'Lost tapes' of Douglas Adams interview launch online SF magazine

Extracts from a long taped interview with Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy author Douglas Adams – recorded 28 years ago and never before published – have given a huge boost to the launch issue of Darker Matter, a new online science fiction magazine.

The long lost interview dates back to the days when Douglas Adams was tasting the first fruits of fame – and celebrating by taking out a £20,000 mortgage to buy his first apartment.

The original cassette tapes of the three-hour interview were only rediscovered recently, after gathering dust in the bottom of a cupboard since 1979.

The interview, which is rich in anecdotes and previously unpublished detail about Adams’ early career, is being serialized in three parts, in the first three monthly issues of Darker Matter (www.darkermatter.com).

The magazine aims to bring its readers the world's best new SF short stories. It has set its stall out right from the start, with five superb pieces of new fiction in the first edition, including a powerful story by 2006 Hugo Award winner David D Levine.

There's even one thought-provoking story, Tagging, by Ken Brady, that cries out for an immediate reprint in business magazines like Marketing Week, Advertising Age and Adweek.

Other top contributors include Edward M Lerner, Duncan Long and Bud Sparhawk.

Darker Matter is edited by Ben Coppin, author of Artificial Intelligence Illuminated and founder of a successful Cambridge AI and Internet search company.

“We’re obviously delighted to be able to bring this unique Douglas Adams interview to his millions of fans around the world,” says Coppin.

“He was a great author, by any reckoning, and the authors are very much the heroes of Darker Matter.

“We've got some of today's top SF short story writers offering us great new fiction, just because they want to support a free online magazine that puts quality first.”

The Darker Matter team believes the time is right for an online science fiction magazine like this to catch on quickly.

“This is fast, punchy, idea-packed SF writing for the MySpace era,” says Coppin. “We have had a fantastic response to the launch edition, both from writers and readers.

“If people like what they see and blog about it, digg it, link to it and tell their online networks about it, we think the word will spread like wildfire. Science fiction reputations have always been built by word of mouth and SF and the new 'social media' are a perfect fit.”