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WORK TITLE: Jacked Up
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.ericasagebooks.com/
CITY:
STATE: WA
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
RESEARCHER NOTES:
| LC control no.: | n 2018010827 |
|---|---|
| LCCN Permalink: | https://lccn.loc.gov/n2018010827 |
| HEADING: | Sage, Erica |
| 000 | 00284nz a2200109n 450 |
| 001 | 10681801 |
| 005 | 20180223181454.0 |
| 008 | 180223n| azannaabn |n aaa |
| 010 | __ |a n 2018010827 |
| 040 | __ |a DLC |b eng |c DLC |e rda |
| 100 | 1_ |a Sage, Erica |
| 670 | __ |a Jacked up, 2018: |b ECIP title page (Erica Sage) |
PERSONAL
Born Maple Valley, WA; children: two sons.
EDUCATION:Central Washington University, bachelor’s degree; the University of Montana, master’s degree.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, novelist, and teacher. English teacher, WA.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Erica Sage grew up in Maple Valley, Washington. She liked to read and write from a young age, writing songs in kindergarten and publishing a newspaper solely for her parents to read. Editor of her high school newspaper, Sage would go on to study English in college, foregoing her first inclination to become a journalist to turn to teaching. Sage is an avid hiker and loves to travel.
In her debut young adult (YA) novel, Jacked Up, Sage tells the story of 13-year-old Nick, a teenager who is constantly being annoyed by the ghost of the American novelist and poet Jack Kerouac, who is came up with the name the Beat Generation for a group of writers in the 1950s. The reason Jack is haunting Nick seems to stem from the fact that Jack was was the favorite author of Nick’s sister.
In an interview for the Novel Novice website, Sage said their were several inspirations for the novel but pointed specifically to a time when she had just returned from Young Life Camp, a Christian camp for middle schoolers and high schoolers. “I was in the middle of a YA novel that dealt with religion, in conjunction with heroin and meth addiction,” Sage noted for the Novel Novice website interview, pointing out the difficult time she was having making a story about drug addiction humorous. She went on in the interview to note that she had become stuck after writing 15,000 words of the novel. Sage said in the interview that she turned to prayer to get her going again, pointing out: “It was ambitious. I wanted people to reconsider how they considered their faith and the faith of others. And I wanted people to laugh in the face of an opioid crisis.”
It turns out that Nick’s sister died because of something Nick would rather not talk about. To help Nick get over his grief, his parents decided to send him to a Jesus summer camp named Eden Springs. Once there, he finds the campers are encouraged to write about their daily prayers and confessions and then put the writings in the PC Box. Nick has no desire to do so, but Jack keeps urging him on.
Nick eventually writes about the secret concerning his sister’s death and puts it in the box, which is subsequently stolen. Soon, secrets of the campers start appearing around the camp, leading Nick to try and find the stolen box before his secret is revealed. Meanwhile, Nick forms a close bond with fellow camper Natalie, who shares Nick’s concerns about hypocrisy in the evangelical community.
“Jacked Up celebrates living life on an individual’s terms — accepting flaws, facing fears, moving beyond stereotypes, and reaching out to others,” wrote Nancy Powell in ForeWord. A Kirkus Reviews contributor called Jacked Up “an impressive debut novel that entertains while encouraging the questioning of all assumptions.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
ForeWord, May 27, 2018, Nancy Powell, review of Jacked Up.
Kirkus Reviews, April 1, 2018, review of Jacked Up.
School Library Journal, March, 2018, Sara Jurek, review of Jacked Up, p. 122.
ONLINE
Erica Sage website, http://www.ericasagebooks.com (July 14, 2018.
Novel Novice, https://novelnovice.com (May 30, 2018), “Erica Sage: ‘The Crazy Inspiration for Jacked Up.'” author interview.
Teenreads, https://www.teenreads.com/ (July 14, 2018), brief author profile.
I was born and raised in Maple Valley, Washington, where I grew up playing soccer, selling boxes of apples by the roadside, and building forts in the woods. I graduated from Tahoma High School, just like my parents and even my grandparents!
From a young age, I enjoyed reading and writing. I started writing songs when I was in kindergarten and moved on to “publishing” my own newspaper that was only ever delivered to my parents. I loved writing stories, poetry, and essays, and was the editor of my high school newspaper. (Fortunately, and unfortunately, I still have all of the aforementioned masterpieces, even those song lyrics!)
It was only natural that I would pursue English in college, though I ditched the idea of being a journalist. I graduated from Central Washington University, taught for awhile, earned a master’s degree from The University of Montana, and taught some more… 17 years so far, hanging out with teenagers. (I have the greatest job!)
I am currently an English teacher in Washington, where I live with two sons. And I still love to read and write. When I’m not doing those things, I hike around Mount Rainier and travel whenever and wherever, whether it’s packing up and heading to a new country or just climbing into the car for a road trip.
Biography
Erica Sage
Erica was born and raised in Maple Valley, Washington, where she grew up playing soccer, selling boxes of apples by the roadside and building forts in the woods.
From a young age, she enjoyed reading and writing. She started writing songs when she was in kindergarten and moved on to “publishing” her own newspaper that was only ever delivered to her parents.
The YA contemporary JACKED UP is her debut novel.
Erica Sage
Books by Erica Sage
Jacked Up
by Erica Sage - Christian, Family, Fiction, Social Issues, Young Adult 13+
It’s bad enough that Nick’s sister is dead and that his parents are shipping him off to Jesus camp. But he’s also being followed around by Jack Kerouac, who’s incredibly annoying for a genius. The campers at Eden Springs drop their daily prayers and confessions in the PC Box, and with Jack nagging him to, Nick scribbles down his darkest secret ― about his sister’s death --- and drops it in the box. But then the box is stolen, with Nick’s secret inside. And when campers’ confessions start appearing around the camp, Nick is desperate to get the box back --- before the world learns the truth about what he did
Sage, Erica: JACKED UP
Kirkus Reviews.
(Apr. 1, 2018): From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Sage, Erica JACKED UP Sky Pony Press (Young Adult Fiction) $16.99 6, 5 ISBN: 978-1-5107-3005-2
Nick's lesbian sister, Diana, is dead and his parents are sending him to a weeklong "Jesus camp" at the suggestion of his homophobic, evangelical sister, Charlotte.
The 15-year-old narrates his tale with humor, cynicism, and self-deprecation. A self-proclaimed grammar aficionado--who even publicly corrects a pastor--his language abounds with colloquialisms. However, from the moment he is forced to exchange his grammar-nerd T-shirt for one proclaiming, "Happiness Happens Here!" readers empathize with his plight. The portrayal of camp is farcical and hilarious, with counselors dressing as people from the Bible, including a prostitute, an apostle, disciples, and an adulteress, and campers literally dragging around crosses for rule infractions. Typical summer camp activities and teenage angst are skillfully woven into Nick's journey, which begins with grief and a guilty secret. The stakes grow higher when a box containing campers' and counselors' private confessions--including Nick's--goes missing and Nick is suspected. As he attempts to find the box and its thief, Nick enjoys witty repartee and serious conversations with fellow camper Natalie, "the prettycute Bandana Girl." The novel's title refers to another noteworthy quirk in this original story: Nick sees, hears, and converses with 1950s Beat Generation author Jack Kerouac, beloved by his late sister, who first appeared to him following her funeral. Major characters follow a white default.
An impressive debut novel that entertains while encouraging the questioning of all assumptions. (Fiction. 14-18)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Sage, Erica: JACKED UP." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Apr. 2018. Book Review Index Plus,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A532700490/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=0af2d8d4. Accessed 21 June 2018.
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Gale Document Number: GALE|A532700490
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Jacked Up
Nancy Powell
ForeWord.
(May 27, 2018): From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2018 ForeWord http://www.forewordmagazine.com
Full Text:
Erica Sage; JACKED UP; Sky Pony Press (Children's: Young Adult Fiction) 16.99 ISBN: 9781510730052
Byline: Nancy Powell
Set over five days in the life of a death-obsessed teenager, Jacked Up is snappy and clever, wrapping Jack Kerouac's On the Road and spiritual beliefs around a coming-of-age story with themes of friendship, acceptance, and mourning.
Jack Kerouac's ghost has followed grammar-snob Nick ever since his Kerouac-loving sister, Diana, committed suicide. His parents decide to ship Nick off to a week-long retreat at Camp Eden Springs, a desert "Bible Disneyland" in which "happiness happens," so that he can deal with his grief. Nick quickly becomes the ostracized loner blamed for the theft of the camp's prayers and confessions box. The confessions begin to go public, spurring Nick to find the missing box and retrieve his own confession about his role in Diana's death before the secret gets out. But can Nick find the box in time to save himself and Natalie, the girl he loves?
Frank observations are made about the melodramas that consume the social lives of teens. Kerouac functions as a compassionate jerk, truth-seeker, and madman, haunted by his personal demons. Nick and Natalie are also positioned as mad for their insecurities and their reluctance to embrace life.
Nick and Natalie mock the hypocrisies of born-again evangelism. Through them, Sage plays religious venalities for laughs while reaching for something deeper with her teenage audience, especially concerning homophobia.
Issues of youth activism, guns, methamphetamine abuse, and gender identity also appear. This kitchen-sink approach succeeds thanks to well-constructed dialogue. The book does not offer prescriptive fixes, but rather a therapeutic safe space in which to discuss the various hopes, fears, and doubts that teens have.
Jacked Up celebrates living life on an individual's terms -- accepting flaws, facing fears, moving beyond stereotypes, and reaching out to others.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
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http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MA...
Powell, Nancy. "Jacked Up." ForeWord, 27 May 2018. Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A540568547/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=ad1976d8. Accessed 21 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A540568547
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SAGE, Erica. Jacked Up
Sara Jurek
School Library Journal.
64.3 (Mar. 2018): p122. From Book Review Index Plus.
COPYRIGHT 2018 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
SAGE, Erica. Jacked Up. 272p. Sky Pony Pr. Apr. 2018. Tr $16.99. ISBN 9781510730052.
Gr 9 Up--Jack Kerouac has been dead for almost 40 years, but that doesn't stop him from haunting Nick, who just lost his older sister, Diana, to suicide. Diana loved Kerouac and often channeled his philosophy of loving the "mad ones." As if these things weren't bad enough, Nick's parents have decided to send him to "Jesus Camp" at the behest of Nick's other sister, Charlotte. Nick is not excited or even happy about this decision but he doesn't feel like he has a choice, given the tragedy his family has just gone through. The campers are encouraged to write down confessions or prayers and put them into the official PC Box, and even Nick participates--by writing down his secret about Diana's death. When the PC Box goes missing, everyone at camp is in a panic, especially Nick, who makes it his mission to find where the box went. This story of tragedy and relationships reads quickly, and Nick is a sympathetic narrator. The teen is often resistant to the camp's lessons, which are gentle but not subtle. Some of the male campers use crass language and objectify their female cohorts. The author has created a small but well-crafted cast of characters. Each of them have real-life issues that will resonate with young adults. VERDICT A good selection for most YA collections.--Sara Jurek, Children's English Library, Stuttgart, Germany
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Jurek, Sara. "SAGE, Erica. Jacked Up." School Library Journal, Mar. 2018, p. 122. Book Review
Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A529863633/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=08ebcb71. Accessed 21 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A529863633
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Erica Sage: “The Crazy Inspiration for Jacked Up”
Posted May 30, 2018 by Sara 0 Comments
Today I am so delighted to have author Erica Sage stopping by with a guest post about the crazy inspiration behind her new novel, Jacked Up, which comes out next week and is described as “Saved! meets Tim Federle with just a dash of A.S. King” about a grieving teen sent to Jesus Camp. Read about Erica’s inspiration below, and then learn more about her book below.
Jacked Up is inspired by many silly and serious things. Here’s one:
I had just returned from Young Life Camp (it’s a Jesus Camp, if you don’t know), and I got back to the task of writing a new book. I was in the middle of a YA novel that dealt with religion, in conjunction with heroin and meth addiction. I was having a tough time making drug addiction funny. That’s right, funny. I’m not a bad person, but I am irreverent, and my brother—who had been my best friend my whole life—is a homeless drug addict. His life has been a tornado of destruction in the lives of at least 19 people (I’ll spare you the details), so I had earned my right to cope with it as I may. For both me and my brother, humor is the coping mechanism of choice. I don’t know what else to when he tells me about the little green men in the trees (i.e., “treeples”), the lady who hears secrets from the Coca-Cola bottle, the World Wide Web being a literal web with actual spiders the government uses to spy on him. My brother’s drug addiction is not funny, but the alternative to laughing is total despondency.
Anyway! I digress! We’re talking about the inspiration for my book Jacked Up, not my brother’s circumstances, which are also quite jacked up.
So, here I was, just home from Jesus Camp, trying to be funny about the serious societal problem of drug addiction while also trying to explore the topic of religion and faith (which, for some, is also a serious societal problem), and I was failing. I’d hit 15,000 words and I’d run out. The well had dried up. The harvest was dead. There was nothing to reap. It was a literary Dust Bowl.
So, what did I do? I prayed, of course! I put my hands on my keyboard and literally asked God to get the right words into my head and into my fingertips. I prayed that I could make people think about the beauty and absurdity and truth and torment of religion. That I could make people feel something. That I could do justice to the God or the Universe or the Great Mystery or the Nothing in which people believe. And, yes—that I could make them laugh! (Dear God, we need to laugh!)
It was ambitious. I wanted people to reconsider how they considered their faith and the faith of others. And I wanted people to laugh in the face of an opioid crisis. I don’t know which one is the more difficult task.
So, eyes closed, I waited for God to answer.
He (She/It/They) didn’t answer.
Not that day.
Not the next day.
I was frustrated. How was I not feeling the divine current of creativity? I mean, I’d prayed, for God’s sake! So, I just sat there in my office stewing about how stupid I was. How even my act of prayer and expectation of an answer was ridiculous. How what we believe and what we do in matters of faith and philosophy can be utterly ridiculous. I mean, I’d just put it all out there for God, and He (She/It/They) was totally ignoring me! I thought, How ridiculous do I look right now? I bet we all look ridiculous to nonbelievers. Can you imagine if you sent a nonbeliever to Church Camp? They’d think we’d all gone mad! Mad!
Wait….
And there it was—my novel idea. What if you sent a nonbeliever to Jesus Camp?
And so that’s what I did. I sent my main character, 15-year-old Nick, to Jesus Camp after his lesbian sister has killed herself. Poor Nick. He is a miserable dude. Especially when I reincarnate Jack Kerouac and send him along too. I mean, why not? It’s a mad, mad world!
But this book is not just about Christians and Jesus. It’s about Buddhists and Muslims and Hindus and Agnostics and Atheists and Zoroastrianists. (Is that a thing anymore?) And all the other things we can be. And all the other things we believe. Religions and races and sexuality and gender and death and life and magic and literature and alcohol and cigarettes and cheerleading. It’s about how we walk around with our beliefs, sometimes (many times!) judging others’ beliefs simply because they are not ours.
Jacked Up is about challenging assumptions.
It is funny. It’s meant to be ridiculous and absurd. It is meant to make readers think. It is not meant to offend people, but it likely will. While I don’t attempt to make addiction funny in this book, I am still irreverent about some of the most sacred of things—our beliefs. They are, indeed, sacred. But, guess what. Other people’s beliefs are too.
In the end, the idea for the book came after a prayer, and it came on the third day. That’s some holy stuff right there! Or it’s not… it’s just coincidence. I don’t know. You don’t know. So, how can we judge?
How about, let’s not judge each other. Let’s seek to understand each other. And, dammit, let’s laugh while we’re doing it!
Saved! meets Tim Federle with just a dash of A.S. King in this hilarious and poignant debut about a teen stuck at Jesus camp.
It’s bad enough that Nick’s sister is dead, and, in some bizarre attempt to force him to confront his grief, his parents are shipping him off to Jesus camp. But he’s also being followed around by Jack Kerouac, who’s incredibly annoying for a genius.
If arguing with a dead beat poet doesn’t qualify him for antipsychotics already, Nick’s pretty sure Eden Springs is going to drive him insane. The campers ride donkeys into the desert, snap selfies with counselors dressed as disciples, and replace song lyrics with Bible verses. And somehow, only Nick seems to find this strange.
Worst of all is the PC Box, into which the campers gleefully place daily prayers and confessions. With Jack nagging him to do it, Nick scribbles down his darkest secret―about his sister’s death―and drops it in the box.
But then the box is stolen, with Nick’s secret inside of it. And when campers’ confessions start appearing around the camp, Nick is desperate to get the box back―before the world learns the truth about what he did. The truth he can’t even face himself.
Laugh-out-loud funny, surreal, and insightful, this is an unforgettable novel about the strangeness of life, death, and grief―and the even stranger things people do to cope.
Available June 5th: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound | Sky Pony
Erica was born and raised in Maple Valley, Washington, where she grew up playing soccer, selling boxes of apples by the roadside, and building forts in the woods. From a young age, she enjoyed reading and writing. She started writing songs when she was in kindergarten and moved on to “publishing” her own newspaper that was only ever delivered to her parents.
She is currently an English teacher in Washington, where she lives with two sons. And she still love to read and write. When she’s not doing those things, she hikes around Mount Rainier and travels whenever and wherever, whether it’s packing up and heading to a new country or just climbing into the car for a road trip.
Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook
PRAISE for Jacked Up:
“An impressive debut novel that entertains while encouraging the questioning of all assumptions.” ―Kirkus Reviews
“Irreverent, poignant, and smart, Jacked Up turns Jesus camp on its head! A clever debut by a talented new author.”
―Kimberly Derting, award-winning author of the Body Finder series and the Pledge trilogy
“With an unforgettable setting and a vibrant cast of characters, Erica Sage has delivered a poignant story of one boy’s search for forgiveness in the face of loss. Hilarious and insightful, Jacked Up explores the complexities of both faith and grief with remarkable honesty, nuance, and grace. A captivating debut.” ―Katie Henry, author of Heretics Anonymous