Pamela Edwards McClafferty  was raised in the San Gabriel Mountains of Southern California and has always looked at the world through artistic eyes.  Her parents were world-travelers, and early on, they exposed her to American and European Cultures.  From the museums and opera halls of Europe to the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera and LACMA, she was exposed and deeply affected by the world's people and their art.

In her 13th year, as part of an exchange program, Pamela traveled to London, Paris, Florence, Rome and Elba.  A vivid memory of that trip was sitting in the middle pew of Westminster Abbey and imagining: If only the great minds laid to rest here could fill my mind with a fraction of what they knew.  That summer, for the first time, Pamela saw  The David in Florence, The Pieta in Rome, The Thinker and The Kiss at the Musée Rodin in Paris and  The Winged Victory and Venus de Milo at the Louvre.   In Paris, she sat with her chaperon on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, watching the beautiful women parade by in their couture fashions.  Like many aspiring artists who had traveled down the same roads, she wondered where she fit in.

By seventeen, Pamela was once again in Europe.  She had been singing for six years and was noticed by the director of the California Youth Corale.  She was offered and accepted a scholarship, and, with it, an opportunity to perform in opera houses and churches in fifteen European countries.  When the tour stopped in Oslo, Norway, Pamela spent all her down time at the Vigeland Park. Its collection of statues depicted the gamut of human emotion and stirred-up a tremendous creative energy in her which she poured into her poetry and short stories. Pamela had no idea this experience would be a cornerstone of inspiration for a musical she was to write years later.

Today, Pamela considers herself a writer first.  Besides being a best selling novelist, she has completed a non-fiction book, a musical, and a series of Children’s books.  Pamela is also an award winning filmmaker, and she founded Pamela Edwards Enterprises, Inc., her own couture design/manufacturing company. How did these various careers manifest themselves into her life?

While at the University of Arizona, Pamela majored in Opera.  During the summer of her sophomore year, she won a scholarship with the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera.  She returned to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, where she had sat through countless musical productions as a girl.   This time, she spent her evenings backstage in workshops honing her craft to perform out front while she now attended UCLA during the day.    Ultimately, her light opera career wasn't meant to be.  The Pop/Rock music scene called out to her.  After her schooling at LA's Light Opera, she was hired to tour the country with various singing groups.  Pamela worked for five years touring from the Hollywood Bowl and the Las Vegas Hilton, Dessert Inn and Sahara Hotels to the national Circle In the Square Theatres to appearing on various TV Shows, including the Tonight Show. While on the road, and in between the two-shows-a-night performances, Pamela would write.  The story forming in her mind and on the page was source material for her first novel. 

In The Name of Todd was the story of the Todds, an aristocratic New York Family.  The patriarch was a wealthy industrialist; his son was one of the most respected actors/director/writers of his time; and the grandson was a combination of the two men.  The backdrop was factual, with a history of the times and the entertainment industry from 1890 to 1969.   It showed an intimate portrait of artists who took their craft seriously, loved the process, overcame obstacles and stayed true to themselves.  The character, Conrad Coleman, the legendary director of In The Name of Todd, tells an Academy Award Audience about his feelings for young artists.

"With my successes and failures, I have had gifted artists to sustain me.  Young men and women have grasped my ideas and cultivated new frontiers.  They have had the advantage of unfulfilled dreams to spur them on, while sometimes, I have felt I had none left.  These young artists. . .have stirred in me that which at times I thought I had lost - the ability to reach for ideals that clarify the common denominator amongst us all - to communicate, through our art, our perceptions of human frailties and triumphs.. . ."

Owen Laster, Pamela's literary agent at William Morris, placed the novel with Warner Publishing and Producer/Actor, Michael Landon, optioned In The Name of Todd for all visual rights.  The novel was ultimately renamed Inherit the Storm when it was published in l988 by Tudor Publishing.

While editing her novel for publication, Pamela was also designing clothes.  Word of her   classic designs reached Ruth Lutz, a well-known fashion consultant who insisted on showing Pamela's designs to Al Quinn, a 7th Avenue New York Sales Representative.  Within three months of completing her novel, Pamela was preparing for the first New York Runway Show of her couture sportswear and evening gowns.  Her novel and her Resort line of couture fashions debuted simultaneously in the summer of 1988.  Pamela's designs were sold in Bloomingdale's, Bonwitt Teller, Saks and over 90 specialty stores throughout the country.  That summer Pamela's fashions were presented in Women's Wear Daily's "Best of New York" and Inherit the Storm hit the bestseller list at number 5.

Unexpectedly, Pamela Edwards Enterprises took off.  A factory had to be leased to house Pamela's new staff of thirty-five employees.  From Los Angeles, she designed and manufactured her own designs.  From New York, where she traveled at least 6 times a year, Pamela promoted and exploited her designs on 7^th Avenue.  The business grew so fast there was little time to write.   Pamela loved the creative process of designing, but she wasn't willing to give up her writing.  Finally a special allure to become partners with her favorite person in the world, her husband, Mark McClafferty, changed her life.  They would build a production company that would, within a few years, allow her the opportunity to spend the majority of her time writing/producing.  She had no misgiving about closing Pamela Edwards Enterprises.

In late 1996, Pamela co-founded Spellbound Pictures Ltd. USA with Mark McClafferty.  Together, they developed a unique business plan to produce movies in the international marketplace and to guarantee the films' exhibitions in the United States through the United Artists Theatres.  A $60,000,000 deal was struck with an international consortium composed of Canal+/Ellipse (Paris), Isambard (New Zealand) and Spellbound Pictures (USA) to produce movies which would be exhibited by the United Artist Theatre Circuit.  Mark McClafferty was executive producer/producer and Pamela Edwards McClafferty was one of the producers of the highly acclaimed film, The Climb, starring John Hurt, David Strathairn, Gregory Smith and Marla Sokoloff, which opened theatrically in the United States in 1999.  The Climb received eight international film festival awards including the Berlin (Unicef), Giffoni, Houston, Temecula, Montreal and Pierrot Gourmand.  In addition to co-executive producing Hollywood Outlaws with Mark McClafferty, they executive-produced/produced Katt Williams Live, one of the top selling comedy DVDs of 2007-8, which also airs on Comedy Central.   Spellbound Pictures is in pre-production on their next comedy special.

Continuing with her writing, Pamela recently completed a children's book series co-written with one of the most influential child psychologists in the country, Dr. Stephen J. Ceci, who holds the Helen Carr Chair at Cornell University.   She also co-wrote The House Hustling Manifesto with Kenny Rushing that is coming out in 2009, a non-fiction book about Kenny's unusual life in Des Moines, Iowa.  A child of the projects and the drug culture it spawned, Kenny ended up in Federal Prison by twenty.  During the seven years of his incarceration, Kenny obtained a GED, took college correspondence courses, was mentored by his well-known, white-collar inmates and left prison with an impressive resume.  Despite the economy, today, eight years after leaving prison, Kenny Rushing is a real estate tycoon, a multi-millionaire who gives back to At-Risk Youths in Tampa, Florida where he lives.

In between writing The House Hustling Manifesto and producing a Reality Show on the same subject, Pamela created the musical, Ursa Major, and wrote the book and lyrics with music composed by the noted jazz icon and classic composer, Stanley Clarke.