Excelsior resident Valerie Grahn never expected that she’d write a children’s book. “If someone had told me a year ago that I was going to become a…picture book author and set up a publishing company, I would have laughed at them,” she says. Grahn has an engineering and business background, and spent most of her career in the medical device industry. But once the seed of the idea for her book—called Little Mouse Lost—was planted, there was no turning back.
Grahn co-founded her publishing company, SkåneBones Publishing, with her husband Johan, and worked on the project with the input and feedback from their three kids, Lukas, 9, Maeven, 7, and Dennen, 4. The biz is named in honor of the family’s dog, Skåne. “My family was beside me every step of the way as I muddled through the world of self-publishing,” she says.
In addition to sharing the story of Little Mouse Lost itself, Grahn is happy to be setting an example for her own kids: Have an idea? Run with it. “It’s about showing them that there are no obstacles to trying something new,” she says. “Just because you aren’t an author today doesn’t mean you can’t become one.” Her husband Johan adds, “Val is removing obstacles. Our kids see what she is doing, get to be a part of it, and when they grow and have an idea, they won’t be paralyzed. They won’t see obstacles.”
Little Mouse Lost is based on the adventures of Grahn’s daughter Maeven and her own stuffed Little Mouse. Illustrations are by Tracey Taylor Arvidson. Readers can find the book online, at skanebonespublishing.com, and on Amazon.
