Jimmy Wayne to Star in Lifetime Movie, ‘Every Other Holiday’

Jimmy Wayne is heading to the small screen! The singer-songwriter will make his acting debut in the Lifetime movie, Every Other Holiday, which will premiere on Nov. 23, just in time for Christmas, and stars Dee Wallace, Glenn Morshower, and Abby James Witherspoon, among others.

Every Other Holiday tells the story of two parents, Tracie (played by Schuyler Fisk), and Rick (played by David Clayton Rogers), who are separated at Christmas, even though their two daughters want nothing more than to have their parents reunite. Wayne plays a potential love interest of Tracie.

“This is the first movie I’ve had more than a cameo appearance in,” Wayne said in a statement. “I was very nervous but working with professionals like Glenn Morshower, Dee Wallace, Schuyler Fisk and David Clayton Rogers made it a comfortable experience. I can’t wait to see it! Viewing party anyone?”

This might be Wayne’s first time acting, but he is already familiar with the movie scene. The author, who wrote the best-selling Walk to Beautiful, also penned the novel Paper Angels, which became a movie as well.

The 45-year-old, who spent most of his childhood in foster care, wrote a children’s book, Ruby the Foster Dog, last year, about a dog in foster care.

“People think that foster kids are bad and they’re in foster care [because they committed] a crime, but that’s not true,” Wayne told PEOPLE.

“A lot of kids are in bad situations, just like ‘foster dogs’ so to speak, which are in shelters [even though] they haven’t committed a crime,” he continued. “The [foster care] children and the dogs actually have the same story: They’re in a home, a shelter and they need help. They need love, to be adopted and to be given a forever home.”

The North Carolina native has plenty of memories about his childhood, but not many of them are pleasant.

“Being hungry hurt worse than anything,” Wayne recalled. “There’s no pain like that. When you’re hungry and you go for one or two days without eating — that is the worst pain.”

It was the recurring decisions of his mother that kept him in foster care, but Wayne still works hard to maintain a relationship with her.

“It’s really hard for her to forgive herself, but I keep telling her, ‘Mom, I love you. It wasn’t your fault. You suffered through a lot of illness.’ She still does,” revealed Wayne. “That’s part of what’s keeping her from forgiving herself.”

Wayne is already exploring more film roles, while working on a film based on Walk to Beautiful. More information can be found at his official website.

Photo credit: Getty Images / John Shearer