This is Pam W. in the spring of 2009. I am standing in front of the Inn on the Broad St Green in Old Wethersfield.

This is the famous and faithful old green recliner (Command Central) in which I do everything but Artwork and Jewelry making..I even sleep here at night.

In April 2007 I interviewed my best friend Joe for StoryCorps. This is the photo they shot of Joe, Me and Karen in front of the StoryCorps Airstream which houses the mobile soundbooth and recording studio. During the interview, which was aired on WNPR the following Friday morning, I had also to translate for Joe, who was losing his voice to ALS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease. By then Karen and I were the only two who could still understand him.

My official author picture, in color rather than the B & W version on the book flap. I do not like it as much as the one being used for publicity, which has been cropped from my photo in front of the inn.

My cat Eemie, about whom this poem has been written:

TOOTH AND CLAW

With silk sufficiency the cat,

that pedigreed aristocrat,

stalks her prey, the Rattus rat

amid the sun-dazed blades of green

where grackles feed on haute cuisine,

of kibble that was meant for Eem,

my scrappy feline, who’d prefer

the tang of rodent blood and fur

while June bugs rasp and locusts chirr.

With one sure leap of grand design,

she hooks his nape and snaps his spine

‘mid cabbage rose and columbine

then daintily she sniffs the gore

and drops her tribute at my door

as if I’m her conspirator.