Skyla Arndt: On Learning To Work Under Pressure
In this interview, author Skyla Arndt discusses how she was able to navigate her personal grief while writing her new YA horror romance, House of Hearts.
Skyla Arndt has always loved the creepy, crawly side of life. When she was younger, she thought that love might translate to hunting Bigfoot, but luckily for him, writing proved easier. Together We Rot is her debut novel. Learn more at ArndtSkyla.com, and follow her on Instagram.
In this interview, Skyla discusses how she was able to navigate her personal grief while writing her new YA horror romance, House of Hearts, how she completed revisions on a 12-hour flight, and more.
Name: Skyla Arndt
Literary agent: Claire Friedman
Book title: House of Hearts
Publisher: Viking BFYR / Penguin Random House
Release date: Sept 2, 2025
Genre/category: YA Horror Romance
Previous titles: Together We Rot
Elevator pitch: A scholarship student infiltrates the secret society at her new boarding school to find clues about her friend's death—only to fall down a rabbit hole of ghosts, curses, and deadly romance.
What prompted you to write this book?
I wanted an escape and House of Hearts was the perfect rabbit hole to fall into. Every time I sat down at the computer, reality would bleed away, and I’d be swept into a gothic, lush fairytale. I wanted a world I could get lost in—and that desire to escape only grew tenfold when grief struck in my personal life. At one point, if I wasn’t writing, the real world would close in and bury me alive. My own heart became entangled with my main character’s grief—we were both grieving and, with time, healing, too.
How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?
“Second Book Syndrome” hit me like a truck (and then put the vehicle in reverse to finish the job). Fellow authors weren’t kidding when they said the second book is typically the hardest to write. I was recovering from the worst burnout of my life and suddenly struck with an insurmountable uphill battle: Write another book.
I wrote 20,000 words of one idea, scrapped it, wrote 20,000 words of that idea, scrapped it. Rinse and repeat, ad nauseam. For a horrifying moment, I considered the possibility that I’d never write another book again. Perhaps Together We Rot was it for me! This, of course, was the burnout talking, but at the time it felt awfully real. Part of this fear came from the sudden shift in attention: writing for myself versus writing for an audience. I had to come up with an idea that would not only fit my “author brand,” but also the demands of the current market. So much (entirely self-inflicted) pressure!
House of Hearts was born as a “secret project” I cradled close to my chest. The first draft was an utter mess—it was silly and self-indulgent and for my eyes only. I wrote purely for the joy of writing and crafted a world that I had fun diving into each day. (The first version even had vampires if you can believe it). It took two years of revision and research to finetune it into the book it is today! Despite all of its many changes, HoH has kept its heart from the very beginning … pun intended!
Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?
House of Hearts taught me how much I love the “research” portion of drafting. Together We Rot was set in a world so familiar to my own, so this was the first project where I genuinely had to research to do this story justice. I Googled rich boarding schools, explored local New England flora and fauna, and genuinely had an absolute blast the whole time.
Beyond learning how much I love Google deep dives, HoH also taught me what I’m personally capable of. Not only did I prove to myself that I can write a second book, but I also learned how to work under pressure. My deadline ended up colliding headfirst with an international trip—it would’ve been easy to push my book out another year, but I was determined to see it through! I completed a round of revision on a 12-hour flight and lived to tell the tale. (Thank you airplane wifi!)
Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?
I definitely wasn’t expecting to be hit with grief halfway into revision. My cat, Pyro, was diagnosed with a very aggressive form of lymphoma shortly after I finished my first draft. It was very difficult to transition from writing with him on my lap to feeling his loss resonate through my home. I had no idea how I was going to write about love and loss when I was experiencing such fresh grief of my own. Despite having a writing extension for Pyro’s grief, I found myself inexplicably drawn back to the keyboard. What previously seemed impossible became therapeutic. I channeled so many feelings of loss and anger into this book that previously weren’t there.
What do you hope readers will get out of your book?
With a world that’s more terrifying and volatile than ever, I want to give readers a safe escape to retreat into. House of Hearts was my world for the last two years and I hope readers find the same comfort in its pages as I did.
If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?
It’s easy to be your own worst critic. Try being your own cheerleader instead! You’ll hear one thousand nos in publishing, but you only need a couple yesses—and the first one should be from yourself. It’s so easy to be disheartened in this field; publishing is flooded with setbacks and rejections, but to keep pushing, you need to believe in yourself above all else. You can and you will.
