Sanctuary by Pauline Creeden
Pub Date – October 10, 2013 (Paperback)
September 30, 2013 (eBook pre-release)
“Left Behind for the Hunger Games
Generation”
In a heart-racing thriller
described as Falling Skies meets The Walking Dead, Jennie struggles to find a
safe place for what’s left of her family. But it seems as though there is no
place sacred, no place secure. First the aliens attacked the sun, making it
dimmer, weaker, and half what it used to be. Then they attacked the water
supply, killing one-third of Earth’s population with a bitter contaminate. And
when they unleash a new terror on humankind, the victims will wish for death, but
will not find it…When the world shatters to pieces around her, will Jennie find
the strength she needs to keep going?
Advance Praise
“Pauline
Creeden managed to mix more genres into one book than I could possibly imagine.
The overall concept, aliens attacking the earth, is straight out of Science
Fiction, but then you throw in a few zombies and post-apocalyptic fiction with
how the dead/sick humans are acting. Overall, the entire story was charged with
the adrenaline and thrills of a suspense/thriller novel, but the mood was
terrifyingly eerie like a Horror story. There was almost too much sensory
information for my primitive human brain to handle. Still, all of these genres
combined made for one unique and fascinating story. This kind of book is of the
same flavor as The Hunger Games with its originality, which I really
appreciated.”
~Katelyn Hensel for Readers' Favorite
“Sanctuary
is a fast-paced Christian fantasy thriller that is original and quite
entertaining. The story revolves around Jennie and her family, Pastor Billy and
his wife, and two brothers who are polar opposites of each other. Each chapter
is presented in the point of view of Jennie, Brad or Hugh (the brothers), which
gives Pauline Creeden's Sanctuary, a multidimensional feel. The three different
story-lines merge into a full-fledged fantasy/horror novel that never sags or
lets up on the action. While there are Christian themes present in Sanctuary,
and Jennie's faith is an important part of who she is, I, a non-Christian, did
not feel I was being preached to or proselytized. I recommend Pauline Creeden's
Sanctuary -- it's well-written and a lot of fun to read.”
~Jack Magnus for
Readers Favorite
YouTube book
Trailers:
About the Author:
In simple language, Pauline Creeden creates worlds that
are both familiar and strange, often pulling the veil between dimensions. She
becomes the main character in each of her stories, and because she has ADD, she
will get bored if she pretends to be one person for too long. Pauline is a
horse trainer from Virginia, but writing is her therapy.
Armored Hearts, her joint
effort with author Melissa Turner Lee, has been a #1 Bestseller in Christian
Fantasy and been awarded the Crowned Heart for Excellence by InDtale Magazine.
It is also the 2013 Book Junkie’s Choice Winner in Historical Fiction.
Her debut novel, Sanctuary,
won 1st Place Christian YA Title 2013 Dante Rosetti Award and 2014
Readers’ Choice Gold Award for Best YA Horror Novel.
A NOTE FROM THE
AUTHOR:
Why on earth did I write a Christian novel that has both
aliens and zombies in it?
When I was a teen/young adult and my faith was wavering at
best, there were several movies out with the likely design to shake faith even more.
End of the world movies were in their hay day. Alien invasion was another big
one. And I couldn’t help but wonder. If something like this actually happened,
would anyone be able to maintain their faith?
And now today, Zombies are on the rise.
Could aliens be reconciled with the Bible? Zombies? This is
the purpose of Sanctuary.
Because of its poetic nature, the book of Revelation lends
itself to a plethora of interpretation. I am not saying that my book is the
only true possibility, but it could be one. Could not demons be misinterpreted
as alien life forms? Might not Satan use this mirage to his advantage to
explain the bitter water or the blotting out of the sun, moon, and stars? And then there’s Revelation 9:6 - "And
in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to
die, and death shall flee from them."
Zombies?
If anyone reading this book at least opens themselves up to
the fact that yes, a biblical interpretation could resolve the problems between
faith and an apocalyptic reality, then Sanctuary has completed its purpose.
When Jennie reached the back door, she saw them. Four large dog-like
creatures with pinched faces like bulldogs and lion-like manes. They snarled,
and one of them leapt at the window on the top half of the door when it saw
her. Jennie jumped back and fell hard on the cold tile floor. The bottle of
painkiller bounced across the kitchen tiles. The creature slammed against the
window a second time, cracking it. She blinked hard. Her heart sunk, and the
hairs on her arms stood on end. A horrendous gargling howl rent the air,
causing a shiver down her spine. She held her breath and waited for the
creature to slam into the door again.
“What on earth?” she whispered to herself.
When the third attempt never came, she scrambled toward the door.
Blinking hard, she used the door knob to help herself stand. Out the cracked
window, her mother was still out of sight, but the last of the dogs headed
across the field behind her backyard.
“MOM?” Jennie called out.
The rumbling faded, and the vibrations in her chest receded with the
dogs. She pulled open the door and rushed onto their back deck. “Mom, where are
you?”
When she reached the banister, she looked over the side. Her mom lay
sprawled with one hand on the lattice. Blood gushed from Mom’s leg and her
opposite arm. Jennie’s ears rang and flooded with every beat of her heart.
Jennie didn’t know how she got to the second floor of her house, but she
found herself shaking her sleeping father. How had he slept through the
rumbling? “Outside, it’s Mom…”
Her father leapt from the bed. Mickey, her little brother, lay asleep
and undisturbed. Dad ran down the stairs and outside in his flannel pajama
bottoms and white t-shirt. He scooped Mom up to his chest and carried her
inside. Blood stained his shirt in crimson.
“Jennie, call 911!” Her father
had said it at least three times before it finally registered in her brain.
She pulled the cell phone from her pocket, but it refused to connect.
With a groan, she grabbed the cordless from the wall receiver, glad her heart
stopped pounding in her head so she could hear.
“All operators are busy at this time,” a mechanical voice deadpanned,
“Please stay on the line, and the next available operator will take your call.”
“They have me on hold, Dad. Should I hang up and try again?” She held
the phone in both hands away from her face.
“No, just stay on the line.” Her father lifted the shredded jeans from
Mom’s leg. “It looks like a shark bite. What on earth happened?”
Jennie took in the damage through tear-filled eyes. A huge chunk was
taken from her mother’s calf, exposing the fibrous tendons that covered the
bone in her leg. A bloodstain grew on the beige couch. Was she going to die?
Panic rose up.
“I...I...They looked like lions, or dogs, or something. The rumbling
shook the whole house…I tried to go outside to get Mom, but—” A sob blocked her
throat.
Her father grabbed a throw pillow and held it against the leg. Mom’s
exposed forearm laid across her chest in much the same condition as her calf.
Jennie suddenly remembered the phone, put it back to her ear, and headed
to the hall closet. She reached for the shelf above the jackets and grabbed the
junk basket next to the toolbox.
“Please stay on the line. An operator will be with you shortly.”
She shoved the phone in the crook of her neck and fished through the
box. Half the contents dropped around
her feet. Who cares? When her fingers
wrapped around the silver duct tape, a short-lived relief sent prickles down
her arms. But the urgency gripped her chest in less than a heart beat, and she
threw the junk basket on the ground with the rest of the items.
“Hurry, Jennie!” her father called from the living room. “And turn on
the TV. Maybe they’ll have something about what’s going on.”
She handed her father the tape and turned toward the TV. The mechanical
voice on the phone came through again, followed by more easy listening.
When she clicked on the TV, the shouting and wailing began before the
picture warmed up on the screen. A sideways picture of New York City broke
through, with the shaky voice of the newscaster voicing over.
“What we are watching now – I can’t believe it – is live footage of
Times Square,” the newscaster’s voice paused for a deep breath. “We’ve lost our
man on the scene and his camera man to what appears to be some kind of new
alien creature. Just a short half-hour ago, the doors to the ship that hovered
above Central Park opened and these dog-like creatures flooded out.”
Jennie couldn’t pull
her eyes from the screen. She straightened and dropped the phone on the
hardwood. The battery popped out and skidded across the floor.
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