A Tale of Two Authors
A Sneak Peek into the Boden Book Household
We’ve been married for over 24 years, sharing plenty of adventures and life transitions along the way. After finishing a season of leading in a local church, we felt it was time to embrace a new chapter focused on creativity. Leah took the first step with her debut book, Modern Miss Mason, which gave Dave the nudge to explore writing as well.
While we’ve both had experience in speaking and teaching, neither of us imagined we’d end up publishing multiple books in such a short space of time! Starting in 2022, our writing journey has resulted in seven books so far, with more on the horizon. It’s been a time of creativity, challenges, and plenty of learning.
Navigating book contracts, meeting deadlines, and watching our ideas come to life has been both rewarding and intense. We’ve been fortunate to have the guidance and encouragement of our amazing literary agents, Joy and Don, who have been cheering us on every step of the way.
They say everyone has at least one book in them, but most people never take the leap to write it. With several books from our household hitting the shelves almost back-to-back, we thought it might be fun to share some insights into our writing journey..
First of all here is a reminder of the Boden Book release schedule (plus the links to any you may have missed):
January 2023 - Leah
September 2023 - Dave
Parallel Faith: Walking Alongside Others on Their Journey to Christ
March 2024 - Dave
Like or Follow: What Every Teenager Needs to Decide About Jesus
February 2025 - Leah
The Angel Orphan: Charlotte Mason Finds Her Way Home - Tales of Boldness and Faith Book 1
February 2025 - Leah
Chronicles of Wonder: The Story-Formed Life of C. S. Lewis - Tales of Boldness and Faith - Book 2
March 2025 - Dave
What You Are Made For: Your Guide to Finding Purpose
August 2025 - Leah
When you look at it laid out this way, it’s no wonder life has been full, fun, and occasionally a little intense over the last few years! Here are a few insights to give you a peek behind the scenes of the Boden Book writing craziness…
How do you balance writing with a busy life?
Leah: I take a more structured approach to writing than Dave. I spend a lot of time marinating on ideas, often jotting down notes on my phone, but most of my energy goes into thinking deeply about what I want to write before putting pen to paper. I use a method called "commonplacing," where I collect and organise quotes or extracts that inspire me, building a stockpile of ideas I can draw from later.
When I’m ready to write, I schedule focused sessions and often work in timed slots. I try to resist the temptation to edit as I go, even though I naturally want to perfect everything on the first attempt. I need a clean, comfortable, and inspiring environment to get into the right mindset. Interestingly, I thrive under tight deadlines—they push me to focus and stay productive.
Writing Tales of Boldness and Faith required me to take a completely different approach to connect with a children’s audience. I had to simplify complex timelines and historical events without losing their depth, using imaginative storytelling to inspire curiosity and faith. Recreating historical moments that engage young minds was a rewarding challenge, and it taught me how to write in a way that both entertains and encourages children to explore boldness and faith in their own lives.
Dave: My writing process is a bit messier. I tend to work in intense bursts over a few weeks, usually after a period of research, reading, and reflection. I keep a running note on my phone filled with random ideas and start with a rough skeleton before fleshing it out through lots of writing and rewriting. My drafts are often disjointed and personal, making sense only to me until a certain stage.
For me, the priority is speed—getting the full arc of the message down first. One key lesson I’ve learned is to clearly express my ideas on paper, rather than hoping readers will connect the dots themselves. Talking things through with friends often helps me refine my work. I’m able to write in short bursts, even in busy environments, completely unfazed by distractions. Ultimately, writing has to stay enjoyable for me; if it stops being fun, I’ll probably stop altogether.
What’s the most rewarding part of writing?
Dave: My favourite part is hearing the stories of how the books have impacted readers in sometimes profound ways. I also love the conversations writing sparks! I especially love it when people buy copies of my books to give to their friends. My own teen’s tend to steal copies of my book Like or Follow for their mates all the time! Knowing that my words inspire young people to explore their faith and discover their purpose makes the whole process incredibly rewarding.
Through my upcoming book, What You Are Made For, I want every teenager to know that, in a constantly shifting world, they can discover who they are and why they’re here. My message to young people is simple: "You weren’t created to measure your worth by social media likes. You weren’t designed to hustle for success, compete with others, or blindly follow the crowd. You weren’t meant to chase fame or fill your life with endless distractions. You were made for something so much more!"
Hearing how this resonates with young readers already has been amazing. As Olivia, aged 12, shared: "This book is so inspiring; it gave me clear ideas on how to face many of the challenges I encounter as a teenage Christian. Having read this book, I feel more confident to be the person I know God created me to be.”
Comments like this make all the effort worthwhile.
Leah: For me, writing is all about the privilege of connecting with my audience. I often picture my readers—whether it’s a home-educating mother looking for encouragement or a child discovering new characters in a story—engaging with my words in ways that encourage imagination, understanding, and connection. Thinking about the reader’s experience fuels my passion and shapes everything I write. I often have specific people in mind while crafting my work, which makes the process feel deeply personal and meaningful. It’s fun how both Dave and I are both writing for a younger audience at the moment. I loved collecting endorsements from children and young people like Indigo who exclaimed, "This book was fantastic! The Homeschooling moms are going to eat this up!"
What are some of the challenges?
Leah: The hardest part is balancing it all—podcasts, editing, writing three books at once, video recording, managing emails, and coordinating marketing plans. At times, it can feel overwhelming, especially when one task spills into the next. This is all on top of normal family life and managing a part-time job too. But moments like unboxing a new book for the first time make it all worthwhile—the joy far outweighs the challenges.
Dave: With a full-time job leading a growing charity, the challenge for me during seasons of writing and promoting a book is that it might look like selling books is my main focus—or even the only thing I do—if you just follow my social media. The truth is, social media only shows part of my story.
What’s really tough is how long everything takes and the effort required to get the word out about a book. At times, it can feel like ‘self-promotion,’ but then I remind myself that I wrote the book to serve a specific group of people. If they don’t know it exists, they won’t have the chance to read it. Thankfully, having great publishers makes a huge difference!
What was it like launching your first books?
Putting our words out into the world can feel scary, especially when you consider not everyone will love your work! But if you believe in the vision of your project, that belief usually outweighs any potential criticism. Creativity is vulnerability.
Promoting Modern Miss Mason and Parallel Faith back in 2023 was a whirlwind season filled with book tours, online workshops, conferences, and countless media promotions. Balancing everyday life, work, and live appearances on American radio led to some truly surreal moments—you can be at home in Coventry but broadcasting live to Denver! I think I also ended up on a Canadian TV Channel at one point.
Dave often tackled late-night radio interviews, while I (Leah) focused more on podcasts and video . The chaos of managing family life, calming kids and dogs, and praying for a stable internet only added to the adventure. One particularly memorable moment came during a live radio show Dave squeezed into his lunch break at work. Just as a song played, the fire alarm went off, forcing him to evacuate the building mid-interview. It’s those unpredictable moments that made the whole experience both unforgettable and, in hindsight, hilariously absurd!
Subscribed
Any Questions….?
There’s so much more we could share, so we thought it would be fun to hear from you! If you have any questions about writing—whether it’s about the creative process, publishing, or balancing it all—we’d love to answer them. Drop your questions in the comments below, and we’ll do our best to respond to them all!
Dave and Leah x
writes over at https://substack.com/@leahboden
writes over at https://substack.com/@daveboden
 | A guest post by
|
Two of our favorite people! I loved reading this interview! Miss you both!
Loved reading this! What suggestions do you have for aspiring writers for going from an idea to a fully formed book?