1. Where is Meddybemps?
2. Do jellybeans really grow on vines like grapes?
3. Do tooth fairies really mess up your hair at night?
4. Where did the names Tippity Witchet and Frogwart come from?
5. Where do you get the ideas?
6. Are your stories available in books?
7. Do you ever visit schools or libraries?
8. How do you make money?
9. Why did you build this site?
10. How much would a site like this cost?

1. Where is Meddybemps?

The Island of Meddybemps lies only in the imagination. The inspiration for its name came from a small town in Maine named Meddybemps. I found it one day while I was looking for interesting names on state maps. Meddybemps had a memorable sound to it and I knew that I would find a use for it one day. Though its origin is reported to be Native American, it sounds mysterious and a little humorous at the same time. Perhaps it should mean, "muddy bumps," in make-believe French.

They do on Meddybemps. To learn more about them, read The Legend of Chateau Meddybemps and visit the Bean Cellar.

You can even buy gourmet jelly beans in our Gift Shop.

It must be tooth fairies. You don't mess it up before you go to sleep. It's pretty unlikely that other family members sneak into your room every night to do it. So, that leaves....?

Read Frogwart and the Tooth Fairies for the shocking story.

18th-century American botanist, John Bartram used the name, "Tipitiwitchet," to describe the Venus's-flytrap specimens he collected in Carolina swamps. I couldn't think of a better name for a character who appreciates the beauty, magic, and whimsy in nature. A search on the Internet for Tippity Witchet will also find a famous race horse with that name.

If you study the illustrations of Frogwart, you'll see a frog-shaped mark on her skin. Watch closely, because the mark seldom appears in the same place. She was named before any of the books were published about the boy wizard who attends a school with a similar sounding name.

A. Some ideas pop right out of the air, ready to go. Some take years to work out. I began to think of Meddybemps around 1973. It wasn't called Meddybemps then, but it was the same place. I still have sketches from that time. I wanted a location for characters to live, a place where things would happen that could be told about in stories. Over time, people and their stories came to life in my imagination. In 1991, I drew scenes and maps of Meddybemps and began to write. The first stories were rough, but they led to more ideas and more writing. Now there are so many stories to tell, I can't find the time to write them all.

The thought of jelly beans growing on vines led to having some fun with imagined similarities to grapes and wine. That led to "bean tasting" and "estate-bottled" jelly beans. Somehow, that lead to the idea of people turning into jelly beans if they ate too many. See the Bean Spotter's Guide. It's easier to imagine things if you don't completely grow up.

The idea for But That Wasn't The Best Part came from the Banana Festival Parade we attended several years ago in the small town of Fulton, Kentucky. The parade seemed to go on forever and was great fun, but there it was the big surprise at the end that made the parade unforgettable and perfect for storytelling.

Pay attention to the world around you. It's full of wonderful stories waiting to be told.

Except for a story and a poem being printed by two educational publishers in Europe, no, not yet. Before I built this site, I submitted stories to several picture book publishers over a two-year period. The process was so slow that I grew very impatient. Publishers prefer that you submit to only one publishing house at a time. Their readers have to go through thousands of submissions each year. It often takes months for a manuscript to be read and returned with a polite rejection slip.

When I realized that I could self-publish on the Internet and bypass readers, editors, art directors and publishers to see for myself if anyone would actually like my stories, I jumped at the chance. I don't make any money by making them available for free this way, but I know my work is being enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of children around the world and my writing and illustrations keep getting better.

I'll submit my work to publishers again eventually. Then perhaps you will find my stories in print.

Other than to our grandchildren's school, we haven't yet. Would you like for us to visit your school or library? Susan and I haven't put a travelling program together yet but we would like to know what your children would like to know about Meddybemps.com.

We did present a standing-room-only workshop on "Creative and Playful Paths to Literacy" with Mary Jo Huff at the National Association for the Education of Young Children's annual conference in 2004. And we presented a workshop on our site at the International Reading Association national conference in Chicago in 2006.

We didn't until very recently. All along we've been interested in creating something of value for teachers and families with young children instead of worrying about the return on investment of each hour and dollar we've invested. Today we earn a little each month from the Google ads that appear on some of our pages and a little from Zazzle.com and CafePress.com whenever someone orders one of our mugs, shirts or clocks. We also make a little on the 101 Story Starters CD-ROM. With your help, the income from these items is finally making Meddybemps.com self-sufficient.

Because there was a need and because we could. See Our Mission.

See also this Personal Note and an email message a parent sent to us.

It would be hard to estimate. We pay a modest monthly fee for a firm to host the site for us. We've spent a little money over the years on computers and software and we've paid Suzanne Muse for Flash programming and animation. We didn't have to pay for design, copywriting, illustration and the construction of the thousand individual pages that make up this site since, except for Susan's Parents and Teachers Guides and Suzanne Muse's contributions, I did all of it myself. I didn't count the hours. Comparable professional work might easily add up to several hundred thousand dollars. I know, because I designed and managed sites for a major consumer products manufacturer for many years.

The thing to remember is not how much a site might cost, but how much you can accomplish without spending much at all. If you have a computer, internet access, some simple html editing software, and a scanner or digital camera or some drawing software, you could build an engaging site. If you concentrate on developing useful content and apply some imagination and style, people will like it and will tell others about it. That's all I've done.

- Jerry