There’s a new writing duo in the town looking to bring mystery, thrill, and romance to Corrales. Corralenos Patricia Walkow and Chris Allen have teamed up to write the recently published-book, Alchemy’s Reach.Â
The duo sparked the idea to write a book during one of the meetings for the Corrales Writing Club, which they are members of. During this meeting, the members challenged themselves to come up with a story idea, and then someone else in the group would write that idea.
Walkow presented the story of Bonito Lake, which is located roughly 14 miles north of Ruidoso. In 1885, there was a mass murder that took place in the area, where seven lives were taken at the hands of a man named Martin Nelson, who was a quiet and well-liked laborer in the town, who was spurred by green, madness, or unrequited love when the murders took place. However, shortly after his rampage, Nelson would then be killed by Charlie Berry, a local man who had been talking with two friends when he saw Nelson and didn’t hesitate to bring an end to Nelson’s rampage.Â
Walkow and Allen ended up discussing this idea and decided to write a story that relates closely to Walkow’s original idea. However, the book is set in the current time and references the 1885 mass murder at Bonito Lake.
Writing this novel took Walkow and Allen two years to write, edit, and publish. Every step of writing this book involved great communication between the two and loads of collaboration. “When starting this project we came up with our basic story idea about our main characters, and that it was going to be a murder mystery with a touch of romance,†said Walkow.
The two mapped out a basic plan of how the story would play out and began writing. Writing a book as co-authors can be difficult but Walkow and Allen figured out a technique that best worked for them. “Our process was pretty straightforward. For example, let’s say I wrote the first two chapters. The following week, Chris and I would meet usually in a restaurant, review it, and I would revise it,†said Walkow.
The two would continue this technique of trading off chapters to write and as time went on they would write and finish a full novel even though the two wrote each chapter separately they felt that by the end of the book it wasn’t Allen’s or Walkow’s voice telling the story but it was a combination of a voice between the two.
The book took two years to write and complete. During the process of writing the book, the authors would send the chapters they had just written to the Corrales Writing Club so that way they could get a fresh pair of eyes to take a look at their writing and give them any feedback on things they may have missed and ultimately helped them propel the story forward.
Their book ended up being picked up by the publishing company, Austin Macauley Publishers. There the publishing company helped Walkow and Allen design a cover for the book. “They helped us. They drafted a cover for us, and then we worked with them over several weeks to tweak the cover until it was acceptable for us,†said Allen.
Walkow and Allen hope that many take a chance and read their book. They even hope that women look at their main character, Jennifer Murphy, and see that a strong confident woman can also be soft and tender. The book has even been dedicated to “to all the confident, independent women and those who love them.â€
As of right now the duo hopes to write a sequel to Alchemy’s Reach but have not quite started it yet. However, both currently have books that are being reviewed by publishers.Â
Alchemy’s Reach is currently available for purchase through Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Walmart, and Target. The author duo will also be having a book signing at the Corrales Community Library on Feb. 23.