Jenny Ashford is a horror, true crime, and paranormal writer, graphic designer, and podcaster. Her most recent books are a three-volume true crime compilation collectively known as The Faceless Villain: A Collection of the Eeriest Unsolved Murders of the Twentieth Century. Volume One was published in 2017, Volume Two in 2018, and Volume Three in 2019. Her other books include four paranormal nonfiction books: The Unseen Hand: A New Exploration of Poltergeist Phenomena, The Mammoth Mountain Poltergeist (with Tom Ross), House of Fire and Whispers: Investigating the Seattle Demon House, and The Rochdale Poltergeist (both with Steve Mera); as well as three horror novels, Red Menace, Bellwether, and The Five Poisons; two short story collections, Hopeful Monsters and The Associated Villainies; and a graphic novel, The Tenebrist. A second edition of The Associated Villainies was published in 2019, featuring four new stories, an enhanced print layout, and an audio book version. A second edition of The Five Poisons was published in 2020. Her short stories have appeared in several anthologies, including The Nightmare Collective, History Is Dead, 2012AD, ChimeraWorld #3, and ChimeraWorld #4. Her horror blog, Goddess of Hellfire, contains writing news, short stories and articles, and her reviews and opinions on horror films and books. She also co-hosts a podcast with Tom Ross called 13 O'Clock, on which they discuss true crime, unexplained mysteries, paranormal weirdness, horror movies and books, food, and other fun, creepy topics. They recently collaborated on a 13 O'Clock cookbook. Jenny's graphic design work can be seen on everything from books and business cards to posters and packaging. She runs an online store called Gravecake selling products with her designs, and also has a board-and-card game concern called Giallo Games, which produces games based around the beloved Italian horror/crime genre, among many other themes.
Welcome back to the Salon, and welcome to what will (hopefully) be the first in a long series, the idea for which came to me in a flash of inspiration not too long ago. Basically, I’m going to go through lists of all the horror films that came out every year since I was born, … More My Favorite Horror Movies from Every Year Since I Was Born: 1972
Welcome to the latest installment of Silent Movie Watchalong! I’m doing a short one this time, but really, it shouldn’t matter much because this one is just excellent, and I’m sort of baffled at how it doesn’t get as much attention as some of the other films of the period. Clocking in at a little … More Silent Movie Watchalong: The Fall of the House of Usher (1928)
I had actually been wanting to read F. Paul Wilson’s 1981 novel The Keep for quite a while, for several reasons: one, a number of listeners of my book reviews ardently recommended it; two, I had vague but fond memories of the 1983 Michael Mann film adaptation (though admittedly I haven’t seen it in years … More Books: The Keep by F. Paul Wilson
The first movie on today’s double feature is one I heard a great deal about after its premiere at the Toronto Film Festival years back, and although reviews were somewhat mixed, most of the negative reviews I read complained only that the movie was too slow, spare, and minimalist. Well, to me, that’s like an … More Double Feature: I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House (2016) and We Are Still Here (2015)
1997’s Asylum by Patrick McGrath was a novel that was recommended to me by a viewer of my book review videos on YouTube, and though I had heard the author’s name before, this was the first novel of his that I read. McGrath is a British writer, and Asylum is essentially a bleak, gothic thriller … More Books: Asylum by Patrick McGrath
In my previous post about Stories That Scared Even Me, I mentioned how influential horror stories were on me as a kid, and how much I adored seeking them out and reading them, whether they were intended for children or not (my parents were pretty chill that way). Sure, I delved into the very disturbing adult … More More Favorite Creepy Books from My 70s Childhood
Upon reading the synopsis of Gemma Files’s 2015 novel Experimental Film, I became immediately intrigued, as the premise deals with a mystery surrounding a supposedly cursed movie, and the “cursed movie” trope is one of my favorites in all of horror. I was thinking that maybe this would be something along the lines of John … More Books: Experimental Film by Gemma Files
So I’ve been writing about horror for a while now, rabbiting on the way I do, reminiscing about some of my favorite books and movies from my youth and trying to figure out what made certain things stick with me over the years. But in all that time, it never occurred to me to write … More Movies: April Fool’s Day (1986)
The film adaptation of The Shining and the well-publicized blood feud between Stephen King and Stanley Kubrick has been the subject of nearly endless internet debate, but for some reason it’s a subject I’m obsessively fascinated by and often get into long, rambling conversations about, which is why I decided to unburden myself in written … More A Tale of Two Shinings
Time for another silent movie watchalong! Our film today is a classic one, the 1924 Austrian film The Hands of Orlac, directed by Robert Wiene, starring Conrad Veidt (who also starred in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and The Man Who Laughs, incidentally), and based on a book by Maurice Renard. Not only is it wonderful and properly eerie, … More Silent Movie Watchalong: The Hands of Orlac (1924)
