh out loud, so don’t read it in public or people will definitely give you strange looks.

This book is perfect for anyone who’s ever known a Boy Scout, gone camping, or still laughs at poop jokes.

If you enjoy books like Swim the Fly, Dan Versus Nature, or Spanking Shakespeare, then you’ll love this one. Those books got together, gave a human monkey a typewriter, and The Quest for the Golden Plunger was the result.

Note: The hardcover edition of The Quest for the Golden Plunger includes a unique cover, chapter images with illustrated Adventure Rangers badges, and an author note from yours truly.

The Story of the Story

I wrote this book in 2018/2019 after my creative writing professor suggested I take a break from attempting to write fantasy (a genre which he was not a fan of) and try writing something closer to home. I was in Boy Scouts for many years and people in class told me they enjoyed my young male characters and found them funny.

I read and adored Don Calame’s book, Swim the Fly, when I was a teenager, and wanted to write something similar. Around the same time, Campfire was interested in trying out publishing. We wanted to see how the process worked, ways it was frustrating, ways we might be able to improve the process for authors down the road. And so, my book was a guinea pig of sorts. It was a way we could learn the ins and outs of creating audiobooks, store listings, running ads, etc.

I’m really pleased this book found its way into the world, because I’m not sure if traditional publishers would have been interested in it. It’s very teenage boy. (In all the best ways.)