First Bite...The Special Edition

FIRST BITE, the original Book One in The Dark Woods Series is turning five this spring ... which amazes us, because it doesn't seem like five years have passed since we introduced those characters or wove that dark novel out of myth and fairytale. In honor of its special place in the Dark Woods universe, we wanted to relive the experience of creating and writing that tale -- only this time with all of you along for the ride. And what better way to do it than taking fans step by step through the creative process with a special annotated copy of the novel?

This isn't your ordinary annotated edition -- not exactly, anyway. So we call it the 'Special Annotated Edition with Authors' Commentary.' Yes, just like in the movies, it's the project creators sharing the reasons behind creative decisions, the stories behind some of the key and critical elements, and, at times, just being silly about the process.

FIRST BITE: SPECIAL ANNOTATED EDITION will be released this May, and to welcome it into the Dark Woods, we'll be tweeting lots of fun facts about the novel and the fairytale of Snow White, along with sneak peeks into the new annotated edition, and a cover reveal! Join us on Twitter @DarkWoodsSeries and help us count down the days until its release -- and there will be more news released on this webpage as well in the coming weeks.

So, An Authors' Commentary Edition Means....?

Lots of fans are curious how the 'commentary' side of the annotated copy of FIRST BITE will work. That's a fair question, and it has a simple answer. Sprinkled throughout the original story are comments from us, the authors, telling you about the creative process behind the part you just read, sharing our feelings about a certain character or plot twist at this point, or taking you aside for a little history behind how we came up with a certain character or idea in the first place.

What kind of questions will it answer?

How about the origins of the evil Queen Lillian, for starters? There's the inspiration behind the 'blood drinkers' cult, and for the evil queen's identities across time and distance. There are nods to Snow White the fairytale, the classic Disney film, and to ancient cultural myth, and we'll explain what, where, and why for all of them.

Want to know what our favorite scenes are? We'll tell you. Want to know which parts we feel are corny? We'll tell you that, too. What songs were on our playlist while writing it? Yup, got that question covered.

What about the 'missing ending' for Blanche's story? The first hints of other Dark Woods books yet to come? We cover those, and lots of other details in FIRST BITE's history as the first official Dark Woods novel, and the inspiration for others yet to come.

We'll share stories about deleted scenes, making the book's video trailer, and shooting the cover (including the story behind the 'skull apple' that became our unofficial logo -- check out our iBooks button to the side to see an example of it popping up once again).

We included the original outline for the novel, the unmastered cover shot for the book, and the alternate cover design we didn't use. In between the novel's original pages, we've got the mythology behind the story, deleted material from the first manuscript, and even our own retelling of the traditional Snow White story, Brothers Grimm-style.

It's not an edition for newcomers to the series. It's an edition for fans, for readers who want to know more about what went on behind the story. It's full of lots of little random bits of information, from what movies we watched for 'atmospheric inspiration' for certain scenes to insights about what we would change if we were writing FIRST BITE today.

The official annotated edition is more like a companion for the original novel. Yes, it has all the same stuff, but don't read it if you want to curl up and be lost in the story again -- just like you wouldn't watch the commentary portion of your favorite movie's DVD if you wanted to get lost in that story, either. For first-time readers, it would probably offer way too much information (and some spoilers way too early in the story) for them to enjoy the story in this format.

So this book is just for you, the fans who wanted answers to certain questions (and we've kept track of some of those question over the years, believe it or not), and are curious to know more about the books on an insider's level. Hopefully, we've covered it all ... but if we haven't, that's what ten year anniversary editions are for, right?

The special annotated FIRST BITE goes on sale this May on most eBook retail sites. Follow @DarkWoodsSeries for more details on its release.