M.E. Wright's Blog, page 3
May 24, 2025
Cut Scene: The Shopping Trip
This cut scene from The Motherhood Mandate shows Rylee’s growing awareness that not every relationship can weather what comes next.
This scene didn’t make the final cut of The Motherhood Mandate, but it stuck with me. It captures the kind of conversation that starts out light and spirals into something far more revealing. Rylee is trying to hold on to what’s left of a lifelong friendship, even as Kathryn crosses lines she doesn’t fully understand. It’s one of those moments where everything shifts, quietly but permanently.
May 18, 2025
🎧 Author Reading Drop: Scenes From The Motherhood Mandated
These aren’t deleted scenes. They’re not extras. They’re the real thing.
I held a small VR reading for my OG crew. You know, the friends who showed up, checked in, and carried me through the writing of The Unborn Child Protection Act trilogy. We gathered in Immersed VR’s Classic Cafe, surrounded by the background jazz band playing in this digital world.
…
May 17, 2025
Cut Scene: Sanctuary or Surveillance
This scene was part of The Motherhood Mandate, but I had to cut it during revisions. It stayed with me because it captures something essential. Rylee is trying, in small but deliberate ways, to take control of her life. A trip to the spa might seem simple, even indulgent, but for her it’s a quiet act of defiance. She isn’t fighting the system outright. She’s carving out space within it, searching for freedom wherever she can still find it.
May 10, 2025
Cut Scene: Quiet Time in the Barn
This scene was originally part of The Motherhood Mandate, but it was cut to tighten the pacing. I kept it because it reveals something essential. Rylee isn’t debating policy or facing conflict. She’s alone, sorting through what this pregnancy means in the quiet company of a horse and a journal. It’s a pause between storms, a moment where we see her begin to process not just what’s happening to her but who she wants to be because of it.
May 4, 2025
Poor Rylee!
It started in the dead of winter. I was stuck. Completely stuck. I was working on a pivotal scene for The Motherhood Mandate, the kind of moment that changes everything for Rylee, and I couldn’t move forward until I understood something crucial: how do very wealthy families actually protect their wealth?
I wasn’t looking for gold-plated bathtubs or designer closets. That’s the pop culture version of the one percent. But when I really started thinking about it, I realized I needed to understand how generational power and control actually work. I needed to understand trusts.
May 3, 2025
Cut Scene: Advent by Candlelight
This scene was originally part of The Motherhood Mandate, but it had to be cut for length. I held onto it because it captures something quiet and powerful. Rylee is navigating judgment, tradition, and her own resolve in a setting that’s supposed to feel safe. Advent by Candlelight isn’t dramatic, but it’s layered: isolation, performative kindness, and the slow, steady return of her voice. I couldn’t let it vanish.
May 2, 2025
The Long Fight for Birth Control
I collect data. I always have. Not just stats and citations, but the forgotten, the obscure, the nearly erased. Some people collect stamps. I collect context and content.
It started in college, in Dr. Leudke’s PR101 class. Every week, he'd challenge us to be the first to find media coverage on a given topic. Whoever brought it in first got the bonus point.
I took that as a dare. Obscure journal? Buried PDF? Out-of-print newspaper clipping? I found them all. By semester’s end, I had racked up more than 20 extra points—and a reputation: if it existed, Michaela could find it.
That instinct never left. I’m not just a writer—I’m an archivist of the strange and significant. The things that never make headlines. The histories that get edited out.
So when I came across this 27-page academic deep dive—The History of Contraception by Malcolm Potts and Martha Campbell—I dropped everything.
It’s a sweeping, detailed look at how birth control has evolved across civilizations: ancient pessaries made from crocodile dung, herbal abortifacients in 16th-century Europe, the political forces behind the modern pill. It's dense, well-sourced, and brimming with the kind of facts that make you pause and go: Wait, why didn’t I know this?
This isn’t just trivia. It’s a reminder that what we call “choice” has always been contested.
📎 Download it here:
Ifplp330KB ∙ PDF fileDownloadDownloadLet me know what you think!
— M.E. Wright
The House on Crescent Hill
Sam grew up in a quiet neighborhood in Mequon, just north of Milwaukee. The house on Crescent Hill sat at the edge of a small lake, tucked into one of those neighborhoods where the lawns are always mowed, the mailboxes all match, and the HOA has opinions about everything.
April 28, 2025
Meet Patrick
From the moment Patrick Maxwell was born, the world revolved around him. He never had to wait, never had to wonder if his needs would be met. If he cried, someone came running—his mother, a nanny, a housekeeper. It didn’t matter who, as long as they made the discomfort stop. He was never ignored, never left to soothe himself. Patrick was important, and important boys didn’t suffer.
His mother, Chloe, dropped everything for him. She could be in the middle of a meeting, discussing a multi-million-dollar deal, but the second Patrick screamed, her priorities shifted. His nannies were well-trained, tasked with keeping him happy at all costs, but even they knew—when Patrick wanted his mother, he got her.
By the time he was old enough to walk, Patrick understood that he was the center of everything. His toys were the best. His clothes were tailored before he even knew what that meant. He had multiple nannies cycling through shifts, ensuring he was never alone, never without supervision, never without someone to fulfill his every whim.
But Patrick also learned something else. The true power in the family didn’t come from tantrums or toys—it came from knowledge.
He watched his father, his uncles, the men who spoke in quiet, measured tones while making decisions that shaped entire industries. They never yelled. They never had to. Patrick absorbed the way they talked around people instead of to them, how they gathered information and wielded it like a weapon. He saw how a single well-placed comment could change the course of a conversation, how doubt could be planted so easily that the other person never even realized it was happening.
By the time he was six, he had learned how to pull the strings without making it obvious. He didn’t throw tantrums anymore—he didn’t need to. He could get what he wanted with a whisper, a smirk, a carefully timed question that made people second-guess themselves. He knew how to make his cousins squirm, how to say just enough to make them doubt themselves.
And Allison? She was his favorite target. She was close enough in age to challenge him, but not close enough to matter. Because Patrick Maxwell had already learned the most important lesson of all: power wasn’t just about having things—it was about making sure no one else ever had more.
April 21, 2025
Meet Amanda Trevelyan
Amanda Trevelyan is a highly disciplined and knowledgeable tutor with a methodical and structured approach to education. She is British, fluent in German, Mandarin, and English, and specializes in higher-level academics, particularly math, science, and writing.
Her tutoring role is critical for Allison, as she helps bridge the gap between the curriculum at Vanguard and the more rigorous German education system. She has created a study plan that aligns with the Abitur exams in German schools, ensuring Allison remains academically competitive. Amanda is thorough, patient, and expects excellence, but she is not unkind—she understands that learning is a process and tailors her approach to Allison’s needs.
Beyond academics, Amanda plays an advisory role in Allison’s life. When Allison is troubled by family matters, Amanda encourages her to seek the truth but to do so carefully, reinforcing the importance of understanding and strategy rather than reckless pursuit. Her calm demeanor and intellectual depth make her a stabilizing force in Allison’s otherwise turbulent environment.
