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
This entry has been sitting in my memory warehouse for weeks, and I decided it was finally time to pull the trigger on it since it’s such a prolific topic of pop culture. Tinder. Oh what fun we can have with it. I, for one, have no shame when it comes to marketing myself. But … More Tinder
Motivation. It’s one of those things that we all need to get by. Whether it’s just getting through the day or some impossible feat we’re trying to accomplish, we need the proper motivation to fuel our efforts for any endeavor. These past few months I’ve been doing a lot of research into what makes massively … More Motivation
Fame & Fortune. Why does it matter to so many people? I guess it’s another one of those ego things. Everyone wants to have some sort of notoriety for what they do. Which is normal, I would say. I mean who doesn’t like the feeling of getting a bunch of likes or followers or fans? … More Fame & Fortune
As always, this is a controversial topic. So try and stay open-minded, because these are just thoughts – not necessarily my beliefs. Not yet at least. I’m just trying to view things from all angles before committing to anything. As I’m sure you all know, the world is going through a bit of a suck … More The Migrant Crisis – Are We Making the Right Decision?
A dreamer. That’s what I’ve always been called. Just kidding! That’s Carson. But seriously though, don’t we all have our own dreams? That’s something I’ve always thought about. I’ve always wondered what stops people from going after what they truly want in life. Granted, I probably don’t have much room to talk, considering I’ve spent … More A Dreamchasing Humanist Commy
A few days ago, I posted on Continuity’s FB page my creative process as far as character development. For those of you who might wonder, I’ve learned that it’s extremely hard to stay consistent with a character’s…well, character, when writing. At least for me it was. I’m sure most writers who have taken classes and … More Writing a Book is Confusing
So this started out as a Facebook post, but as always it got kind of long-winded so I decided to make it a blog instead. I can already tell this whole breaking into the entertainment industry thing is going to be annoying. I mean I don’t expect to become an overnight success or anything, but … More Hollywood
It’s approaching. You hear that? I do. You’re probably wondering what I’m talking about. The NOISE. People are about to bring the noise. Upon society, that is. I’m calling it. The Information Age has exploded critical thinking and expanded the horizons of millions of people. Now, more than ever, people are sharing their ideas, thoughts, … More What’s next for humans?
The chapter I posted for Continuity last night made me think about this: why are we still killing each other? I think the saddest part about that question is that some people will answer – “its human nature”. Are you okay with that?! I’m not. Are we seriously still so primitive that in order to … More Be Willing to Stop the Killing. Its Not Thrilling – its Chilling.
No complaints this time, I promise. I’d like to delve into the whole dating thing again. The whole digital age has thrown everything for a loop, and we need to reign in some of the shenanigans. Yes, I said shenanigans. The digital age has allowed us to expand our dating horizon to an epic scale, … More Trust
How the World Should Work 