Bio

Janina Arndt is an author and playwright. Her debut novel, Spiral Mind, was published by Orange Pip Books on 4th February 2021. She graduated with a distinction in a Creative Writing MA at Durham University, after being awarded a first-class degree in English Studies and Psychology from Heidelberg University. Besides writing, she enjoys storytelling in every medium, which inspires her experiments with form. She has won three youth awards from Girls Go Movie and Club Arte for her short films, and staged several of her own plays with Durham Student Theatre and Aidan’s Creative Writing Society. Currently, she works as a copywriter in digital marketing in a lovely town by the sea side.

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Spiral Mind

Follow the crazy journey of my debut novel!
The most impossible mystery ahead – for Sherlock Holmes and the author.

Spiral Mind

You may have heard that writing novels takes a long time. This one first came into being in 2014. For more about the writing journey – travels, adventures, inspiration, writing lessons, and memes – please go to my blog, where I will be sharing the best stories that accompanied my biggest story so far…

A happy author with some happy books.

It was really an attempt to tell the story how I saw it, show the characters the way I felt they were truest to my image of them. I’ve watched and read many adaptations beside the original, but I felt like there was something nobody had asked Sherlock to do yet. It is something that most characters haven’t been asked to do, which is confronting their own origin. Most books are about forgetting that the people in it are characters. Mine isn’t.

Here’s the synopsis.

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3 Tips for Writing New Characters for Old Stories

As many of you will know, Spiral Mind and its sequel The Coriolis Effect are with the imprint Orange Pip Books who champion new characters in Sherlock Holmes stories. Having recently been working on weaving two new characters into the last instalment of the trilogy as one of the rewards chosen in my Kickstarter, I thought it was high time I shared what I’ve learnt in my process about bringing new characters into an old canon like that of Sherlock Holmes.

OUT NOW: The Coriolis Effect – Book 2 in the Spiral Mind Trilogy

It’s finally out in the world! As of 30th October 2023, The Coriolis Effect is officially released! What a journey it’s been. I first started writing The Coriolis Effect back in 2016 and it hadn’t even got its title then. Back in the day, I was still studying English and Psychology and religiously listening to the Baker Street Babes Podcast for inspiration. If you’d told me then that Baker Street Babe Amy Thomas would one day give my Sherlock Holmes novels a stellar review – you can read it here, but I still need to pinch myself – I would never have believed you. Now, I’m so incredibly grateful for the amazing things that have happened to me thanks to these little books I started writing so long ago. Maybe life really imitates art.

The Sequel is Here!

It’s finally time! I am so excited to announce that the sequel to Spiral Mind is now available to order from MX Publishing ahead of publication in October! Book 2 is called The Coriolis Effect, and our cover artist Brian Belanger has outdone himself again. Have a look!

How to Edit a Sherlock Holmes Novel

Crime is perhaps one of the more finnicky genres to edit, and a character like Sherlock Holmes will try their hardest to make matters worse. Coming up with the deductions, as anyone who’s done it will attest, is a bit of a nightmare, but going through them again and finding all the loopholes that the great detective never told you about in the original stories…

Joseph Bell and a Writer’s Trip to Edinburgh

Much like Conan Doyle had a conflicted relationship with our favourite consulting detective, because his popular short stories were in the way of his ‘serious’ historical fiction, Joseph Bell felt uneasy about the connection between himself and Sherlock Holmes. It is this conflict between Bell’s inspiring personality and the extremely lifelike imitation that is the character of Sherlock Holmes, which drew me to dig deeper into the Scottish surgeon’s singular life.

7 Best Tips to Stay Writing in Busy Times

I will not attempt to explain what 2021 did to my creativity as a writer or blogger. It has been, again, a difficult year for all of us. Not only has the pandemic proven that it’s not yet over, and I’ve had to deal with a life-threatening situation for the first time in my life, I have also started working […]

This Writer’s Ritual

Last week, I had the pleasure of surviving my first book launch during a pandemic. I’ve already sent out lots of cheesy thank you posts on my socials, so I’m not going to ramble on about that again here, but I must say, I still feel genuinely grateful.