JANE SLOVEN
Police Detectives and Private Eyes aren’t the only professionals trained to follow clues and unravel mysteries. Counselors know that terrain, too—although the territory they traverse is intra-psychic. Counselors focus on the patterns of behavior that entrap us: choosing the wrong partner again and again; struggling with abusive family members, or experiencing terror at the sight of a spider.
In Termination of Benefits, counselor Sarah Green is highly skilled at helping her clients untangle their emotional dilemmas but she doesn’t do so well with her own—and she’s got big ones—frightening flashbacks of a close friend’s murder and a pesky psychic lineage she can no longer suppress.
When a psychopath starts stalking Maine’s counseling community, Sarah struggles to separate past trauma from present danger while juggling an ex-husband hot to reconcile and the tempting attentions of a sexy detective. She joins forces with a take-no-prisoners defense attorney, a top-notch private eye, and her office mate Louise to catch the killer before he strikes again.
When all her skills can’t save her from the clutches of a predator, Sarah discovers a wealth of courage, and gratefully accepts all the help she can get—from this world and the next.
Termination of Benefits is available for purchase through PayPal on this site, through maineauthorspublishing.com, and through indie bookstores in Maine. Both the Kindle and Print version are available on Amazon.
Watch the interview with Central Hall Commons:
Listen to Jane's interview on The Write Focus podcast
Maine Romance Writers Readers’ Choice Contemporary Category: First Place
GRAND PRIZE READERS’ CHOICE WINNER
2019 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist: Suspense
Foreword INDIES Finalist: Thriller & Suspense
“Termination of Benefits is a brilliant debut. I sat up until 2:30 reading the last hundred pages. It was impossible to put down. Good plotting is rare, and the final chapters brought me clever plot twists and surprises. I especially enjoyed the way Sloven blended her hero’s legal background and her career as a therapist, as well as her Jewish community and the Portland, Maine setting. The episode on Mackworth Island was very visual for me. I felt I could almost smell the water.
—Steve Steinbock, mystery writer and reviewer, “The Jury Box,” Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine
Women of Spirit, Transforming Lives is the second volume in this Matrika Press series. This book is a compilation of women sojourners, sages, mystics, witches, shaman, medicine women, philosophers, life coaches, ministers, storytellers, yogis, historians, and more.
Their journeys. Their stories. Their teachings and practices. Poetry, Art, Rituals, and Prayers.
This anthology is full of useful tools and powerful messages for everyone who is on a spiritual journey.
Jane is the happy contributor of the essay titled "Musings on Mortality."
Find out more information on the Matrika Press website here and purchase on Amazon here.
Five women writers enter their mothers’ worlds to tell their stories, and in the process unearth complex histories filled with love, laughter, trauma, courage, resilience, and determination. Their explorations lead the writers to a more compassionate acceptance of both their mothers and themselves. Written with heart and honesty, this anthology includes discussion questions along with a guide and writing prompts for others wishing to make a similar journey.
Drop me a line to purchase, by clicking the link below:
As featured in Maine Women Magazine:
If you took yourself out of the role of daughter and took a deep dive into your mother’s life story, where would you end up? If during your childhood she abandoned you, was cruel or just had unrealistic expectations, would her story and experiences evoke your empathy? Would you come to understand your mother as a woman in the context of her time? Read More
Listen here to the Maine Calling interview with Jennifer Rooks
Watch the WSCH 6 207 Interview:
2019 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist: Women’s Issues
Foreword INDIES Finalist: Family and Relationships
Book Fest INDIE Finalist: Non-Fiction Anthologies and Women’s Issues
Jane Sloven
Jane Sloven is a writer, psychotherapist, and retired attorney living in Portland, Maine, with her husband Joe and dog, Benji. Jane graduated from American University with a BA in Literature, New England School of Law with a JD, and the University of Connecticut with an MSW. Termination of Benefits is Jane’s first mystery. She has co-authored Compassionate Journey: Honoring Our Mother’s Stories, and is working on a sequel to Termination of Benefits. When not reading or writing or sequestering during COVID, Jane can be found walking her dog, sipping tea and laughing with her husband and friends, swimming, painting, or scouring antique shops, consignment shops, and junk shops for treasures.
