What's your hidden superpower? My guest Brady Ginn always thought of himself as a mild-mannered mortal. Shy, vulnerable, lousy at sports and eternally closeted. But that all started to change when he discovered that he possessed a well of power that he'd never known about before. And it's all thanks to Dianne Keaton, Bette Midler, and Goldie Hawn.
For my recommendation this week, look up the short story The Truth of Names, by James Wyatt. The story serves as a backstory for Alesha, a character from Magic the Gathering, but even if you don't play card games, the story is a marvelous piece of fantasy writing all on its own.
Alesha was born in a body and a gender that wasn't quite right. For a long time, only she knew about the secret potential hidden deep within. And it terrified her. Here was a girl capable of killing dragons, but declaring her identity -- her TRUE identity -- threw her into a panic.
The story traces her journey through battles with monsters, with fellow warriors, and with herself. Ultimately she's able to summon her courage and follow her heart, in a scene that, even if you're not a fantasy nerd, will give you goosebumps.
And what she finds is that following her heart blazes a path for warriors eager to follow her.
Music:
Parisian Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/