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 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 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 bipolar struggles. 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. Those stories have appeared in national media, and she was featured among adversity stories in Hachette's Be Fierce, a #MeToo groundbreaker from Gretchen Carlson.
Two decades after Cracknell’s case appeared in the media column of The New York Times as a “garbage” claim, Carlson's case of workplace harassment headlined every newspaper across the nation. 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.
During Carlson’s time at the conservative news network, Cracknell walked those same halls as Director of Media Relations for a news program hosted by the legendary Geraldo Rivera. She previously handled the publicity relaunch of the pioneering newsmagazine A Current Affair. This was at a time when scandals were brewing at the Fox News Network, and Cracknell was working with several of the characters depicted in subsequent films and TV series about the toxic workplace.
Carlson would later be portrayed by Nicole Kidman in the feature film Bombshell with Charlize Theron and by Naomi Watts in Showtime’s The Loudest Voice in the Room. But this was not Cracknell’s scandal. She had experienced her fair share earlier in her career, which is exposed in Carlson's Be Fierce and a Ms. Magazine article. Back then, the issue resided in dark shadows and targeted victims were shamed into silence.
So, when Cracknell spoke up, she was alone in her plight. There were no high profile women exposing media tycoons. Nonetheless, Cracknell spoke up with the assumption that if one speaks up, the next will stand up and another will find their voice. With numbers, change happens. And then, Cracknell turns up the volume on life experience having learned from the loudest voices in daytime talk from Rolonda to Leeza, Maury and Oprah!