Tales of Animus: Winning at Life (Book 3) is out!

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The book’s by-line reads:

‘Tis in times of peril—not blithe leisure,
That we truly find a hero’s measure.

As the saying goes, being a hero is not about being immune to fear—that’s ignorance, not heroism. Being a hero is about doing the right thing despite fear. Loyalty, keeping promises and preserving our integrity often requires a great deal of personal sacrifice and willpower. Throughout our lives we wonder whether these virtues are worth the hardship we put ourselves through for the privilege of being able to meet our own gaze in the mirror without doubt or regret. Our mentors tell us how we take for granted things others in the world are praying for and how what does not kill us strengthens us and builds character.

Many of the heroes in these stories are conflicted. They embark upon desperate journeys of self-discovery, in search for missing pieces of their souls. Although none of the protagonists are human, their inner-most struggles are easily-relatable to us, as we have all experienced disappointment, temptation, envy, rejection and other manifestations of fear. Simply put, this book takes you on exciting, bite-sized adventures, where you will witness flawed characters dream big, dig deep, rise to extraordinary challenges and do their best to prevail through their faith and ingenuity.

All of the stories are about someone accepting a challenge, succeeding and thereby growing or… avoiding hardship, succumbing to fear and thereby becoming diminished by hiding from the experience. These stories seek to kindle and amplify that spark of heroism that lives in every one of us.

Read the short description of each story here.

Meet Raven

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Meet Raven the dog, another real-world pet, who won the Animus Characters' Casting Competition of April 2014.

Hailing from a wealthy family, Raven was plagued by uncertainty. On the one paw—she had everything she could possibly want: the best recreation, education and a guaranteed cushy future and yet… something was amiss.

She found out that she possessed the power to feel the moods of others and even locate folks through their feelings. The reason why, since puppyhood, she could not shake the feeling that something was wrong, was because something WAS very wrong. Her uncle had corrupted her father’s once-noble clockwork toy factory and elevated himself, by trampling on the rights of others.

Having run out of options, but determined to make a change, she sets off on a defiant quest to Angelholm, to bring justice to her home town of Frisbee. She does just that, but not at all in the way that she had expected.