A former Keysborough resident has earned success after a second print of his book, Leonard The Lonely Duck.
Chris Thomas, a former Springvale North Primary School student, said he based characters on animals he came across in a park near where he used to live.
“I was unemployed at the time and I used to go for walks in the park to stop myself from going insane with boredom.”
“After regularly seeing the same animals, I noticed a completely white duck among the other wild ones, as well as a couple of others that didn’t have the same feather colours,” he said.
“I was under the impression they were domestic ducks that had been dumped and got to thinking about how they fitted in.”
So the white duck became the inspiration for Leonard.
Designed for age’s three to six, the book follows the title character as he finds himself in a strange place, away from his friends and home.
Scared and alone, Leonard tries to make new friends among the different animals he meets as he waddles about, looking for help and a little bit of kindness.
“The story follows him as he meets a variety of creatures he has never encountered before and, given he is in a strange place, he desperately looks for a friend.
“But, like all good children’s books, the story has a happy ending.”
Thomas has previously written the Doctor Who spin-off novel Lethbridge-Stewart: Blue Blood and short story Vampires of the Night, as well as One Step Forward, Two Steps Back in the official collection Doctor Who: Short Trips – Defining Patterns.
He is also the author of the novel Journo’s Diary and SMS Mess and other plays, a compilation of eight scripts he has written for the stage.
“Leonard The Lonely Duck is something I’ve had on the backburner for many years.
“Last year I decided to bite the bullet and became determined to make the book a reality,” Mr Thomas said.
Copies of the book are available through tinyurl.com/leonardlonely.
