Who do you think you are?

I've been doing a lot more rewriting of Auroradawn this week, and part of the work has been finding out more of the family history of the Starriders.  In the original version I had Arrien and Baak as the children of one if Vedrana's seven Great Families.  I didn't know how they'd got there, or what their power base was.

Now I'm rewriting the book as an adult one, and I need to delve more into their background.  The original settlers of Vedrana were the Kerkeen, of whom there are now only traces of their ruins around.  I haven't yet worked out how they came to leave the planet, or whether they went extinct.  That doesn't matter for book one, but I'm writing a trilogy with these characters and I think the answers to some of these questions might come out in parts two and three of the characters' quest.

I have a sneakIng suspicion that the Starriders had some kind of alliance with the Kerveen when they first landed on Vedrana generations ago.  And if I get that right, I could have Arrien unearthing some shocking family secret that threatens the survival of her Great Family.

What started out as a simple quest adventure is turning into a much deeper work, one that explores Arrien and Baak's ancestry in much more depth.  And the secrets I unearth will give me a chance to show who they really are under pressure.  That always makes for good characters.

So today it's back to working out what Arrien's great-grandfather did with his time on the planet, and who his friends and allies were.  Maybe he brought a big secret with him from Earth, something he was running away from.  Hmm, that idea looks promising.  And instead of the Great Famlies being respected, the revelation of this secret could destroy respect for the Starriders.  I like that.  Now all I have to do is go away and work out the details.