Mary L. Tabor

Please read my story. 
          
          https://www.wattpad.com/story/166270639?utm_source=android&utm_medium=link&utm_content=story_info&wp_page=story_details_button&wp_uname=Daffodillo

Dear followers, readers and friends. Find me now at marytabor.substack.com for "Write it! How to get started" and all things literary, movie reviews and more.
          xo
          Mary

Hunting you on this site after reading 'The Burglar' in that bizarre relic listed there as Literary Fiction and finding your 2020 goodbye, l better understand my disappointment in Wattpad as a 2021 newcomer. I thank you for leaving your reading list, a precious document, but I regret the complete removal of your own writing. I know, the six-pack and green eyed crowd is annoying, but there are amidst the hordes some gifted junior scribes. Tell me, who is going to show the kids how it's done?
          I know, you have better things to do and time is always short. Don't you remember the thrill at the sight of a comment on your work from someone you had respect for? Respectfully. 

Hello Mary?
          How are you doing it's nice meeting you, hope you're having a wonderful day so far?

Dear followers, Readers, Friends, 
          
          As I have said previously, Wattpad's mission is far from support--even a small space—and, for lack of a better word, "literary" fiction, memoir or essay.
          
           I remain grateful for my time here, but have now decided to take down all that I had previously posted.
          
          With special thanks to @zoedinovi, who found me, supported me and made this spot in life and time a heartfelt and deeply creative place, I take my leave. Thank you, Zoe, dear. I wish you and all my previous readers the best. Stay well and shoot for the moon! 
          
          I add this wisdom, not from my pen, but rather from the marvelous actor/playwright Sam Shepard after publication of his book of short stories entitled _Great Dreams of Heaven_  in an article by Mel Gussow in the New York Times:
          
          Once free-form in his writing, he has become carefully disciplined. “It’s a strange thing about form,” he said. “When you’re younger, you tend to believe it doesn’t exist, or that you can ignore it or reinvent it. Slowly you beging to understand that there are certain essentials that have to be honored.” He added: “Horsemanship is the same way. You don’t just jump on a horse, spur him and hope for the best.”
          
          I  hope for the best for all of you, my friends, my readers, my followers.
          
          With profound sadness,
          
          Mary L. Tabor

Read your last message. You are too good for what this site has become. Seems to be an  opening for non edited thought. That is youth....oh forsooth! Discombobulated as I am, I still  smell the changes. I think too that I will get off this particular planet . I have appreciated your reads of my work. I am visual foremost,  yet words have always been there. Thank you Mary. You seem to know how to bite the world gently back when U have been bitten. Grapher thought>

Dear followers, readers, friends, with extra special thanks,
          
          The Stars program has responded to my message with this closing comment: “Unfortunately, literary fiction currently isn’t a genre of focus for us. For these reasons, we completely understand why you would like to leave the Stars program, although we are genuinely sad to see you go.” 
          
          And, indeed I am sad to go. I have decided to leave up my profile and (Re)Making Love https://www.wattpad.com/story/14101251-re-making-love-a-memoir
          
          This week and next I will be taking down the rest of my work.
          
          Special thanks for your comments and support: @zoedinovi @GeekAtlas @WriterAEF, @Glory_feeling2 @MorrighansMuse @isabelle_bl @AyWrdWthU @Christine_Owen @MichaelGraeme @barry205 @KLCandela @Pietr0x @Hobnails @memoonzed @daviswin 
          
          Should Wattpad decide to create a niche for “literary” fiction, I’ll, for sure, be back!
          
          Love the willed word,
          
          Mary

Hello Mary, this is terrible news for Wattpad that you are leaving the site. That said, I discovered your message only by accident today. I haven’t been around this site for a while, for much the same reasons as you have given in your message today. It was only a message through he site to me from a  follower that brought me here today.
          When I first came to this site in 2012, it was a vibrant, exciting and supremely encouraging place to be. I met so many excellent writers and became friends and followers of them, yourself is included among them. We had a 100 over 2O group- a hundred members over the age of 20 and mind-blowing were the ideas and exchanges that ensued. I learned so much, and was able to contribute also. Wattpad changed its focus toward the young adult and teen market around the middle of the decade and many of those excellent talents withdrew from the site, myself included. My writings fall in the literary category- fact based fiction, historical and contemporary (but  without smartphones, werewolves  and spaceships).
          But I really miss the old Wattpad and can only hope another appears where I can continue to digitally ‘rub shoulders’ and ‘bounce ideas’ from mentors such h as you, Mary. You have given so much to us, and have so much more to offer. Your departure will be the felling of another tree in the forest of literary endeavour- except yours is a great oak. Best wishes for the future, whatever you decide to do, may it continue to bring you the success and acclaim you deserve. Peter (Hobnails)

Hey Mary
          I understand your concern really, but you should know you are cherished and no matter what, people will find you and recognise your incredible work.
          Please don't feel heartfelt. Do what you think best and what will give you peace.
          Much love

Dear Mary, I am sad to know that you may be leaving us. Wattpad has been important to me; but perhaps in ways that may resonate with your own reservations.
          
          It has mainly been a place where have I found a number of fellow travellers who became very influential with me; and none more so than you. Sadly only a few of them are still participating.
          
          I continue to appreciate WattPad as a repository of the things I want to write, even if not many read them.  In a somewhat selfish way I write for myself, which is a denial of the community purpose of WattPad. But at times there has been a gratifying response to things I have thought important to say.
          
          The other reason I will continue to post to WattPad is to share with others the poetry that I love. There is almost an imperative to try to share this, whether successfully or not.