THE LETTER DIARIES
Based on a lifetime of real-life letters written by a daughter, a mother and a grandmother
Meet the Author
"If only I knew then what I know now," says first-time author Daniella Cracknell.
THE LETTER DIARIES is written by and based on the real-life rambles of Daniella Cracknell, whose expertise stems from a seasoned career in the media industry as a publicity executive known in New York and Los Angeles for breaking national stories and today for turning small ideas into big possibilities.
Cracknell ran publicity departments that shaped the reputations of national television programs. She managed public perception and high-profile personas of celebrity talent from the iconic Dick Clark to the comedic Howie Mandel and the legendary Geraldo Rivera.
She is known nationally for stirring media frenzies and managing controversy. She has been quoted in major media as a spokesperson and landed in the New York Post's famed 'Page Six' for representing one of the most controversial talk shows in daytime TV history.
Her career started in the big 'Mad Men' advertising agency world of Manhattan, where she held account executive positions handling consumer good accounts and won numerous industry awards. For the past decade, Cracknell has run a boutique marketing consultancy with the mantra What Is Your Reputation Worth?
Cracknell credits the making of THE LETTER DIARIES to a conversation she once had with former NBC Today co-host Jane Pauley, current host of CBS Sunday Morning and a celebrity vocal about the stigma of mental illness. At the time, Cracknell was the VP, Head of Publicity for Pauley's short-lived daytime talk show, which had the two traveling together on a media tour of American cities.
On those travels, Pauley was writing her memoir Skywriting: A Life Out of the Blue for Penguin Random House, a book that would reveal Pauley's mental illness. While the two were up in the sky on the NBC corporate jet, Pauley confided in Cracknell that the process of writing her autobiography was so immensely therapeutic she recommended everyone write one. So, Cracknell wrote one.
Of the experience, Cracknell says, “Pauley was correct. The writing process does take you on a therapeutic journey. I felt like Dorothy in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz at the end of The Yellow Brick Road when Dorothy clicked her ruby red slippers and Glinda, the good witch, tells her, “You’ve always had the power.”
THE LETTER DIARIES takes Cracknell on a similar road as told through letters she penned to her grandmother about shakeups, setbacks, and start-overs. Her stories have also appeared in national media and featured among adversity stories in Hachette's Be Fierce, a #MeToo groundbreaker from Gretchen Carlson.
Carlson is the Fox News anchor globally named among Time Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People in the World” as an advocate for women’s rights. Carlson's sexual harassment case headlined every newspaper two decades after Cracknell’s case appeared in the media column of The New York Times as a “garbage” claim.
During Carlson’s time at the conservative news network, Cracknell also walked those same halls as Director of Media Relations for a news program hosted by the legendary Geraldo Rivera. This was at a time when scandals were brewing at Fox News, and Cracknell was working with several of the characters depicted in subsequent films and TV series about the toxic workplace.
Carlson was portrayed by Nicole Kidman in the feature film Bombshell and by Naomi Watts in Showtime’s The Loudest Voice in the Room. But this was not Cracknell’s scandal, as she writes in the last chapter of her memoir of mishaps. Cracknell had already had her fair share.
When she experienced sexual harassment in the early 90s at the end of the Mad Men era of the advertising industry, no one knew the term nor understood exactly what gender discrimination meant least of all Cracknell fresh out of college and early into her intended career.
Back then, the issue resided in dark shadows where targeted victims were shamed and gaslighted into silence and submission. So, when Cracknell spoke up, she was alone in her plight. There were no news anchors or famous actresses bringing down media tycoons within weeks of reporting incidences.
Nonetheless, Cracknell spoke up with the idea that if one speaks up, the next will stand up and another will find her voice. With numbers, change happens. Hear more from the author as she chit-chats with THRIVE GLOBAL, AUTHORITY MAGAZINE, and on podcasts Arrows & Lattes, Unbreak My Heart, and What Women Want!
Stay tuned as more of THE LETTER DIARIES unfold into published form! In the meantime, we would love it if you would be amongst our early reviewers. Email is most needed, so input HERE or click on the book cover. We can then alert you to our big reveal on a release date along with news about the book's wardrobe companion in comfort wear created by Cracknell to uplift our girls!