About Us
As the Founder and Publisher of Lucky Penny Publications, I have always had a passion for books. I have also been a writer my entire life. I distinctly remember my second grade teacher at Cherry Brook Elementary School who taught us how to write haiku poetry and make crossword puzzles. Whenever I had a class project over the years, somehow I often managed to create a book, even for my French classes in 8th and 9th grades.
After college, I thought I would teach Greek and Latin, but I decided to follow two friends to New York City where I interviewed in every industry possible and soon found myself as a grant writer for the first Amrican Youth Hostel in NYC. A year later, I was working on a $20 million capital campaign for the American Academy in Rome where my grandfather, Charles A. Currier, had been a fellow in landscape architecture in 1948.
A few years after college, I moved to Santa Barbara, CA, where I spent 20 years as a grant writer for non-profit organizations while also freelance writing. When my sons were eight and six years old, I wrote my first children's book about the origins of the first hot air balloon flight over the gardens of Versailles in 1783.
My life as a publisher began on the night of the Santa Barbara Tea Fire in November, 2008. My two boys, three pets, and I lost nearly everything after having an hour to evacuate. After the fire, a friend asked if I could do anything to start my life over, what would I do? Without hesitation, I wanted to self-publish a children's book I was working on. I set my intentions, and within a year that book was finished at the end of 2009.
In March 2010, the iPad was released, and I had the idea to start an eBook publishing company to help other authors. Over the years, I have hit road blocks, but as an ultra and marathon runner, I have learned to keep moving forward.
It was November 2015 during my second ultramarathon on Antelope Island, just north of Salt Lake City, that I came up with the idea to write children's books about the national parks. Six months later, we published our first one, Buzzy and the Red Rocks Canyons. We will soon be publishing the tenth book in our series, Wildlife Adventures for Young Readers.
What is your dream? What have you been waiting for you? Don't wait as we know life is short. Act now! The universe has your back! Read books, get out in nature, and stay healthy!
Melissa Marsted
Park City, Utah
November, 2023
To order any of our books, please email me at melissa@luckypennypress.com