Reagan Westerly: Gothic Fiction Author and Writer
Reagan Westerly is a gothic fiction writer whose work explores obsession, identity, ambition, grief, haunting, and the consequences of wanting something too much.
My current writing projects include a completed gothic short story collection, a gothic novel set in 1920s New York City, and additional short fiction.
My work frequently combines historical settings, psychologically driven characters, dark atmosphere, and elements of the uncanny or supernatural.
Gothic Short Fiction
My completed approximately 40,000-word gothic short story collection, currently referred to as Project R, contains four first-person stories connected thematically by obsession, transgression, haunting, revelation, and choice.
The collection includes The Devouring Light, set in 1908 Spokane and centered on playwright Edmund Varrick and his obsession with creating art that will outlive him.
The Haunting of Gloseby Manor follows wallpaper restorer Elise Harrow, whose career was damaged after a man took credit for her work. At a Victorian manor, she discovers evidence of a woman who has been deliberately erased from its history.
Cipher and Bone follows Simon Delver through an exclusive Manhattan bar and a disturbing pursuit of self-reinvention.
The Blue Room centers on widow Eleanor and the letters she writes to her dead husband, Arthur, as grief forces her to confront questions about identity and the life she constructed around her marriage.
Project R is currently part of my ongoing publishing and querying work.
Project H: A Gothic Novel
My current novel, Project H, is a gothic story set in 1920s New York City.
The novel follows a society journalist who transforms a lonely heir into a sought-after host. As increasingly lavish parties attract the city's attention, the gatherings begin feeding darker forces.
The novel's outline is complete and the manuscript is currently being drafted.
Published Writing
My poem “I Don't Believe in the Dead” has appeared in Fluorescent Magazine.
My fiction and poetry form part of a broader body of work centered on gothic storytelling, character psychology, ambition, identity, death, memory, and the strange things people are willing to do for the lives they believe they want.
Author Hard
In 2026, I began Author Hard, a 30-day social media series documenting the process of actively moving my writing career forward following a publisher rejection.
The project includes querying literary agents, working on Project R and Project H, developing new gothic fiction, expanding my author platform, and documenting the less visible work involved in pursuing a professional writing career.
Author Hard is shared through short-form video and YouTube as an ongoing record of the work happening before the eventual outcome is known.
