Perspectives: The Ultimate Gift -- Book review and interview with the author

by Randall Murphree
February 26, 2007

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(OneNewsNow.com) - - Red Stevens was what some of us might call "obscenely wealthy." The Texas oil baron is a central character in Jim Stovall's The Ultimate Gift. When Red dies, it is no surprise that his descendants' eyes turn green with dollar signs. They gather around the boardroom table, greedy lawyers in tow, eager to see what Daddy (or Grandpa or Uncle Red) left each one.

In his waning years, Red, a self-made billionaire, realized he had made a mistake in pampering and catering to his children and other family members. In his will he devises a clever strategy to see the bulk of his holdings go to a deserving family member.

Jason, a great-nephew and the black sheep of the family, is an unlikely beneficiary, but Red sees him as the most likely candidate to merit the mega-bucks inheritance. His creative bequest to Jason is the intriguing point upon which the story turns.

The Ultimate Gift is the first novel (Cook Communications, 2001) by businessman/television executive Jim Stovall. It's in the spotlight this spring because the film version is scheduled to debut in theaters March 9.

Stovall is cofounder and president of Narrative Television Network, which helps make movies and television accessible to America's 13 million blind and visually impaired people. He himself became totally blind at age 29. It was a decade-long process.

In The Ultimate Gift, Theodore Hamilton, Red's attorney, is instructed in the will to monitor Jason's response to Red's instructions. Furthermore, Hamilton controls whether Jason finally receives that incredible, ultimate inheritance.

Red himself participates in unveiling his unorthodox will via a series of videos in which he addresses Jason directly. Once a month for one year, Jason comes to Hamilton for the next video in the series. In each video, Red issues the next "test," telling Jason what life lessons he must learn and how he must prove he's learned the lesson to Hamilton.

Ironically, Jason's first challenge is to learn the value of the gift of work -- something he'd never before had to attempt. His classroom? The Texas ranch of Red's longtime friend Gus Caldwell. On Gus's ranch, Jason is taken to a far corner of the property where a barbed-wire fence is being built. Jason is left with rolls of wire, a huge pile of fence posts and a hand-held posthole digger.

Other tests along the way challenge Jason to learn the value of the gifts of family, laughter, dreams, gratitude and love. Early in the process, Jason often demonstrates anger, frustration, bitterness and disbelief. However, what began as a test of perseverance -- only to "get the money" -- becomes a path of growing, maturing and learning for Jason.

Stovall recounts some interesting experiences along the road to getting The Ultimate Gift transformed to film. Two major studios contacted him and optioned film rights. The first one held it for a year, but their script took the story too far away from the moral principles Stovall insisted the movie uphold. Fortunately, he had retained script and cast approval, so he was able to prevent the studio from changing his story.

He said, "I told them, 'If you want to make that [script] into a movie, go ahead; no one will recognize my book anywhere in there.'"

Negotiations with a second studio followed a similar path. Then along came producer Rick Eldredge, who wanted to retain the book's moral integrity, and a partnership was born. It might bear noting that the film is decidedly less "Christian" than the book; still it is an entertaining and uplifting movie.

But the novel! The novel is a great, short read. This fall, Stovall anticipates the release of The Ultimate Life, a sequel, and two more titles are in planning stages. If they measure up to The Ultimate Gift, they're something to look forward to.

Novelist, television exec puts Christian principles in practice (author interview)

Author Jim Stovall grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and earned psychology and sociology degrees from Oral Roberts University. He is a motivational speaker and the author of 12 books. The Ultimate Gift (RiverOak, 2001), his first novel, has been made into a movie and will debut in theaters March 9.

OneNewsNow: When you were growing up, what did you plan to be?

Jim Stovall: I wanted to be an NFL football player. That was the plan for my life. And just before I started to college, at age 17, I was diagnosed with an eyesight condition that would result in my blindness. I realized I wasn't going to play in the NFL, so I switched gears and became an Olympic weightlifter and was international champion two years in a row.

OneNewsNow: How did your diminishing vision affect your career plans?

Jim Stovall: Well, I graduated from ORU and I was an investment broker. Then at age 29, I lost the remainder of my sight. I went through an adjustment period and then started the Narrative Television Network, which makes movies and television accessible for 13 million blind and visually impaired people across the country.

OneNewsNow: When did you become a Christian?

Jim Stovall: I accepted Jesus as my Savior when I was seven years old in Vacation Bible School.

OneNewsNow: Tell us about your first book.

Jim Stovall: My first book was published in 1995 with Thomas Nelson. It was called You Don't Have to Be Blind to See. It was my experience of losing my sight, building the television network and really taking my faith from religion to relationship.

As long as I could see, my faith had done everything it was required to do. You don't know you don't have a strong faith until you need one. And all of a sudden I was faced with blindness and I realized "This religion that I have kind of played with is not going to be enough. I need a relationship. I need someone here all the time." That was a major shift for me.

OneNewsNow: So in 2000 or 2001 you decided you were a novelist. How did that happen?

Jim Stovall: Well, I had written four or five nonfiction books. I never intended to be a writer. When I lost my sight, I had never read a whole book cover to cover. I'm not proud of that, but that's who I was.

Then, thanks to a high-speed tape player and a wonderful service from the national library for the blind, from that day to this, I've averaged reading a book every day. I can listen at 800 words a minute. That has changed my life.

After my first book, the publishers kept calling and wanting more books. So after four or five nonfiction books, I had written everything that I knew and a few things I only merely suspected, and I thought, "It's time to write a novel."

My wife Crystal is a novelist. I thought I could do that. Everything looks easy until you try to do it. I thought you just make stuff up and sell your books.

There's a lady in my office I dictate all my books and newspaper columns to. I came in one day and said, "Dorothy, we're going to write a novel." And over the next five days, between meetings and phone calls, I dictated The Ultimate Gift. No edits, no re-writes. Nearly four million have read the book now. It has been a gift in my life.

OneNewsNow: How did you come up with ideas and story lines for The Ultimate Gift?

Jim Stovall: In all of my fiction books, it's as simple as I create a character and then decide, "What would he do?" The first day, I had nothing in my mind except this lawyer telling this vague concept of someone leaving his legacy behind.

I'm not like most writers. I may write for five or six days, I'll finish a book and I won't write again for another year. That's the way it comes to me. I will dictate an entire chapter or two and have Dorothy read it back to me. Many times I have no recollection of some of those things in the story. That's why I'm able to stay very grateful and humble for this.

OneNewsNow: You know there are hundreds of Christian novelists who will resent hearing that you take all of five or six days to write a novel.

Jim Stovall: I know that. My wife takes a year. That's a touchy subject at home.

OneNewsNow: How did you cross paths with Rick Eldredge, producer of the film adaptation?

Jim Stovall: I had been approached by two major studios and they contacted me and optioned TUG. The first one optioned it for a year. But I'd been in the television business long enough to see what they do with stories and books I love, so I kept script and cast approval. At the end of the year, they had written a script that was so far removed from anything that I had written, that I just said no thank you. In fact, I told them, "If you want to make that into a movie, go ahead; no one will recognize my book anywhere in there!"

OneNewsNow: Did they?

Jim Stovall: No, they didn't. I'm certainly not a prude, but they wanted to make everything R-rated -- for no reason. But to take one of the young ladies from the movie and just open a scene with her taking a shower -- I don't get it. You know, we didn't have Red Stevens take a shower. He's a 75-year-old man and we just assume he takes showers.

Anyway, with a second studio I had a very similar experience. They wasted six months. I had made up my mind unless the people who had invested two hours of their time and eight or ten dollars to see a movie, unless they could have the same experience when they walked up the aisle at the end of that movie that my readers have when they turn the last page, I really didn't want to have a movie. If it didn't have the message, it just wasn't going to work for me.

About ten days after I turned down the second major studio, Rick called me.

I said, "Rick, I've had a lot of bad experiences and I'm really not interested."

He said, "I read this on a plane and I really want to do it. What would it take?"

I said, "Rick, what it would take is a producer who is absolutely committed to the message. I understand we have to change the story and do some things to make it a movie. But we've gotta keep the message."

He said, "That's what I want to do."

He's been as good as his word. We've been partners and it's been a wonderful relationship.

OneNewsNow: Is there another film on the horizon?

Jim Stovall: I have finished the sequel book. It's called The Ultimate Life and it will be out this fall. There's been some discussion of a second film. Frankly, I think that will be driven by demand at the box office beginning in March. I don't want to just make another movie because we can. It's got to take the message further. It's got to be significant. I don't want a Rocky 27 just to make another one because we can.

OneNewsNow: What are the biggest challenges a believer faces in our culture/workplace today?

Jim Stovall: I think if we as believers are going to come out with a message that matters to people, the biggest challenge is to be relevant. We've got to meet people at the point of their needs, and their concerns and their fears. People aren't really ready to hear an eternal message if they can't pay their bills tomorrow. We've got to address all those needs.

Just as when Christ was here among us, He would give an eternal message, but He made sure everybody had a loaf and a fish before He started. I think churches and Christians need to come to people with an attitude of love and joy and success in their own life and then invite people to be a part of this whole eternal life that can begin now.

Too many Christians are running around with broken marriages, bad personal lives, lack of success, lack of integrity and they're not healthy, they're not happy, they're not anything. Then they come to nonbelievers and say, "You need what I've got." Nonbelievers don't understand spirituality or they would already have a relationship.

We are saved by grace, not by works. But there needs to be some joy and victory and evidence of that. When it's all said and done in Christianity today, there's an awful lot said and very little done. I think a positive Christ-like, victorious life will bring many more people through the doors of the church and into the kingdom than will another outreach program.