A north-east author will donate the profits from his debut novel to a food bank.
Sam Lucas launched his comedy-sci-fi book Beneath the Dome last week at an event in Dinnet.
The book follows the relationship between two Russian cosmonauts who live in the international space station and whose job it is to protect the illusion the earth is round, when in reality it is actually flat.
But the 48-year-old has shown he is far more down to earth than his subjects, and plans to hand over his profits to Aberdeen North Foodbank.
Mr Lucas, from Huntly, said: “A big theme in the story is a shortage of food, and that’s one of the reasons I chose the food bank.
“I also wanted to pick a local charity that was very unpolitical and simple – there can’t be much political or complicated about helping to make sure people don’t go hungry.”
The author has already written a number of sequels to the book and plans to write nine in total.
“I have been a musician for 20 years and I got the idea while I was writing my third album,” he added.
“I wanted to have a sequence with Russian cosmonauts twiddling dials and that would link all the songs.
“I wrote a script and eventually had pages and pages of a story so decided to write it as a novel.”
Aberdeen North Foodbank is part of the Trussell Trust and has five different locations across the city.
Adwoa Adjare, food bank manager, said any cash donations would help pay for equipment or training volunteers.
She said: “We try to raise funds and use any money donations so we can do more for the community if we need to.
“For example we have to deliver food parcels to some people who cannot make it out to collect for any number of reasons.
“We definitely have noticed an increase in demand, I have been in this role since January but volunteered for quite a while beforehand.
“When I started there was days where no one showed up but now as long we are open we have at least three or four people in.”
