Saturday, November 7, 2020

Praise for Women Wronged, edited by Heathcotte

Finalist in Guides, 2020 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards

Runner-up in Compilations, 2020 New York Book Festival

“This is a strong collection of essays. Each story weaves a tale of a woman overcoming some sort of oppression, such as sexism or discrimination, in their lives. The editor does a fantastic job of curating these essays. They certainly all have similar themes, but they each tell a unique story that adds to the overall collection.”

Judge, 27th Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards.

“Despite their trials, however, the authors provide hope and understanding to women today who are going through their own ordeals. Their messages spoke volumes - being a woman is not just about being beautiful, conforming to how others think you should be, or being less than others. I think these messages can reach more than just women and I am sure it can inspire many individuals.”

 Shannon Winings for Readers' Favorite

Saturday, October 24, 2020

Women Wronged Wins 2020 New Mexico Arizona Book Award

 Women Wronged was a finalist in the guide category of 2020 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards, I'm proud to say. Buy it on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B084Q3QM1V/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=women%20wronged&qid=1581470997&s=digital-text&sr=1-1&fbclid=IwAR28zPZ3p620K1GRlQc28ARMcY7cwQOUokikYnQ5k4I60NbRgqU2UcZL3P0

Monday, July 20, 2020

Harriet, the 2019 Movie Review


Harriet, the 2019 movie directed by Kasi Lemmons, stars Cynthia Erivo, and tells “…the extraordinary tale of Harriet Tubman's escape from slavery and transformation into one of America's greatest heroes, whose courage, ingenuity, and tenacity freed hundreds of slaves and changed the course of history.” I quote from IMDB.

I watched the movie on HBO last night and found Harriet exciting in two ways: first I love historical fiction and second I love examples of psychic experiences that come true and have impact on people’s lives.

When she was a youth, Harriet’s slave owner clubbed her in the head, giving her a concussion. After that she fell into a trance from time to time and awoke with psychic information, that is, she knew what was going to happen before it did. This ability was well known among her family.

When she ran away, her psychic guidance led her to safety. Then she embarked on many expeditions to free others, who followed her psychic sense into the free states and escape from slavery.

Harriet described her visions as “talks with God” and trusted God and her visions completely. They empowered her in profound ways, helped her lead an army regiment, and helped change the course of history. She was truly an American Joan of Arc.

The movie is dramatic, informative, and exciting. It is well worth your time to watch and imagine what it was like to be her.

Monday, June 22, 2020



Women Wronged
Discrimination, Repression, & Sexism from the Sixties to Now

by  Toby Heathcotte

Non-Fiction - Anthology 126 Pages
Reviewed on 04/03/2020



Book Review
Reviewed by Shannon Winings for Readers' Favorite

Women Wronged: Discrimination, Repression, & Sexism from the Sixties to Now is a collection of stories from multiple women. Edited, and partly written by Toby Heathcotte, each story details another woman's account of growing up in a world of discrimination, repression, and sexism. Each one shares how they were perceived solely for certain qualities, like beauty, or for what they lacked, namely male anatomical parts. They missed jobs and opportunities because they were women. Family and co-workers felt entitled to their bodies. They were looked at as individuals with no intellect. Even today, women's rights are still lacking and incidents such as the above are prevalent. Where do we go from here?

Women Wronged by Toby Heathcotte is a great read, especially given the increase in women's rights advocates and movements. I loved how articulated the stories were and how they explained feelings so well. I was angry, sad, and ready to fight for them. While I may not have lived during the same time period as some of these women, I found the stories relatable. As a woman, I have lived through aspects of each story and each touched my heart. Despite their trials, however, the authors provide hope and understanding to women today who are going through their own ordeals. Their messages spoke volumes - being a woman is not just about being beautiful, conforming to how others think you should be, or being less than others. I think these messages can reach more than just women and I am sure it can inspire many individuals.

Buy Kindle from Amazon and support National Organization for Women. 



Thursday, May 7, 2020

My Hydroxychloroquine Caper


My Hydroxychloroquine Caper by Toby Fesler Heathcotte


In mid-March 2020, as I listened to numerous news reports about the impending epidemic of COVID-19, I worried that things could get worse, like pandemic bad, because medical people didn’t appear to have any treatment or vaccine to combat the virus. In other words, it was a super virus.

Lo and behold, Trump, despite having zip medical training, hyped a drug that could cure the virus—hydroxychloroquine.  I was shocked and surprised and wondered what that might mean for me.
For the past four or five years, I’ve taken the drug hydroxychloroquine, brand name Plaquenil, originally developed to cure another epidemic—malaria. It is useful for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, an affliction of mine for about twenty years. 

I had begun to suffer from some side effects including eye problems. Both the ophthalmologist and the rheumatologist decided to start me on a different medication and wean me off the hydroxychloroquine. I clearly had a bunch of it in my system. What impact would that have if I contracted COVID-19? 

Would I be immune? Do I have to stay home, or could I go out shopping, visiting, and ramming around the neighborhood? Just asking.

If so, I could become Florence Nightingale and walk amongst the ill and become a healer for the nation. With such glorious possibilities in the offing, I struck out, metaphorically since I was confined to my house, to discover some answers.
Might I be such a superhero? What’s a superhero if no one believes in her?

To find the answer, first, I texted my younger son while he was working from home instead of going to his law office. With such slim info as I had presented, he opined that chances were slim that I would contract malaria based on my drug usage, for whatever that was worth. I considered his response utterly inadequate.

Next, I texted my elder son who was traveling out of the country on vacation. The feds were threatening to recall all Americans abroad asap. Undaunted, he replied that he feared like Brer Rabbit he could get stranded in New Zealand and not have to leave. The authorities insisted so he did make his flight home and brought back a suitcase full of toilet paper. Despite my broad support for his international turmoil, he took no interest in mine and failed to make any pertinent comment on the question of his mother’s conjectures about her physical superiority through medication.

My sons did not believe in my superpower, so I turned to medical professionals.

In chatting with my rheumatologist, I described my excitement about my potential immunity. I asked her how much of an illicit market there might become for my stash of hydroxychloroquine.
To my delight she pointedly and jokingly required that I let her get in on the deal. She could prescribe and I could sell on the side and split the profits with her. I should have been surprised at her duplicity until I recalled one year at Halloween when she arrived for my appointment dressed as a vampire, blood-letting tools in hand.

To learn whether there could be any chance of acting on this idea, I called my pharmacist. I requested getting my prescription filled early and shared my concern about whether he would have supplies on hand, considering the newscasters reported shortages. People were buying up pills, believing Trump’s hype.

The pharmacist assured me that he had plenty, blowing up my potentially illegal trafficking scheme. He had one other customer who used it, so he saved enough back for us.

Even though I didn’t ask, I wondered how people were obtaining pills without prescriptions or who might be writing fraudulent ones. I googled black market but got no results. That particular avenue for exploitation eluded me.

I googled side effects for hydroxy chloroquine and found many, including cardiac failure, blurred vision, diarrhea, and many other wretched outcomes. I’ve been spared the worst of them, so maybe I am immune to this current virus. I can’t let go of the idea.

One night I had a dream exactly to the point of my concerns: A gnarly old guy from AAA was selling drugs out of the trunk of his car. He was trying to take advantage of the COVID-19 scare to make a huge profit on hydroxychloroquine.

I couldn’t tell whether AAA stood for American Automobile Association or Arizona Authors Association. That’s the thing about dreams. It may not be either. The salient point here was that I recognized the gnarly old man.

It’s Trump, of course, with his rambling whine, selling a new snake oil to cure COVID-19. I hear he has stock in the company producing hydroxychloroquine. Otherwise how could he possibly know how to pronounce it with so many syllables?

On consulting the rumor website, Snopes, I found this: “U.S. President Donald Trump will benefit financially if hydroxychloroquine becomes an established treatment for COVID-19” is mostly False. “What's True U.S. President Donald Trump earns some income from three family trusts that are administered independently by J.P. Morgan, an investment bank and wealth-management firm. These trusts are in part invested in mutual funds that themselves are partially invested in companies that produce hydroxychloroquine.”

So there you have a Trump fact we’ve come to accept. It’s true and not true at the same time. Yes, he’s making money on the drug, but not enough to make it matter. He has moved on to bleach and light.
Some scientists are testing hydroxychloroquine as a possible cure for COVID-19. A few doctors are using it as a treatment for infected people. If that turns out to be effective, would I be immune to the disease?
The most recent news suggests they’ve run amok and have killed enough folks to stop the experiments. Conclusion—don’t listen to the president. Unfortunately not enough people have learned this rule. I could have told them he’s not to be trusted a long time ago. In fact, I did but my was voice lost in the wilderness of Facebook.
Feeling anxious, I wanted to stay alive, but ultimately for what? Is my life worth saving? More to the point in this environment, is my life more valuable than my sons, who are working from home because they have high-paying jobs or my grandson, who is at high risk of contamination in a grocery store with a low-paying job? A life’s worth seems flipped on its head. At least for me at this time.
I dread writing my feelings down and at the same time want to, at least to memorialize the episode of horrifying history I’m experiencing.

With copious bouts of writer’s block, the same doubt has assailed me since the day I took early retirement from teaching so I could devote myself to writing. Ironically, I only respond to deadlines, self-imposed or created by dent of my membership in a critique group. Thus, I have to have a deadline to do what I supposedly wanted to do and managed to pen these pages in time. Sketchy as this approach seems, it’s all I’ve got.

For the past few mornings, I’ve awakened from dreams feeling pulled away from a task. I’ve volunteered in the dream world to work on a team to create a cure in the astral world for the virus in the real world.

Maybe this bears out my previous dream of the gnarly old man from AAA. Perhaps he’s from the Astral Analog Assembly. If that isn’t an organization, maybe I should found it myself.

With such dreams to fortify me, I imagine myself walking through the hospital immune to all disease. I swoop in and touch the sick people and they are magically cured.

How cool would it be to be a superwoman destined to end this sorry business we are living through?

Wouldn’t you love it too? We’re all wannabe superheroes at heart.



Friday, February 28, 2020


JUST RELEASED ANTHOLOGY
WOMEN WRONGED
Discrimination, Repression, & Sexism from the Sixties to Now


In this anthology, wise women tell poignant stories of their efforts to overcome discrimination, prejudice, repression, sexism, and marginalization in their lives. These authors give hope, discernment, and support to young women embarking on their own journeys today. 
Contributing Essayists: Eyvonne Carter-Riley, Kathleen Cook, Marcia Farrell, Valerie Foster, Monique Gerbaud, Rita Heathcotte, Toby Fesler Heathcotte, Marilyn June Janson, Jan Nichols, Constance Osterlitz, Tamara Poff, Jane Ruby, Vijaya Schartz, Writer Anonymous
$5 for Kindle and $10 Buy button for paperback

Saturday, February 15, 2020

DREAM CONFERENCE IN SCOTTSDALE

I'm a member of The International Association for the Study of Dreams. They are holding their annual conference at the Doubletree Inn June 13-17, 2020. The public is welcome. I heartily recommend the conference because of all you'll learn and experience and the terrific folk who love talking about their dreams. It's fantastic good fun.

http://iasdconferences.org/2020/keynotes-and-invited-speakers/