The Unfurling of Kelly Diels

Kelly Diels. Flibbertigibbet. Contrarian. Nectarine.

So says the first line of her about page.

That however, is the tip of the iceberg of this most gorgeous, heart-full writer. Be forewarned because I’m crushing on Kelly.

I love that she breaks the rules.

I love that she writes lines such as “You are not origami. Unfurl.”

Her posts Not Ready But Willing and The Question I Ask Myself made my heart hurt just a bit.

She makes me think. And feel.

And ache.

And when she challenges the status quo, she comes from such a place of clear observation I question my own beliefs and expand.

She knows truth and makes me want to know more of my own.

As if I needed any more reasons, she writes about sex, money and meaning all on one site, Cleavage.

Kelly Diels is that magnetic combination of smart and sexy, and she’s here in the spotlight today.

To write and love and light the way for other women, especially my daughters.

2.  What is your future self calling for?

A book. “Thirty-sex: A Year(ish) In Men”. It’s a thick, delicious, fat-with-wisdom and packed-with-scandal woman’s story. My story.

3.  How do you honour that calling?

Cleavage is my methodology. I’m building this blog as a writing practice – to write and share my way to wisdom – and as an author platform for this thus-far imaginary memoir.

And of course a lot of painstaking and often heart-breaking first-hand research (more commonly and quaintly known as “dating”) was required for this book. Such are the sacrifices of an artist committed to her work.

(Darlings, I made – and maybe even learned from – mistakes so you don’t have to.)

4.  What is both effortless and life-giving to you?

Sex. When I first started having sex, I wondered how adults – who could be doing this all the time and why weren’t they??? – got anything else done.  I still wonder.

5.  What do you do better than anyone else?

See answer #4.

Also…

Personally: No one can love and mother my children better than me.

Professionally: Oy. This is a hard question to answer and I instantly started hearing lines from a very old Nirvana song: I’m worst at what I do best/and for this gift I feel blessed.

I am a writer so writing is what I do best. But do I do it better than anyone and everyone else?

No. And honestly, I don’t need to be better than anyone else. I only need to be the best I can be.

There are so many writers I admire, even worship, and many of them are stratospherically accomplished at their craft. It will take me light-years to get where they are…or to get where I want to be.

And I’m relishing the journey, which is fortunate because it is a life-long mission.

6.  What is extraordinary about your work?

Writing is a way of thinking, and I think – no, I know – that I don’t simply write received wisdom. I wrestle it. The pieces I publish are not necessarily reports from the result of the match…sometimes an essay is the bloody battle itself.

7.  What is guaranteed to inspire you?

Sex. I write well when I am well-fucked.

8.  What will your epitaph say if you’ve lived life on your terms?

Mother, Writer, Lover, Seeker, Sage. She lived and wrote and loved in the light.

(Or a third-person, past-tense version of the answer to #7 plus “and as she is survived by three children and a large volume of work it is clear that she did both, often”.)

p.s. I currently have two children. Foreshadowing, darlings.

Kelly Diels is a wildly hireable writer,digital strategist (it’s not as dirty as it sounds) and founder of Cleavage, a blog about the three things we all want more of: sex, money, and meaning.