Blog Tour: The Last Three Words by Ashley Heckman

Title: The Last Three Words

Genre: Young Adult

Release date: November 15^th 2013

Publisher: Evernight Teen

Blurb:

Seventeen-year-old Christian Marx never belonged anywhere but with his best friend Maye. Life with her beats the hell out of the dingy apartment he shares with his neglectful mother. Mom may be blood, but Maye and her little sister Rowe are family. Life would be perfect if only Maye loved him the way he loved her.

Last night, she did. Today, she's dead—a tragic accident no one could have predicted.

With Maye gone, it's up to those she left behind to figure out how to move on. Only one person can drag Christian away from the ledge. Only one person can save Maye's little sister from making a huge mistake.

Sometimes the only way to un-break yourself is to fix someone else.

Ashley is a thirty-something perpetual teenager. She (slowly) writes young adult fiction that pulls no punches and rarely conforms to the unspoken rules. Home is upstate South Carolina, where Ashley lives with her daughter, working for a living and striving to better herself and her craft.

Author Links:

http://www.ashleyheckman.com

https://twitter.com/justbishop

Goodreads link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18718865-the-last-three-words?from_search=true

“Yeah, 387 Greer Highway,” my voice was flat over the sound of sobbing, begging, in the background. “Overdose…barely…bourbon and something prescription, I’m not sure.”

The dispatcher pledged to stay on the line until the ambulance arrived, but I abandoned her first, setting the receiver on the kitchen counter and grabbing the car keys before walking out the front door, unnoticed. What was one more unforgivable act? Besides, I'd done my part. The rest would have to be on the two of them. I stood in the driveway looking back at for a few moments at this place that used to feel like home, and continued on my way to anywhere but here.

I don’t remember the three point turn, or creeping under the canopy of trees that shaded the long gravel drive from the house to the road. Time was lost and instinct took over steering, the gas pedal, and the brake, though I had no need for it. There was no traffic this time of night, when morning hung only a couple of hours over the horizon. I just drove, the lazy speed of the car moving through the dark echoing the numbness I’d succumbed to after struggling against it for so long. It felt almost nice.

I watched, lost in thought, as the darkened houses and pastures passed. I'd considered the existence of fate many times in my life, but only for the past few weeks with any real seriousness. The mistakes made tonight were no accident, no coincidence. Had any of it ever been?

Without realizing, I pulled the car off to the shoulder and into the grass, at that place on Greer Highway that had haunted me for what seemed like a lifetime. It felt like another life, when we’d been happy. I stared out the windshield, willing myself to see something real, something to anchor me in reality, but there was nothing.

I needed to feel it, this road I'd been avoiding in the weeks since. To touch it, know if there was anything left there. It felt like the natural place to make peace with all that had happened, apologize. There had been a purpose to all of it. Maybe she could forgive me. But would I ever forgive myself?

Dream Cast:

This was really difficult for me. I don't generally keep up with a lot of celebrities (I had to go "window shopping" on IMDB for some of these picks), and those I do know by name, I pretty much stopped following when they faded into the annals of Hollywood--as the types of actors and actresses I generally like tend to do.

 

Anyway, I took this as an opportunity to put together an ensemble of people at their best ages to play the characters in my book, regardless of their present day age. Of course anyone reading a story will have their own thoughts and ideas, which I'd welcome in the comments! I've done my best, but I wouldn't be surprised at all to find some up-and-coming young Hollywood types that would be an even more perfect fit. Enjoy!

 

Maye Miller - Alexis Bledel (early 2000's)
Alexis has a plain beauty about her that anyone playing Maye would have to possess. She's not flashy (naturally or otherwise). She looks at the ground a lot. Most would consider her cute, but average. It just takes the right person to figure out how beautiful she is on the inside.
Rowe Miller - Chloe Grace Moretz (2010ish)
Besides proving her ability to play the epitome of a little girl/badass combo in the Kick-Ass movies, Chloe Grace is just visually stunning. Give her a dark chocolate brown hair color and some ice blue contacts, and you have Rowe.
Christian Marx - Leonardo DiCaprio (late 1990's)
Gilbert Grape through Romeo+Juliet era Leo strikes the perfect balance of gangly awkwardness and "wait, he's suddenly REALLY cute" that's inherent in the character of Christian. Plus, the boy could/can ACT.
Stephen Miller - Nestor Carbonell (present day)
Loved him on LOST. There's no one who comes closer to the look I had in mind for the girls' dad.