Danielle Prescod, author of THE RULES OF FORTUNE

01/28/25 • 55 min

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Danielle Prescod is a 15-year veteran of the beauty and fashion industry. She is also the author of the memoir Token Black Girl, which was one of the buzziest books of 2022, and cited as a must read by People, USA Today, Town and Country, Ebony, The LA Times, and landed her on NBC’s Today Show and elsewhere.

Her debut novel is The Rules of Fortune. It’s published by Mindy Kaling’s Book Studio, an imprint at Amazon, and hits shelves February 1, 2025. She joins Marrie Stone to talk about it, as well as Mindy’s Book Studio and working with an Amazon imprint, how she found her agent, how she taught herself to write fiction and what she’ll do different next time, the difference between writing her memoir and writing a novel, and so much more. You can follow her here on Instagram.

For more information on Writers on Writing and to become a supporter, visit our Patreon page. For a one-time donation, visit Ko-fi. You can find hundreds upon hundreds of past interviews on our website. If you'd like to support the show and indie bookstores, consider buying books at our bookstore on bookshop.org. We’ve stocked it with titles from our guests, as well as some of our personal favorites. And on Spotify, you’ll find to an album’s worth of typewriter music like what you hear on the show. Look for the artist, Just My Type. Email the show at [email protected]. We love to hear from our listeners!

(Recorded on January 23, 2025)

Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett
Host: Marrie Stone
Music: Travis Barrett (Stream his music on Spotify, Apple Music, Etc.)

(Recorded on January 23, 2025)

Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett
Host: Marrie Stone
Music: Travis Barrett (Stream his music on Spotify, Apple Music, Etc.)

Previous Episode

Kim Dower, author of WHAT SHE WANTS (poetry)

Kim (Freilich) Dower (City Poet Laureate of West Hollywood from October 2016 – October 2018) has published six highly acclaimed collections of poetry all from Red Hen Press. Her newest What She Wants is called, “witty, sultry and thoughtful,” by the Washington Post. The bestselling, I Wore This Dress Today for You, Mom, an Eric Hoffer Book Award Finalist, was called a “fantastic collection” by The Washington Post, “impressively insightful, thought-provoking, and truly memorable” by The Midwest Book Review and Shelf-Awareness said, “These gorgeous gems are energized by the sheer power of her wit and irreverent style.” Air Kissing on Mars, Kim’s first collection, was described by the Los Angeles Times as, “sensual and evocative . . . seamlessly combining humor and heartache.” Slice of Moon was called “unexpected and sublime,” by “O” magazine, Last Train to the Missing Planet, “poems that speak about the grey space between tragedy and tenderness, memory and loss, fragility and perseverance,” said Richard Blanco, and Sunbathing on Tyrone Power’s Grave, won the 2020 Independent Publishers Book Award Gold Medal for Poetry. Kim’s work has been featured in numerous literary journals including Plume, Ploughshares, Rattle, The James Dickey Review, and Garrison Keillor's "The Writer's Almanac," and her poems are included in several anthologies, notably, Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond. She teaches poetry workshops for Antioch University, UCLA Extension Writer’s Program, and the West Hollywood Library. Born and raised on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and a graduate of Emerson College in Boston, Kim lives with her family in West Hollywood, CA. To learn more about Kim visit her website: www.kimdowerpoetry.com

Kim joins Barbara DeMarco-Barrett to talk about the attributes of a poet, whether studying the classic poets and traditional forms is necessary if you want to write poetry, what is poetry?, and limerence. Kim reads three poems from the collection and talks about the process of writing them.

(Recorded on January 17, 2025)

Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett
Host: Marrie Stone
Music: Travis Barrett (Stream his music on Spotify, Apple Music, Etc.)

Next Episode

Literary Agent Renee Fountain

Renee Fountain is president of Gandolfo Helin & Fountain Lit Mgmt. She’s been in the publishing industry for more than 30 years. She’s worked at Harcourt and Simon & Schuster with some of the best writers and illustrators in publishing, has managed iconic classics like Raggedy Ann and Nancy Drew, and brokered film and television options. Renee also spent five years with the CW Television Network as a book scout and story analyst for scripted television. Renèe represents fiction and non-fiction, from YA to adult but doesn’t represent picture books, middle grade, or previously published work. She attends writers’ conferences where she provides manuscript critiques, fields author pitches, and teaches masterclasses. She offers free resources for writers at Reneefountain.com/podcastjumpstart and on her Substack page. In addition to agenting, Renèe helps writers hone their craft and books with developmental editing and coaching through her company Gryphon Quill and as a faculty member of The Manuscript Academy.

Renee joins Barbara DeMarco-Barrett to talk about what she wishes a writer would send her, how she finds her clients, how the words on the page are more important than MFAs and a writer’s age, query letters, what to do about your bio if you have no writing credits, comps, the state of the publishing biz, social media, and so much more.

(Recorded on January 31, 2025)

Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett
Host: Marrie Stone
Music: Travis Barrett (Stream his music on Spotify, Apple Music, Etc.)