Greetings! I began my writing career in 2015 following the death of my beloved mother. The lessons and world views she instilled during my life as I grew and developed maintain a strong thematic presence throughout much of what I write. Her emphasis on the importance of love, kindness, and concern for all is the primary influence behind my material focusing on occasionally uncomfortable topics like emotional vulnerability, abuse, and existentialism. It isn't all mopey, though - I do like to let the hair down and writing about the fun things in life. Like owning an adorable dog that has enormous, "I just saw a ghost" eyes, for instance. While I use this website predominantly for hosting poetry and/or thought pieces, my primary commercially-marketed project is a sci-fi/fantasy series of novels which I originally self-published. The first is titled Continuity and was published in 2016. A sequel, Continuity: Coalescence, was released two years later. I'm thankful to say both were recently picked up by a traditional publisher, Wild Ink Publishing that will be releasing one, consolidated version of both in December 2024. Announcements on this moving forward will also be posted here. As far as the rest, I'm an ex-Vanderbilt baseball player (c/o '09) with a degree in Economics & Corporate Strategy who is ironically trying to forging a career that has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with either of those things. Before my scribbles began, I was an insurance agent for the better part of a decade. Other than that, I enjoy simple living along with my aforementioned co-author, Pip the Pekingese! Thank you for visiting the website. I hope you enjoy your stay, and I look forward to connecting with any and all. No matter who you are or what you believe, you are warmly welcome! M.E. Shao
I think I might have been slightly influenced by this song as I wrote this. Eliciting emotions through external stimuli isn’t how writing is supposed to be done. Oh, wait. That’s happened since the dawn of time you say? Fair enough. Have a listen whilst reading. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMaRDHqvhps ANYWAY, I’m going to try and tackle one … More Trust
I’m going to try my best to keep this as non-controversial as possible. So before I get into this, I want to point out that I’m not necessarily saying this would work – it’s just an exercise to get people thinking outside the box. In an earlier blog of mine, I talked about how the … More The Venus Project – A Cashless Society
Last night’s (or should I say early this morning’s) post about the verse from Proverbs got me thinking about the other quotes I really like. So I’m going to borrow from my Next Level page and re-post something I’d written several months ago. It’s a series of quotes I have posted on my workstation at … More Quotes & Notes
Night at the Roxbury – wasn’t that a funny movie? #nostalgia The past two Sunday evenings at the behest of a friend of mine – the crazy talented Amanda Jack (check out Numinous Flux when you get the chance), I’ve attended a small informal get-together at her boyfriend’s house that they have every week. The … More What is Love? (Baby Don’t Hurt Me)
I’m beginning to raise an eyebrow about the content I write about considering that I have to preface the majority of my blogs with disclaimers…but whatever. Opinions are opinions I suppose. Disclaimer: treasonous content to follow. Viva la resistance. Anyway, I’d like to address the social structure of which we’ve created for ourselves and hopefully … More The Concept of Government – And How We’re Way Off Course
I’m sure I’m not the only one who wonders a lot of this stuff, so you’ve probably heard some of these thoughts before. But these are things that legitimately bug me. Why do dogs lick the shower water off your legs but not pool water? How do I lose just one of so many pairs … More Things I’ve Always Wondered
As is always the case, this post might get a little scatter-brained. And by might I mean it will, of course. But that’s okay, because by now you’re probably used to it. Anyway, for now I’m going to write about something that I’ve thought about a lot lately – priorities. Now I know that’s a … More Priorities
Hmm. Let’s see here. You know, it’s actually kind of funny. When I was growing up, I always wanted to get rich and famous. But now that I’m older, I’ve realized that was a really stupid aspiration. It’s empty, you know? I guess I was a victim of society like most of us are, and … More If I Had a Million Dollars
Awhile ago I read a post that talked about the evolution of the United States as a nation. I’ve been meaning to write about this, because the article had a huge impact on me. I take personal sovereignty very seriously. For some reason, I’ve developed an enormous passion for all things humanitarian over the past … More America – The Vision vs. The Reality
So I’m currently negotiating with a couple publishers for distribution of my book (I had a second give the green light on Wednesday). Technically I can only sign with one, but I’m still trying to weigh the benefits of both. Well, one of the first steps in that is speaking with their editors and obtaining … More Editor’s Notes
How the World Should Work 