About the Writer and Illustrator

Marcia Stankard, writer and creator
of the Spriitelees™

Marcia is the mother of three sprightly children –a daughter and two sons. After a successful career in marketing, she turned her full focus to her family. It was they who inspired her to create and write about The Spriitelees™. Marcia lives in a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts with her husband, and family. When she is not writing, she is looking for ways of “bringing out the Bob” in all of us and inspiring people, especially children, to endless acts of kindness.

More about Marcia’s Inspiration for this work ...

Melinda Shoals, Original Illustrator

Melinda is the mother of two young children and lives in New Hampshire with her husband and family. She is Marcia’s life-long friend and helped Marcia bring the Spriitelees™ to life for children to learn from and enjoy! Now joyfully busy as a mom, she has turned the illustrating work and deadlines over to a very capable and kindhearted third party ...

Jennifer Giese Worthington, Illustrator

Jennifer, a highly talented and enthusiastic gal, offered to help Marcia with the revised version of the Christmas tale by completing ten new illustrations adopting Melinda’s style. Recently married, Jennifer lives in sunny Florida and is hard at work bringing other Spriitelees adventures to life!

A Note About the Process

Marcia wrote the original manuscript and conceived of the idea to inspire children to kindness with a “Sparktificate Certificate”. She committed to self- publishing in hopes that she might raise money for critical children’s causes with her book efforts and sales. Marcia turned to her life-long friend, Melinda to help bring The Spriitelees™ to life on paper. Together, these incredible friends created Marcia’s original book version, The Spriitelees: A Christmas Tale About Kindness. After selling the first print run in a record 14 weeks, Marcia sought to improve and re-title the book, developing the revised version, The Gift that Saved Christmas. Melinda at this point in time was overjoyed to have a second beautiful child in her household, but was understandably not able to create the needed illustrations under a tight deadline! Marcia is extremely grateful to Jennifer Giese Worthington who stepped in to create final illustrations adopting Melinda’s art style, in record time! All three women are very proud of their shared accomplishments!