Description:
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?
Why on earth did I write a Christian novel that has both aliens and zombies in it?
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.
EXCERPT:
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.
“What happened, Jennie?”
“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.
“Grab me the duct tape.”
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.
In simple language, Pauline Creeden breaks down Biblical stories and applies them to real life in new ways. Her methods of teaching have brought new light to old scriptures. In her fiction, she 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 horse trainer from Virginia, but writing is her therapy.
She is the Admin for Spirit Filled Kindle and an administrator for Readers' Realm. Her articles, reviews, and devotionals have been featured in RUBY FOR WOMEN Magazine,Devotionals for Bloggers, Faith Filled Family Magazine, and Christian Fiction Book Reviews.
One of Pauline's short stories has won the CCW Short Story contest. Other short stories have been published in Fear & Trembling Magazine, Obsidian River and Avenir Eclectia.
An urban fantasy short will appear in The Book of Sylvari: An Anthology of Elves from Port Yonder Press, and a vampire short will appear in Monsters! from Diminished Media Group. She is currently editing and drafting several novels at various stages.
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