The protagonist

So I sat up in bed with a new sheet of paper headed: Who Is Leon?
I thought I'd already done this, but in retrospect had merely scratched the surface. I'm new to this planning lark (I told myself). After some time of searching through what seemed like an impenetrable fog of uncertainty, I had a full A4 sheet of events and circumstances which had shaped Leon's arrival to this point in time i.e. the beginning of the book.
This has landed me with a problem: how do I show/illustrate this chain of events to the reader without it turning them off from the story in hand, and this first book becoming book 1 of 10. (Actually, I've just demonstrated longevity, so maybe that's a selling point!) Well, the past and the present are inextricably linked, and unresolved (the plot!), so this potential black hole has hair (see Prof. Stephen Hawking about that reference). My protag has a full head of it, so there's a further link!
I have an idea. No, I'm not going to write a blurb for the back of the bookcover to get round it -unless an agent/editor insists!
This is all mainly because I'm one of these freaks who actually like exposition. I need to know. Not only that, I need to know lots. And before you all jump on me, each brandishing a strait-jacket and crying 'Section this madman!', I have no intention of saying: 'Well, it's all because...' or 'Way back...' I want to be published and am well aware of the suffocating spectre of explanation.

The beginning I've chosen reads better than I originally thought. I know I mustn't spoil it.

Thinking...

Yeah, I have an idea.

Goodo !!