Novelist turns away from the romance genre

JAMIE BECK TURNS AWAY FROM THE ROMANCE GENRE

and reach out to their deceased father. “My mother-in-law is a medium,” Beck says. “And I thought it might be fun to play with that.”

She also knows a forensic accountant, which helped fuel her storyline about the crisis in Amanda’s marriage. And, although Beck has a brother and not a sister, she’s always been interested in sibling relationships, and the barriers that can sometimes pop up between family members. Though she and her brother are close, she knows of siblings that have become estranged over time.

“In a lot of those cases, there’s not any one thing you could point to” as causing the rift, Beck says. “I was hoping what people would take from the story is that how you treat others affects how they’re going to treat you.”

Though she’s proud of the book, Beck admits that her heart isn’t fully in promoting it right now. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she’s had one promotional event pushed online and one postponed until fall, when she has another book coming out.

But social distancing guidelines aren’t her only obstacle in selling “If You Must Know.” “It doesn’t feel good to try to sell people books when a lot them are suffering and struggling and losing their jobs,” Beck says.

She also knows that a lot of people are having a hard time concentrating on a book in these uncertain times. Beck herself says she’s only read three books in the past couple of months, because she finds it difficult to focus. So, while she hopes people read “If You Must Know,” she looking ahead — to the fall and the publication of her next book.

Just like everyone else, she says, she’s doing what she can to move forward a day at a time. “When I feel overwhelmed, I just focus on the things I can control,” Beck says.