A Good Idea at the Time

A collection of six raucous short stories about growing up—starring a vagabond uncle hellbent on corrupting his nephew, and a jazz musician stuck in a saxophone factory, and a crew of regulars watching their town take away their bar, just to name a few.

Full of hilarious moments, melancholy, great characters and that signature voice that award-winning author Baker Lawley is known for, A GOOD IDEA AT THE TIME has something every reader will love.

This book includes:

"Funeral Games" - told by an uneducated narrator with no idea of grammar but the ability to spin a masterful tale, the story follows two poor boys whose favorite game is to pretend to give each other funerals in the sinkholes around their yard, as they watch their house being swallowed up, too.

"Regulars" - A rowdy bunch of regulars at a bar are being pushed out of their long-time watering hole by the University. Can our hero, a lowly painter on the maintenance crew, woo the mysterious Chemistry professor while the center of their social lives disintegrates around them?

"Fenced" - A farmhand to Mr. Jenkins tells the tale of his boss's unexpected life crisis when the federal government wants to buy the farmland he resents and turn it into a National Cemetery;

"No Jazz in Indiana" - a whipsmart kid narrates the story of his family stuck in their trailer in a blizzard, and as he comes of age in difficult moments, he ruins the illusion of Santa Claus for his brother and outwits his father, a burned-out saxophone player, at their game of riffing;

"Tracks" - Rig Nelson has retreated to the underbelly of the woods to repent for some unknown sin, only to be brought out and threatened when people mistake him for a Bigfoot monster and begin descending on him inside the kudzu jungle.

PLUS: BONUS MATERIAL: Also in this book, get a free preview of the first chapters of THE BATTLE HYMN BLUES, Baker Lawley's young adult novel about a Civil War Reenactment-gone-wrong.