They bought a house in Lincoln in 1987.
Bohjalian began writing weekly columns for local newspaper and magazine about living in the small town, which had a population of about 975 residents. The ''[[Concord Monitor]]'' said of Bohjalian during this period, "his immersion in community life and family, Vermont-style, has allowed him to develop into a novelist with an ear and empathy for the common man." Bohjalian continued the column for about 12 years, writing about such topics as his own daily life, fatherhood and the transformation of America. The column has run in the [[Burlington Free Press]] since 1992. Bohjalian has also written for such magazines as ''[[Cosmopolitan (magazine)|Cosmopolitan]]'', ''[[Reader's Digest]]'' and the ''[[The Boston Globe|Boston Globe Sunday Magazine]]''.
Bohjalian's first novel,
A Killing in the Real World, was released in 1988. Almost two decades after it was released, Bohjalian said of the book, "It was a train wreck. I hadn't figured things out yet." His third novel,
Past the Bleachers, was released in 1992 and was adapted to a Hallmark Channel television movie in 1995.
In 1998, Bohjalian wrote his fifth book,
Midwives, a novel focusing on rural Vermont midwife Sibyl Danforth, who becomes embroiled in a legal battle after one of her patients died following an emergency Caesarean section. The novel was selected by Oprah Winfrey as the October 1998 selection of her Oprah's Book Club, which helped push the book to great financial success. It became a
New York Times and
USA Today bestsellers. Victoria Bohjalian has often described her husband as having "a crush" on the Sybil Danforth character. In 2001, the novel was adapted into a Lifetime Movie Network television film starring Sissy Spacek in the lead role. Spacek said the Danforth character appealed to her because "the heart of the story is my character's inner struggle with self-doubt, the solo road you travel when you have a secret".