Melissa C. Marsted

Melissa C. Marsted is a Harvard graduate with an advanced degree in Organizational Management, a long distance and ultra runner, creative writer, traveler, proud mother of two adult sons, and the publisher and driving force behind Lucky Penny Publications and its newest imprint, Wildlife Adventures for Young Readers. The idea for Lucky Penny Press came to Melissa after the Santa Barbara Tea Fire (November 2008). She was working on self-publishing her first children's book, Pablito and the Speckled Bear, at the time, and a friend offered to help her with the process. Her family’s home of sixteen years was completely destroyed by the fire, but she managed to save a CD containing six illustrations for Pablito. Saving that CD was something of a miracle, since the talented artist who created the wonderful illustrations for the book, Ben Ciccati, also lost everything in the Tea Fire, including all the original paintings for Pablito. In March, 2010 the iPad was released and Melissa worked with an App Developer to create the original Lucky Penny Press App which she converted to the Lucky Penny Publications website which launched on November 1, 2011. She has been realizing her vision of combining all of her passions—writing, children’s books, education, art, creative writing, poetry and nature. In 2015 with the help of Amazon's Create Space, now Kindle Direct Publishing, Lucky Penny Publications has more than 15 books in print with seven books specifically written and published about the national parks for children. Melissa lives in Park City, Utah with her Vizsla, Clover and her inherited cat, Twinkles.

www.luckypennypublications.com