Check out a Q&A with the author... Something I Am Not by Cher Gatto (Interview & #Giveaway) @Celebrate_Lit

Welcome to my tour stop! Check out an interview with the author and enter the giveaway below...

Something I am Not

By Cher Gatto

Christian YA Contemporary

Paperback & ebook, 366 Pages

January 25th 2019 by Lighthouse Publishers of the Carolinas

Summary

A father who never loved him…

A woman who stole his worth…

And a brother he couldn’t protect.

Where does someone run in the face of his deepest shame?

Billy McQueen works hard to keep his life together … and concealed. At seventeen, he dreams of an escape from the barroom, his father’s manipulation, and the advances of his father’s girlfriend. However, on his eighteenth birthday, Billy is introduced to a younger brother he never knew he had. An eight-year-old who is barely capable of navigating the corrupt world of his father’s boxing club.

Now, in order to secure his freedom, Billy must fight for it. But to save his little brother who is next in line for the slave trade … he must die for it.

SOMETHING I AM NOT, formerly titled Billy, won the ACFW Genesis Award for the Contemporary category. It was published by Lighthouse Publishers of the Carolinas.

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Interview

Would you tell us what inspired you to write Something I Am Not?

Absolutely. The truth is I never meant to be a writer. It's something that happened to me when I wasn't looking. Our family (myself, husband and 5 kids) lived in Mexico for ten years developing a horse ranch for kids, at-risk youth, and broken families. Our co-workers ran a women’s shelter, and we used the horses to love on the women. I say women, but most were children (13, 14, 15 years old) trying to raise babies of their own. Many of the babies a result of abuse, rape, or incest. Some had been drawn out of trafficking. Their stories tragic and incomprehensible.

About a year after we got on the field, the shelter closed down for a dangerous breach in security. All the girls were sent back to where they came from. We could do nothing. Nothing at all, but watch them go. A few months later, I saw one of the girls at church escorted by her “father.” When our eyes met, the vacancy in hers shattered my heart. I will never forget it. Then one day, while I was cleaning a horse corral, I had Billy’s story. Not the whole thing, but a piece of it. Just one distinct scene, actually.

I hid myself away whenever I could for months and wrote furiously. I had no idea how the story would unfold, or even what themes would develop. In truth, I had no idea it connected to my life at all. Three hundred and fifty pages later, I was done. And I guess it was all in there, needing to come out. I realized later that Billy's journey had given me the key to process and heal from things I saw around me but couldn't change. Things that broke my heart.

I needed a different ending—a redemption story.

I thought I was done after that. One novel in me and that was it. But one turned into the next, and now I’m hooked.

Would you tell us a little more about the main characters?

Yes. Billy McQueen is a seventeen-year-old who dreams of escaping his father’s rural Pennsylvania barroom. On his eighteenth birthday, he is given a prostitute for a gift and introduced to a younger brother he never knew he had—an eight-year-old, barely capable of navigating the corrupt world of his father’s boxing club. In order to protect his little brother, Billy can never leave. When he uncovers the true nature of his father's activities and the ring of human-trafficking, he is kidnapped before he can share it and sold by his own father as an escort to a wealthy old maid. His death is fabricated and his little brother used as leverage for his compliance. In order to secure his freedom, Billy must fight for it. But to save his little brother who is next in line for the slave trade, he must be willing to die for it.

Billy’s story is a modern-day Joseph and a spiritual allegory of our own journey. It’s about living under the wrong father. Believing the lies that produce fear and shame. That undermine our true worth and purpose. It’s about finding the right Father and being called home.

What challenged you about writing Something I Am Not?

Knowing I was entering a world where the pain was so real, I never wanted to take that lightly. I had a few readers who had to put the book down because it portrayed too closely their own lives of abuse. I guess that’s both good and horrible at the same time. But I always wanted to be sensitive to how I wrote it, what the internal struggles would be, and how the healing would begin.

What advice would you give to aspiring authors?

Like nothing else, our writing can make us feel vulnerable and can take captive our identity. We expose our insides to the world, and that can be scary. As authors, we experience good days and bad days. Approval and rejection. All of us. We can tend to give too much power to a stranger’s opinion, so we need to be grounded in something more. Something greater that doesn’t bounce our value around with each ebb and flow. It makes a huge difference when I start my day with that deeper understanding of who I am.

What are you working on next?

My second novel, Regent, is in its final stages of editing. The back-cover blurb goes like this:

Justin has never known family. His mother died when he was born. His father disappeared. And the foster care system has failed him. At seventeen, he arrives at Regent in upstate New York, a shut-down psychiatric hospital turned boarding school, to rehabilitate from a crime he never committed—and hide a secret he vowed to keep.

But Regent has secrets of its own. The gates are locked. The students oddly contented. And Justin is the only one whose memory cannot be erased. Or can it?

When the lines of truth become blurred and his world splits in two, his harbored gift—the ability to draw the past— may be the only way to determine what is real and what is imagined.

You can visit my webpage to read chapter one, and if you’d like to be on my Street Team for the upcoming launch, reach out to me. I’m always looking for Beta readers.

Although Something I Am Not is a stand-alone novel, my readers have asked for a sequel. A few weeks ago, I began that. It was like meeting an old friend. I slipped back into his skin with little effort and am enjoying his new journey of healing through Billy’s eyes.

About the Author

Cher Gatto is a native to NJ and lives with her husband (pastor) and five teenagers. Their family spent 10 years in Mexico developing a horse ranch for kids (see more about the ranch below) and founded an addictions ministry (R-HUB) back in the states. Cher has a Master’s in Psychology and serves as president of the ACFW NY/NJ chapter. Cher’s debut novel won the Genesis Award in 2016 and the Christian Indie Award for Best YA in 2020. Her new novel, Regent, is scheduled to release this fall, and she has begun a sequel to Something I Am Not.

More from Cher

I never meant to be a writer. It’s something that happened to me when I wasn’t looking. Our family (my husband and I and our five children) lived in Mexico developing a horse ranch for kids, at-risk youth, and broken families in impoverished villages surrounding the ranch. Our co-workers ran a women’s shelter in the city, and we used the horses to love on the girls there. I say “women’s” shelter, but most were children (13, 14, 15 years old) trying to raise babies of their own. Many of the babies a result of abuse, rape, or incest. Some had been drawn out of trafficking. Their stories tragic and incomprehensible.

About a year after we got on the field, the shelter closed down for a dangerous breach in security. All the girls were sent back to where they came from. We could do nothing. Nothing at all, but watch them go. A few months later, I saw one of the girls at church escorted by her “father.” When our eyes met, the vacancy in hers shattered my heart. I will never forget it. And one day, while I was cleaning a horse corral, I had Billy’s story. Not the whole thing, but a piece of it.

I hid myself away whenever I could for months and wrote furiously. I had no idea how the story would unfold, or even what themes would develop. But three hundred and fifty pages later, I was done. I guess it was all in there, needing to come out. I thought I was writing a fiction novel, but Billy’s journey gave me the key to process and heal from things I saw around me but couldn’t change. Things that broke my heart.

I needed a different ending—a redemption. Billy’s story became an allegory on life. He lives under the wrong “father,” as an orphan, believing the fear and shame that those lies wield. But in finding the right Father, he finds where he truly belong. Billy’s story is about coming home. It’s his story, and it’s ours.

Something I Am Not was published by Lighthouse Publishers of the Carolinas. It won the 2016 Genesis Award for the contemporary category and 2020 Christian Indie Award for best Young Adult fiction.

Tour Schedule

By The Book, July 4 (Author Interview)

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, July 5

Book of Ruth Ann, July 6

Artistic Nobody, July 7 (Author Interview)

Texas Book-aholic, July 8

Wishful Endings, July 9 (Author Interview)

Rebecca Tews, July 9

Inklings and notions, July 10

For Him and My Family, July 11

For the Love of Literature, July 12 (Author Interview)

deb’s Book Review, July 13