Fiction

Pick the Baby’s Name in Lydia Netzer’s New Novella, EVERYBODY’S BABY

Cassandra Neace

Staff Writer

Cassandra Neace is a high school English teacher in Houston. When she's not in the classroom, she reads books and writes about them. She prides herself on her ability to recommend a book for most any occasion. She can be found on Instagram @read_write_make

everybody's baby

In this giveaway sponsored by St. Martin’s Press, you have a chance to name the baby in Everybody’s Baby, a forthcoming ebook original novella by Lydia Netzer, author of the novels Shine Shine Shine and How to Tell Toledo From the Night Sky (coming in July).

Jenna and Billy are in love. He’s an app developer, a hyper-plugged-in citizen of the internet, with a big Scottish family and winning smile. She is a yoga teacher, tuned in to the vibes of the spiritual universe, who was abandoned by her mother as an infant and orphaned by her father’s recent death. When they meet, it’s electric, and it is no time before they are married and eager to start their own family. But when they can’t get pregnant, Billy devises a plan:  they would raise funds for their in vitro fertilization on Kickstarter, offering donor perks like cutting the cord, naming the baby, and catching the baby when it takes its first steps.

The good news is that they make their fundraising goal, get pregnant and have a baby! The bad news is that their marriage begins to fall apart when they have to deliver on all those perks. It’s hard enough to survive delivering a baby without a performance artist making a documentary of the cord cutting. It’s difficult enough to get the baby to sit up and smile for a six month portrait without a local politician taking up half the lens. What does it mean to be owned by the internet? Everybody’s Baby explores how relationships grow and fail in public and private life, the hazards of living “in the cloud,” and the nature of love online and off. 

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In keeping with the crowdsourcing theme of the story, Lydia Netzer decided to let readers name Jenna and Billy’s baby. We’ve gone through your submissions, and we’ve chosen 10 finalists.  Each one will receive a copy of Everybody’s Baby and How to Tell Toledo From the Night Sky.

Now, it’s up to you. You get to pick the baby’s name from the list below.  The name receiving the most votes will be used in the novella, and the finalist who suggested the name will win a shiny new 16GB iPad Mini Retina Display with WiFi-only connectivity. Voting closes at 11:59 PM on Tuesday, April 29.

What should Jenna and Billy name their baby?

Avery  – Priscille S.

Emmeline Rose – Naomi P.

Max – Robert L.

Moo Moo Magoo – Mary C.

Winter Finnegan (WiFi) – Matthew C.

Thunder – Bettina E.

Namaste – Kristopher Z.

Khaleesi – Kayla H.

Seven – Katy C.

Maddox Griggs – Jasmine E.

[polldaddy poll=”7984725″]

 

Remember, if the same name was suggested by more than one person, the first person to enter got credit for the name. As it turns out, none of these names were repeated.