Bestselling author Ken Abraham finds a home for his new novel in collaborative project

Published 11:40 am Saturday, September 21, 2024

Ken Abraham has written more than 100 books — exactly 108, by his own count — many of which are best-selling, collaborative efforts with (very) public figures sharing (very) private lives. And so we have books such as “No Dream Is Too High” written with Buzz Aldrin, “Forever and ever, Amen” written with Randy Travis,  “Let’s Roll!” written with Lisa Beamer … and, the list goes on.

His latest effort is also a collaborative effort, but it’s like nothing the author’s done before. Signing on with California-based Robert Craig Films, Abraham’s new book isn’t just a novel, it’s part of a five-part project to tackle what officials and experts have called an epidemic — the surging number of people living homeless in America: As many as 2 million people, some sources document, are living, in effect, with no address.

Abraham’s part in the project was to write a novelization of a major Hollywood movie that in itself will join forces with other parts of the effort to combat homelessness. That initiative, dubbed The Big 5 Giveback, includes not only “No Address” the movie and novel, but also the cross-country documentary “Americans With No Address,” “No Address: An Interactive Study Guide” and a music album.

More, Abraham is not the only celebrity to lend weight to the project, meaning that the “big” part of the Big 5 is no misnomer. William Baldwin, Beverly D’Angelo, Xander Berkeley, Isabella Ferreira, Lucas Jade Zumann, Ty Pennington and Ashanti — a Grammy-winning singer, songwriter and actress who also headlines the project’s standalone album with music that also will be featured in the film and documentary — are among those who fill a cast and storyline centered on a group of seven characters who form a family to survive and live on the streets.

While that movie is expected to premiere this winter (filming wrapped up in spring 2023 and the trailer and other information about the project are at noaddressmovie.com), the novel is available now — a process that Abraham notes is reversed for an industry that typically draws its stories from books, not the other way around.

That was a process, though, that worked in the film studio’s favor, Abraham said. Although the screenplay by Julia Verdin had already won dozens of “best script” awards — the writer had finished the work in time for 2022 and later film festivals — Abraham hinted that the final movie will include several tweaks he made to the storyline in his novel.

Speaking about that storyline, what drew him to the project and other things — such as his favorite character, mental illness, spirituality and what exactly each of us can do to help with the crisis of homelessness — Abraham answered a few questions about the project in early September. Speaking from his home in Franklin, Tennessee, the following interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Tom Mayer: Ken, I know we’re scheduled to talk about your new novel, but that book, “No Address,” is actually part of a larger project from Robert Craig Films called The Big 5. Please tell me a bit about that initiative — and your part in it.

Ken Abraham: Well, the Big Five is a five-prong emphasis that Robert Craig Films has started. And believe it or not, they started with it, as it wasn’t something that just developed. They started with this idea: We’re going to create a movie and we’re going to create a book, but even before that, we’re going to do a documentary film where they literally traveled across the country, visiting in homeless encampments, going from city to city and just seeing what the real situation was with the homelessness crisis in our country today. So that was part of it, the movie, the book, the documentary. And then what they did, too, is they developed a study guide, which is a really great (tool) that churches and civic groups and others can use, just as a discussion guide to talk about. … Then the fifth part of that: There’s also a music album. I don’t think it’s out yet. It will be coming out soon, a number of different artists and to be honest, but I’m not sure, Tom, who all is on that album, but I know one of the guys from Rascal Flatts Country Music Group, Rascal Flatts, has been helping with that, and some others. So it’s going to be a good album. It’s not going to just be a quick thing. It’s a full major music production.

So, it’s a five-pronged emphasis. And the whole thing is to raise the awareness of the public of, OK, yeah, we have a problem. Now, what are we going to do about it, how can we help? And that was from the get-go with Robert Craig Films. Before I even got involved, they had already established that.

TM: And your part was to write the novelization of the movie screenplay?

KA: Yes, my part was to write a novel based on the movie, which sounds like, OK, that sounds crazy. Usually you do the movie based on the novel. But part of it came out of that tour that they were doing to prepare the documentary, whenever they were going from city to city. To do the bus tour from city to city, one of the places they stopped by was here in Nashville, Tennessee, and I live in (nearby) Franklin, Tennessee, and they asked me if I would come and just join them for lunch and just hear their hearts about what they were hoping to do. And they wanted to do things in a very professional way and a top quality way, that sort of thing, with the film, with the music and with the book. And so when they started sharing with me about what they had hoped to do and wanted to do with this whole project, I said, ‘Wow, count me in.’ … Even then, I could tell that this is a story that needs to be told, that it’s a way to bring awareness to the public about homelessness without casting a whole bunch of condemnation and guilt. … It’s a problem that we all can do something about, but we can’t do it as individuals. We’ve got to do it together.

TM: Speaking about doing it together: When you said, “Count me in,” it almost sounded like a spiritual thing for you.

KA: Tom, you know, I’ve heard for years and years, Jesus said, as you do it to the least of these, you’ve done it to me — a passage from Matthew Chapter 25. And like most people, I would drive by downtown Nashville, and maybe in your city, or wherever people are around the country now, just experiencing these same kind of things, and you see these homeless encampments and people on the corners begging for money and just really almost trashing downtown Nashville in some areas. And I’d say, man, somebody needs to do something. Somebody ought to do something about this situation. And more and more, it was like God began speaking to my heart and mind, saying, ‘Yeah, somebody needs to do something about that. Ken, can you be somebody?’

TM: That sounds like a, “Here I am Lord,” moment.

KA: And of course, that’s the whole thing with the whole homeless situation. Everybody says, yeah, we need to do something, but not in my backyard. We don’t want homeless people living in my backyard. So I really began to think about, OK, what can one person do? Tom, we’ve got some great churches here in this city. I attend a great church in Nashville, compassionate people. They really care about other people and really trying to help in every way they can, everything from foster care to feeding people under the bridges here in Nashville. But you say, I’m only one person. What can I do? And so I met with Dr Robert Marbut — he was a consultant for the film. And he gave me three suggestions that I have been able to pass on in the book, and also in my own personal life, about what one person can do.

And he said, number one, support those people who are already doing it, those people that are out there working on the streets with homeless people. For example, here in Nashville, the Salvation Army does a great job. And around the country, the Salvation Army is doing a great job focusing attention on homelessness. I mean, they always have, you think about the Salvation Army. They go back more than 150 years, (founder) William Booth and all that, were always helping alcoholics get off the streets and start life over again, and then drug addiction, and then even human trafficking and that sort of thing. …

Then the second thing he said was they need volunteers, and that’s where we can come in. You can volunteer your time, your talents, your treasure and all that. … I’ve done this. Maybe you have, too. I would go down to the City Mission here in Nashville and volunteer on Christmas Day, to hand out food to homeless people, to people who were there at City Mission overnight. I would go during Thanksgiving time, you know, and pass out food, and I’d come home and I’d feel so good, and I’ve done something great, you know, and it is noble to do that, don’t get me wrong, but the truth is, they need help, and not just on Thanksgiving and not just on Christmas Day. They need help March 1. They need help on September 8. You know, they need help on every day of the year.

And that was the third thing he said to me: It’s good to give somebody a sandwich. … (Our group goes) every Tuesday night under the bridge, the Jefferson Street Bridge here in Nashville, to feed about 700 homeless people. OK, that’s great, but guess what? Next Tuesday night, they’re going to be back there again. He said, you need to get these people into some sort of long-term program, some kind of treatment program — and that’s not easy, and it’s expensive, too.

It’s not easy, also, but he said, build a relationship with the person, the homeless person, look him in the eye, because so many homeless people are so lonely and so broken.
And you know, we think of the worst cases, and yeah,  sometimes they’re dangerous. My wife and I have taken our kids and our grandkids down under the bridge on Tuesday night here in Nashville to help feed the homeless, that sort of thing. And you know, you’ve got to keep an eye out because there are some pretty sketchy people in that group. There are some people who are addicted to drugs, there are people who are alcoholics. There are people that are looking for whatever they can get from somebody else in the easiest way.
And let’s be honest, about 70% of the people who are homeless in America today have some sort of mental illness. That was something I didn’t realize until I got involved in this project. Now, some of that illness comes from alcohol, some comes from drug addiction, but boy, how do you know which comes first, the cart and the horse and all that sort of thing. Does the eviction lead to the homelessness? Does mental illness lead to addiction? It’s kind of hard to tell, and I’m not a professional at all. All I know is that we need help to deal with that. …
One big thing is, we’ve got to take back what we’ve given away to the government. We’ve given this job to the government. And truthfully, this is not a government job. Tom, the government cannot solve this problem.

TM: Well, now I’m even more impressed, Ken, because everything you just spoke about, you managed to put into less than 400 pages and into a novel. I think you touched on everything you’ve just said in one story and in one book.

KA: Well, you know, sometimes it takes a little while. I’m not a fast writer, either. I write very, very slowly. I’ve written a bunch of books, but they all take me a long time and this was a different kind of book for me. I’ve written some fiction, I’ve written some of my own books, but mostly I’m known as a collaborator with high profile news newsmakers and celebrities. … (“No Address”) was a whole different kind of thing, dealing with a story like that, and really getting into some of these social justice issues, and what can we do about this enormous problem of homelessness. That was a whole new world for me.

TM: You navigated that world wonderfully in the novel. What inspired you?

KA: These are people made in the image of God. I believe that God loves them just as much as he does me or anybody else. They’ve gotten into some messes. Some of them have messed themselves up. Some of them have been messed up by others. But what we did in the novel, and in the movie as well, the main characters are all people that were living happy lives, and then the bottom fell out.

A couple of characters in the story are from the military. I was amazed how many people are homeless who have served our country well and given part of their life to keep us free here in America, and now they’re out living on the streets (with) post traumatic syndrome and that sort of thing.

And so one of the characters in our story is one of those kind of guys. Another is a female, and she was actually in Iraq and she had allowed a little girl to go through a checkpoint, which she had done many times. But on this day, this little girl had an IED wrapped beneath her clothing. …

TM: That female veteran is the character Violet and it’s a tragic story. The first veteran you mention is Harris, my absolute favorite character. He’s the de facto head of the street family. Do you have a favorite character from the story?

KA: Believe it or not, one of the characters that fascinated me was probably one of the most difficult to write about, and that was the character that Beverly D’Angelo played. You remember Beverly from the “Christmas Vacation” movie? She plays a part of a woman who is, really it’s just sad. She’s been devastated by dementia, and she was a Hollywood star, or at least on way to becoming a Hollywood star, making movies, and she just lost everything she had and winds up on the streets. And she is part of this group, and these people, and they just wrap their arms around her and take care of her. It touched me. My own mom, the last few years of her life, had dementia, and so we dealt with her … I wrote a book about when your parent becomes your child, and it was basically the experience we had with walking with my mom through dementia. So, when I came to that character, that Beverly D’Angelo played so well, I really had a heart for that character. I can’t say that I love that character, because it was so sad. She was so sad. But at the same time, I wanted to tell that story because there are people out there living under bridges, living in parks, living in encampments that, honestly, they don’t even remember why they’re there or how they got there.

TM: What you’ve represented Ken, in this book, is a family. And I’m going to play devil’s advocate for a minute. It’s a wonderful story about a family. It’s about loyalty. It’s about friendship, trust, care, faith. But have you maybe too romanticized that family aspect as compared to the day-to-day realities of people living on the street?

KA: No question about it, we absolutely did. You’re right. Yeah. And that was on purpose. Part of it was that they, these are real people, and this could happen to your family or mine. We know most Americans nowadays are struggling. Many are living paycheck to paycheck. One major calamity could throw almost any one of us out onto the streets. It’s just, you know, a crazy time in America. So we wanted this, this group, to seem, I use the word normal, but seem more ordinary in their attitudes, in their experiences.

On the other hand, it is just so easy to become cynical and to become caustic and harsh. I worked when I was in college at the Salvation Army at night, just working through college, and almost every weekend these same people would be coming through the doors and they have this story: I need help. I’m trying to get to Florida to visit my mother, who’s dying, and my grandmother. Come on, man, tell me a new story: You know, you almost can feel your heart becoming hardened. And I don’t want that to happen to me, and I don’t want that to happen to our society as we look at these people — and there are a bunch: Some people say there are almost 2 million people who are dealing with homelessness in America today. The media says about 600,000, some of the government estimates are like 1.2 million. But other people say, no, if you add everybody in there, it’s closer to 2 million people. … If you took every football stadium in America, filled it up with people, and then dumped all those people out on the streets, that’s how many homeless people we’d have in America tonight.

So yeah, we did romanticize it, probably more than we should have, to be honest. But on the other hand, too, just as a writer, sometimes you don’t want to take people down into the pits so far that they can’t get back out. You’ve got to bring them back up. I mean, you can tell some of the horrible stories, but you’ve got to bring them back up, maybe with a little bit of humor, but definitely with a little bit of hope. And so that’s what I was trying to do with some of these characters as well, to say, OK, these are real people.

TM: On the subject of hope, there’s a big component in the novel, and in the movie, I’m sure, which involves hope and faith in God, in prayer, and that seems to be really foundational to the story. Would you talk about that for a bit?

KA: I would love to talk about that for two reasons. One, because we in the American church, and I’m a part of that; I teach a Sunday school class and all the rest that sort of thing. We in the American church have kind of backed away from taking care of homeless people. We still donate a lot of money. We still volunteer, as I say, once in a while, but we’ve kind of abdicated our role and assumed that the government is going to do it, and the government can’t do it. They can throw money at a situation, they can pass laws and all the rest of that, but they can’t do it.
We know that from Alcoholics Anonymous, the 12-step program, the Bible and those kinds of things that all have a spiritual foundation. Now, you don’t beat people over the head with the Bible, but you let them know that there is a God. That there is a way that He can help you, that He can pull you out of the mess that you’ve gotten into that gives a person hope. But then the other part of it is wrapping that person with a loving environment and kindness and helping that person to deal with the situation they’ve gotten themselves into — and that’s where I think the church can really come in. We don’t have to have all the answers, but we do have to care.

TM: And speaking about caring, were you surprised at the depth of talent and professionals who signed onto this project, including the movie, the music, the documentary?
KA: You know, it really did surprise me. It really did because you’re kind of taking a risk in some ways, because, just as I said, it is a tough subject, it’s a dark subject, and frankly, a lot of times people just don’t want to talk about it, let alone go to a movie or buy a book about it. So it was risky. And I think that was where I’m trying to find that balance, where we can tell the truth and we can admit that there needs to be something done.

The answer that one of the characters, Robert, has in the story is that he’s a real estate guy who wants to just bulldoze encampments and get these people out of there so they can build condominiums and business centers. Well, that’s great. We can clean up downtown like that, but you still have a bunch of people who are living on the streets. What are you going to do with them?

So, our idea was to try to provide some conversations where we can help some people and get them into some facilities, and there are some places sitting around the country that are doing a great job.

So, the people that were involved, especially in the movie, William Baldwin, Beverly, D’Angelo, Xander Berkeley, some of the others that were involved in the movie, they really took this to heart. And I was surprised. I really was, but I think it was like, OK, none of us can do this on our own, but maybe together, we can do something that might, if nothing else, cause some other bright people around the country to say, OK, maybe there’s something I can do. Maybe there’s a better solution. And there really are better solutions than just giving somebody a sandwich or giving them a chicken dinner, tonight. That’s great, but they’ll be back out on the streets tomorrow. We’ve got to help folks get into some sort of program where they can get help for their mental illness, help for their addiction, help for alcoholism and then also to give them hope, and that’s where the spiritual aspect really comes in. And, you know, also job skills. So there are groups (helping with this), and they’re increasing in number around the country.

TM: Ken, you’ve been very generous with your time today. The last thing I want to talk about is the donation aspect of the Big 5 project. Somebody buying the book — which, by the way, is beautifully produced and includes color photos from the movie production — buying the album, going to see the movie … a lot of those proceeds will be donated, won’t they?
KA: Oh yes, you are absolutely right, and that’s basically out of the kindness of Robert Craig’s heart. His personal decision was to give 50 percent of the net proceeds of everything we’re doing, movie, book, study guide, music album going directly to other groups, ministries who are dealing directly with homelessness, with homeless people on a day-to-day basis and trying to help.

So, you’re not just getting a book, not just going to a movie — you’re actually making a small difference by doing that.