Today we’d like to introduce you to Caralyn Buehner.
Hi Caralyn, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
Mark was the child who struggled with reading but pored over the pictures in books. As a child, his enormous talent was evident, as his teachers would often ask his mother, “Do you know that your son is a good artist?”
This led him to take art classes and private lessons, and he would end up majoring in and receiving a degree in illustration. In contrast, I (Caralyn) was the child who was captivated by books, checking out stacks at a time and escaping into other lives as often as I could. When we pick up a new book it’s still the same – I will be drawn to the words and be pulled towards the story, while Mark will see details in the illustrations that I will completely miss.
We met in college, and after Mark had graduated and we had saved up some money, we packed up our old car, rented a little trailer, strapped in our baby, and headed to New York City, where Mark hoped to find work as an illustrator. We ended up settling in Brooklyn, and Mark spent almost a year taking his portfolio around before he got his first job. That bumpy start led him to find an agent, who thought Mark’s style would fit picture book illustration. He and his wife had written a story, and they submitted it along with four illustrations that they had engaged Mark to do.
The book found a home at Dial Books, which was an imprint in the Viking Penguin publishing house (now Random House), and over 30 years later we are still mainly working with them. Mark had completed two books before we submitted our first joint project and did a few books with other authors, but the bulk of our work is books we have worked on together.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Mark’s style is very rich – full of color and details. He paints in oil, and it’s labor-intensive, taking usually well over a year to complete one book. That’s a lot of time, during which there might be income from an advance payment, or some intermittent royalty checks from various past projects, but no consistent monthly paycheck to plan on. But there are still consistent bills, so financially, it’s always been complicated. Mark has been the primary one who has navigated a lot of unknowns while steadily providing for our family.
Over the years, we’ve seen a lot of changes in the publishing industry, and it makes me chuckle when I think of how our first manuscripts were typed up on an old portable typewriter, covered with Wite-Out splotches, and sent off in a big envelope. Being able to send things via fax was a big technological step forward. We didn’t anticipate using a personal computer, communicating by email or Zoom, or digital photography, and certainly never anticipated how social media would arise and move to the forefront of marketing. That’s something we are still trying to navigate.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Together, we create children’s picture books. I write the manuscript, and Mark is the illustrator. While I claim some language fluency and occasionally can be pleased with a turn of phrase and how a line turns out in a stanza, Mark is the great talent in our partnership. His gift is enormous, and I am constantly, even after all these years, being wowed when I go down to his studio and see what he’s working on.
It’s a common thing for me to be reading one of our books to a grandchild and notice a detail in the illustration that I never noticed before. Because his initial training was with a fine artist, he paints like a fine artist, only whimsical subjects. There is so much to look at in each picture, and if that weren’t enough, he is known for the hidden pictures that he tucks into every illustration so that you can go back again and again and never get tired of looking.
When asked, he will say that he wants to provide the kind of quality that he would want to see himself, so that adults will be just as entertained by the books as children. That he succeeds at this is evident by the emails I receive from parents whose toddlers have insisted on reading one of the books over and over until the parent has long since memorized the text, but still manages to enjoy the repetition because of the art.
We’ve also had people tell us that looking at Mark’s pictures makes them feel good. There is a lightness, a joyfulness that comes out in the artwork, an expression, I believe, of Mark’s personality. He is an intensely good person, but is also fun, with a robust sense of humor, and that inevitably comes out in the art.
In 2002, we had a book come out, SNOWMEN AT NIGHT, which was a game-changer for us in terms of sales. Because of the success of that book, we did other SNOWMEN books (the 7th is in production at this time) and became known primarily for those books. So, we’re the “SNOWMEN” people.
Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
Our biggest moments of joy are those times when we have all of our children, and their children, around us. We love being in the mountains, having had a few fun road trips, and love where we live, but nothing compares with the sweetness of just having family around us, especially when our kids are together.
They are bright, articulate, and can be very, very funny, and the little ones are absolutely a delight. Those moments when we are together, and the kids are making each other laugh, are when we feel rich.
Contact Info:
- Website: buehnerbooks.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buehnerbooks/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/buehnerbooks
