A three-book publishing deal is the stuff that first time writers only dream.

But it has actually happened for Bermudian writer Nadia Aguiar who expects to see her first published book on the shelves next October.

'The Lost Island of Tamarind', the first book in The Book of Tamarind series, is being published in the United States by Feiwel & Friends, an imprint of Macmillan and in the United Kingdom by Penguin.

Miss Aguiar, 30, worked in New York in the publishing industry as a manager and editor for about six years, before returning home a year ago.

"I was working for a book imprint of the New York Review of Books which is called The Little Book Room," said Miss Aguiar. "We published art and culture and travel related books.

"I worked on the City Secrets series. It was primarily a lot of books about New York, London and Paris, those sort of places."

She left her job in New York when she came up with the idea for a young adult novel.

"I had to leave my job in order to have the time to work on it," she said. "I ended up getting a book deal for a trilogy."

With the advance from the publishing deal, she is now able to work full time on her books for a couple of years.

She has a bachelors in English and history from McMaster University in Canada and a masters in fine arts (MFA) in writing from Columbia University in New York.

"I have wanted to be a writer since I was a little kid," she said. "I even worked at The Royal Gazette for a summer. But it was a matter of not being able to stick to the facts.

"The startling image occurs to you, or there is a wonderful turn of phrase — it might not be quite truthful by newspaper standards, but it will work just fine in fiction.

"Fiction and journalism are completely different animals. I enjoyed being girl reporter and running around Bermuda, but I was more interested in fiction."

Her book follows three children who live on a boat — Mya, Simon and Penny.

"Their parents are marine biologists who have recently started working on a project," said Miss Aguiar. "The children have grown up on the boat, but their parents won't really say what the new project is about.

"This is Mya's book. She has just turned 13. Her little brother is ten and then Penny is the baby."

They are on their way to their grandmother's house in Bermuda when their parents are swept overboard.

"The children are left to fend for themselves," said Miss Aguiar. "They end up finding a magic island called Tamarind. That is where the book starts. Then they have a series of wild adventures. They are trying to find their parents."

Miss Aguiar said she decided to write a book about each child, because of her own childhood.

"I grew up in a family of four kids," she said. "Everyone needs a turn. I wanted each of them to have a coming of age story.

"In the story, there will be about four years between the first and second book and ten years between the third and fourth."

Miss Aguiar said the books are being marketed towards children ages nine to 13, but older children and adults might also enjoy it.

"Parents could also read it to younger children," she said.

While the book isn't about Bermuda, she said it is definitely inspired by Bermuda.

"I don't think I would have had this story in my mind if I hadn't grown up here," she said. "It is about this island that is cut off from the rest of the world.

"There are a lot of natural world features in the book. A lot of that certainly comes from growing up here."

She said finding a publisher went along much more smoothly than she originally expected. Of course, having connections already in the publishing industry certainly helped her.

"You have to have an agent first. So I found one," she said. "I worked for publishing for a little bit, but I didn't know anyone who published this type of book.

"I didn't find the book fairs very helpful. The Writers Market books are more helpful. Writers Market has books out listing book publishers and agents and what their speciality is. There are a couple of other books like that."

To find an agent she e-mailed people she knew in the publishing industry, and was eventually directed towards her current agent.

"Her assistant wrote a glowing recommendation of her," Miss Aguair said. "In New York, if someone has something good to say about you then you are probably good at your job. When I met her I felt like I was in good hands.

"It is funny because she is actually a sailor. I am not a sailor, I am a nautical fraud.

"I felt comfortable going to press with her having vetted it."

And by chance, the agent regularly visits Bermuda with her family.

"Her agency has a relationship with an agency in London," said Miss Aguiar. "So it was picked up in the United Kingdom first.

"I met with a bunch of publishers there. It ended up going to Penguin. The next week it was picked up in the United States. We ended up going with Feiwel & Friends. That is a new imprint of Macmillan which was just launched this fall."

Miss Aguiar said she never expected to have all three books picked up at once.

"I felt very strongly about the three books," Miss Aguiar said. "You have an idea and you just know that there is something to it."

The first book is written, but she is still working on the second, and researching the third.

"The third book is going to be more underwater," she said. "All the reading I am doing is research for the third book."

She is currently reading a book by Dr. Wolfgang Sterrer 'Marine Flora & Fauna of Bermuda'.

"I read mostly adult fiction right now," she said. "I don't read much contemporary young adult fiction because I don't want anything to creep into my work.

"This book was written in the spirit of books I read as a kid. Those were all books where there was a real story.

"There was action, and you were moving through something. Your physiological state was altered as you were reading.

"There was usually a group of friends. When you turned the last page it was a place you remembered afterward for sometime and would want to go to. I really loved Madeleine L'Engle, Roald Dahl, Enid Blyton and writers like that."