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The Coldest Equations is book one in The People Out There series.
It is currently available on both the Kindle and Nook for $2.99.
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Read an interview with author Caroline Miniscule at The Thunder Child SF&F Webzine
Click here for Kindle
The Plot
Whenever a new TV show is committed to celluloid, the world evoked by that TV movie or series manifests itself as an alternate Earth. And there are beings Out There who have devised a machine (the Teleinvisichronomicon) which enables them to transfer the actors from Earth 1 into the bodies of their characters on these alternate Earths. And vice versa.
Tracy Karlovassi is the star of a science fiction erise called The Coldest Equations, in which she plays Miranda Rainbird, top spy, for the Capablanca Corporation. In the earth of this series, the civilian space organizations vie with each other to be the first - and only - companies to set up space stations on the moon, on the asteroids, and on Mars. Some security teams keep their own scientists and technology safe, other security teams attempt to kidnap scientists and appropriate technology from their rivals. It is to one of those security teams that Miranda Rainbird belongs.
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In Season 3 of The Coldest Equations, Miranda Rainbird has been framed for a crime she did not commit and is on the run from friend and foe alike. Rainbird may have had no trouble proving her innocence and bringing the real culprits to justice, but then Tracy Karlovassi is transferred into her body, and what can a mere actress do?
Homages
The names of characters
Most of the supporting cast have names that are tributes to the roles which actor Simon Lack played in ten Paul Temple radio serials from the 1950s to the 1960s. In some he was a red herring, in others the police officer, in others, the killer. Since it was his vocal performance in Paul Temple and the Alex Affair that spurred me on to write this book, I seek to honor him in this fashion.
The character of Miranda Rainbird is named after Miranda in William Shakespeare's The Tempest. She has one famous line: "Oh brave new world that has such people in it."
Hardt is named after Conrad Veidt's character of Captain Hardt in The Spy in Black.
Stuntman Austin Walsh is a tribute to Ray Austin, stuntman and fight choreographer for The Avengers, and Terry Walsh, who handled the stunts on Doctor Who for Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker.
Steve Miklos is of course named after Steve Ihnat's role in the Mission Impossible episode, "The Mind of Stefan Miklos".
Mr. White, Ms. Taupe, and the rest of the Bifrost Team from the Philidor Corporation are named in honor of the Auditors in Terry Pratchett's brilliant book, The Thief of Time.
There's an episode of I, Spy which went by the title "Let's Kill Karlovassi", and guest-starred Ruth Roman and Peter Wyngarde. (How is Karlovassi pronounced? Kar-low-vassi or Kar-lava-see? Not even the actors in this ep knew for sure.)
Count Grendel Gracht (Peter Jeffrey) was the villain in "The Androids of Tara" episode of Tom Baker's Doctor Who, which also guest-starred Simon Lack.
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