Diemel Communications

26/07/2024

The sights, sounds (and smells) of remote work with a teen in athletics. 😂

Next issue of All The Dirt! Racing News is well underway! 🗞📰

19/07/2024

As I try to start editing this next issue😒(thanks a *bunch* CrowdStrike) ... here was this week's issue of All The Dirt! Racing News. Available in print biweekly and online weekly through the end of September, find more info here!

http://www.allthedirt.com/

(At least I can fill my time anxiously learning how to become a Doomsday prepper as the world loses its collective mind over Microsoft's fails ... 🙃🫣)

09/07/2024

The other Worth the Drive assignment I had the pleasure of writing for FOX CITIES Magazine was for the city of Shawano. Truth be told, my original draft for this piece was 7,000-plus words. (Or, nearly twice as many as my assigned word count.)

(I felt literal pangs in slicing it down, but it's part of the job.)

Lots of people are working hard on making Shawano a destination once again - not just a drive-through town. From the downtown scene, to the outskirt businesses, as well as the lake, parks dept., and all the recreational opportunities, there is a tangible excitement in speaking with community members for what has occurred recently, and all that's possible in the future.

Even if you are a local, it really helps to check out the downtown and Shawano Country tourism sites for what's coming up. Social media doesn't always get the word out effectively for events and such for groups on a budget, and there are really so many cool things to do, see and eat in Shawano.

(Many thanks to friends and family who shared photos with me - some of you are 'famous'!)

In the 1960s, ’70s and even the ’80s — in what many of us remember as the golden age of downtowns — the city of Shawano was a hub of excitement and experiences. There was shopping for penny candy and other trinkets at Schultz Bros. Five and Dime, the delicious smell of donuts wafting from

03/07/2024

This spring, much of my freelancing time was spent working on two 4500+ word stories for the annual Worth the Drive feature in Fox FOX CITIES Magazine. First up: Sheboygan Falls!

In a nut shell: don't sleep on Sheboygan Fallls! The community members I spoke with were absolutely some of the most welcoming, visitor-minded professionals I've had the pleasure of working with since I left PR in 2011 to focus on publishing and freelancing once again.

It's perfectly situated for a place of respite with plenty to see and eat and do, in-between some of the larger cities and events that happen each year in that region.

Where beautiful, carefully restored historic buildings from the past meet a present filled with contemporary amenities, complemented by plenty of fun experiences to be had and modern-day conveniences — that’s what visitors will find as they immerse themselves in the city of Sheboygan Falls. The ...

20/06/2024

We just put the July-August issue of the County Register of Wisconsin "to bed," as they say, yesterday — but don't forget to look for the May-June issue while it's still available at a retailer near you.

The stories always make me feel good as I work through the editing process. It's nostalgia, recipes, positive stories about hope and community, stories covering quilting and craft topics for those who are interested, and it's still in print. 📰

You can also find it online, but I love holding it and reading it in my hands. (I also still check out books from the library. There is a literal thrill to choosing items on interlibrary loan and getting the call that they're in. 😆)

Out there now, across the state in nearly 100 locations!

03/06/2024

Hot off the [online] presses ... another weekly issue of All The Dirt! Racing News. Actual print version heading to the real-life presses as we speak.

Racing season is in full swing, and I know that not just because there was dried clay tracked into my kitchen this morning from the weekend. We hit 48 pages and will stick there for the remainder of the summer of our bi-weekly issues.

If you are a racing fan, you may find it of interest! 🏁

07/05/2024

A new ATD is out today! Mother Nature was not kind to its editor, and forced her hand into a 24 from a 32-page layout, but we'll be back to normal with the print issue on May 21 (next week is an online only issue, but all the news from both this coming weekend and next weekend will be in the print edition on the 21st).

Such is life living and playing in the Midwest in April and May.

Visit http://allthedirt.com/ to subscribe for the print edition!

04/05/2024

The other project on my plate goes weekly this week - the final monthly print edition went to print last Monday, and now I'm working as we speak on setting this week's print issue into motion.

Click here to read last week's issue, if racing is your thing! (Our paper covers the WISSOTA sanctioning body only, which exists across several states in the Midwest, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, and a handful in Canada.)

Rinse and repeat until October! 🏁

https://www.atdracingnews.com/

01/05/2024

I'm just a writer, minding her business today, trying to fact check what an Alaskan waffle is, so I can better describe the dish.

Pro tip: block Urban Dictionary from your Google searches.

(And the worst part is, I still don't know for sure what it is, in culinary terms. 🙃😳)

30/04/2024

Here is is, the final day of April, and I realized I didn't share the March-April issue of The Country Register of Wisconsin. It's the annual quilting issue, but there are stories and advertisers contained within outside the realm of quilting as well.

27/04/2024

A Friday giggle, courtesy of the award-winning MW Dictionary team. 😂

Seans/Shauns/Shawns you’re up next.

19/04/2024

Happy Tortured Poets Day to all who celebrate! 😂🥳

As the personal assistsant to a 13-year-old Swiftie, I love when an outsider brand piggybacks in a harmless, fun, or creative way on the madness. (My undying devotion to her songs she's done with The National and Bon Iver notwithstanding, I understand as well the next few weeks of TS saturation will be too much for some people.😂)

All that to say - I thought this was a cute take on today's album drop. And this tortured writer and editor with a head-spinning number of deadlines dancing her dangerously to the brink of sanity will be listening all weekend. 😆

https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/taylor-swift-words?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1V1H-nhBU1E2pL-MEzcrZ0bioSP1qbYVjkM__Y2wNX4NppModirNO1qsc_aem_ASXdNKliYKUwkj3pCqg21eRq1ygJPYHfTw7F7ba2jD8UQ8Y0dCqJZBY1lb81quIZlz43J7P4BCVXUP5BcPXosPO8

Look what you made us do

26/03/2024

View from the office: Nobody worked harder than this cute acorn scoundrel yesterday. Dove into the inches of wet snow, came out with a snack every single time. 😆

The way he is able to perch on the branch underneath him is nothing short of a miracle, for the record. He's clearly better at pilates than I am.

13/03/2024

Some days you light a candle, make your favorite coffee, write for a comfortable number of hours at a healthy pace, eat a normal, balanced lunch and retire for the evening watching Law and Order at a reasonable time.

And other times, you squeeze in an extra 90 min. of work in your car scrunched to one side, typing furiously with one cramped hand, listening to Neil Young but *not* drinking wine, sighing uncontrollably, and waiting for all the sports to get done. 😂 And make a mental note to call the chiro.

(Googles car desks on Amazon …)

06/03/2024

A recent shareable story:

https://foxcitiesmagazine.com/departments/cooked-to-perfection/

This is one of those stories that had so many great side stories that came along with each source.

Sometimes, it is almost a punch to the gut when I can't include it all. This was one of those times. I urge you, when visiting any restaurant or bar or tavern in your neck of the woods, ask the owners for their stories if you're given the opportunity.

It's such a tremendous industry filled with so many stories of perseverance, tradition and passion and commitment for what they do.

Flavorful Steaks in the Fox Cities On a Friday or Saturday night in Northeastern Wisconsin, a quintessential meal out on the town likely includes a great steak, sizzling and cooked to perfection when it arrives at the table. Add in good conversation, wine, cocktails or mocktails, and a heaping cup o...

14/02/2024

My lame attempt at sharing a grammar-based Valentine's Day funny. 💕 (It's all I have brain power for today.)

Happy Valentine's Day!

03/02/2024

This is absolutely accurate. It was a week of everything due at one time, between All The Dirt!, writing and editing for the February ATD issue, and multiple freelancing assignments ... and consequently, my fridge, freezer and pantry are all now reorganized and cleaned as well.

Ella is really glad this week is over. 😂

Today is a butt-in-chair writing day for me, which means I have an almost overwhelming desire to dust all the baseboards.

21/01/2024

The newest issue of The Country Register of Wisconsin is out, and is chock-full of feel-good winter and Valentine-focused stories. Find it at your favorite craft or quilt store, or visit the online link below!

17/01/2024

Recently published ➡️ I have a story in January's Insight on Business magazine about Dogs2DogTags. It was a great feel-good story about an organization that places rescue and at-risk dogs with veterans affected by mental health concerns.

View the Insight On Business for Tuesday, January 2, 2024

31/12/2023

I gave in to the anti-resolution, "just pick a word" phenomenon to begin 2023, and my word for the last year was "light" ...

I was reminded of this, and realized I did a pretty good job of finding it this year, while putting together the grandparents' photo books of Ella.

I will continue to greatly appreciate the light in 2024. And spare you all the corny, light-in-the-dark dramatic interpretations and quotes. 🤣

Happy New Year! ✨

29/12/2023

Of the many stories and features I read a year, in various publications, this one I found in 2023 still gets me. ✨

(Find a Kleenex first, or a box as was my case.)

The photographer Deanna Dikeman’s parents always stood outside to send her off after a visit, waving or standing in the driveway while she got in her car and drove away. One day in 1991, she thought to photograph them in this pose, and for more than 20 years, she continued the practice—photographing her parents at the same moment, rolling down her car window and aiming her lens toward their home. See all of her images here: http://nyer.cm/wkcyR8p

28/12/2023

Legitimately muttered this in the TSA line myself earlier this month while attempting to leave Hell, a.k.a MCO, and was then promptly delivered a dose of karma with a full cavity search. 👌🥴

(I utter this phrase frequently. It's a favorite movie.😂)

12/12/2023

Congratulations to Fox Cities Magazine on 40 years. I've enjoyed contributing to the magazine since 2017 (or at least, that's as far back as my emails go), and have loved the two editors I have worked with over the past seven years. It's such a pretty mag as well, and depicts that region of Wisconsin beautifully.

I'll have two stories in the new year in the mag, as part of the Worth the Drive special issue again for summer 2024.

(Remember to tell the advertisers among the pages you saw them in the magazine!)

December is here and we are beyond grateful that it marks the end of the 40th year of Fox Cities Magazine! ☺️ Dive in to read Marvin and Ruth Ann’s story (plus see every past cover!), learn what the new Mulva Cultural Center brings to the area, discover how seniors are living their best lives and find out where to get hearty, homemade soup in the Fox Valley: https://online.fliphtml5.com/vujz/swmg/ =1

04/12/2023

I can't say I was the largest Charles Dickens fan (apologies to my favorite British lit teacher if she reads this) ... but this made me giggle over the weekend.

(I'd much rather watch the Muppets version of A Christmas Carol. In fact, it shall be our reward tonight after a 3,000 word day.)

Hopefully I've taken my Dramamine prior to flight. 😅😆

17/11/2023

If you are a word nerd, Merriam-Webster is quite a fun follow for their cheeky posts. 🤓

(And also, a moment for Whitney as her most amazing self.)

07/11/2023

The new Wisconsin Country Register is out and available in your area. Check the back page out for one of our valued advertisers in your neck of the woods to pick one up, or read it here:

http://hughes-publications.com/CR_ND23.pdf

I've have one story in this issue: "The Funeral Potato Problem" ... a change of tone from my usual banter, but since social media has become nearly impossible to navigate without reading someone have false outrage about the most trivial of issues, I felt it made a good 2024 resolutions story angle.

Let's be better humans online in 2024, m-kay? ✨

01/11/2023

As recently published in Insight on Business, my story about the current "Caregiving Conundrum."

By random chance, I had the opportunity to reconnect with one of Green Bay's treasures in Eileen Littig for this piece as well, about two decades after first getting to work with her through my PR positions with Green Bay-area nonprofits. She's inspiring in many ways.

Aging population, workforce shortage creates perfect storm for eldercare community

18/10/2023

As recently published in Insight on Business, I had the opportunity to interview two Green Bay-area professionals in HR and in counseling about addressing the needs of employees, especially as mental health concerns continue to grow.

In Mind Share Partners’ 2021 Mental Health at Work Report, 76% of U.S. workers reported at least one symptom of a mental health condition, and 84% of respondents said their

17/10/2023

Check out this month's FOX CITIES Magazine for my piece about solar power! You might think it's not feasible in our neck of the woods, but you'd be surprised to hear what experts have to say. ☀️

https://foxcitiesmagazine.com/departments/solar-powered-potential/?fbclid=IwAR1_j6v4h80rFbBgJr5rF-KPukwSdk7jN1lRcQRDKxB4WPhe9FcEapkgsU8

Harness the Sun’s Energy to Produce your Own Electricity If you’re a homeowner in Northeast Wisconsin interested in the benefits of solar energy, it may not seem like the most ideal of environments for success and cost-savings—at first glance. We encounter long winters with shorter days in com...

05/10/2023

From the home office today ... I'm on a tight turnaround for several projects, and for one of them I'm interviewing sources like a mad woman.

Since the pandemic and my shift to more work from home, I struggle often with verbalizing my preferred word choice, especially when I work from home for many days in a row and don't speak to other humans. My brain is going 100 mph, but I struggle to get the phrases from there to my speech.

I can see the words, I actually visualize them sometimes (is this weird? Don't answer that) ... but they don't leave in the way they're supposed to.

Today I asked a source to explain their thoughts on a program that acts as a diving board to higher accreditation. As I was saying it, I saw a person jumping up off a board to the "higher accreditation" and knew that wasn't right.

A diving board. 🙇‍♀️🤦‍♀️

Crawling back into my nonverbal hole for the next four hours before the next interview.

(Source, if you're reading this, I'm really not an idiot. I'm just middle aged, juggling-life mom with too many balls in the air and a neighbor cat who's not much for in-person conversation.)