Visiting the Scene of the “Crime”

My new cozy LA mystery CAST THE FIRST STONE: A REBECCA STONE MYSTERY begins with a press release announcing a Wharton professor as a visiting professor at UCLA’s Anderson Graduate School of Management.

Soon afterwards Rebecca Stone — a business reporter for the (imaginary) Los Angeles World newspaper — has to cover a talk at Anderson.

Yesterday evening my husband and I attended a program held at UCLA entitled “Hollywood’s Digital Gold Rush” put on jointly by the Haas Berkeley Alumni Club of Los Angeles (Wharton alum were invited to attend, which is how I got there) and Anderson. And I felt as if I had fallen down the rabbit hole.

First, I drove around the hilly campus in the dark and the rain trying to find the correct parking lot. Finally I had to go out of the campus and re-enter from a different entrance off Sunset Blvd.

Then, once Mitch and I managed to find the exit from the lot, we spotted a very small sign that said “Anderson School.” Due to the rain, we entered the wrong building and wandered around until we realized our mistake.

Back out in the rain, we finally found the main entrance to a different building, climbed a massive amount of stairs, and made our way to the correct event. (Actually, we had to once again go outside after the reception to get to where the presentation was held.)

In other words, I felt as if I were a character in my own cozy mystery, trying to get out of a maze.

On the other hand, the Hollywood digital presentation was quite interesting, even though I didn’t necessarily agree with some of the predictions. I did ask how the panelists saw Amazon fitting into their predictions, and didn’t receive any enlightening responses.

(I personally think the panelists, with the exception of one who said he wasn’t allowed to answer that question, do not realize how important Amazon is to their predictions.)

In conclusion, I’ve just published this week a second ebook cozy mystery outing for Rebecca Stone — TWO BIRDS WITH ONE STONE: REBECCA STONE MYSTERY SHORT STORIES. (Thanks to Yael K. Miller for creating both Rebecca Stone book covers.)

Click here now to see on Amazon this ebook of two LA Rebecca Stone cozy mystery short stories.

(Don’t have a Kindle? No problem. You can get a FREE Kindle app for your iPhone, iPad, Android, PC or Mac at http://amzn.to/NBoSGU)

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including the military fiction MRS. LIEUTENANT: A Sharon Gold Novel (2008 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award semifinalist) and the cozy mystery CAST THE FIRST STONE.

Click here to visit her Amazon author page at amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller

She also has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com