The stalactites and sparkling underground rock pools at Crystal Caves in Hamilton Parish may be beautiful, but it is often Susan Palmer’s fanciful tales of dragons and submerged castles that visitors take away with them, and remember long after.The caves tour coordinator has written a book, ‘Freedom of Choice: The Vagabond’s Tale’ so that visitors can leave with something tangible.The book is about Chelsea, a little girl who discovers a secret entrance to a magical cave. There she meets Krystal, a mermaid and the cave’s caretaker.The book explores themes of tolerance and fairness.“Vagabond is a symbol of people who have fallen in a bad way,” Ms Palmer said. “This is about tolerance.“The message in the book is no matter if you are black or white, green or Portuguese or Bermudian, or whatever, you still are like flowers in the garden.“Vagabond was that symbol for me. Vagabond dies at the end of the story, but not before giving a lecture about love and tolerance.”Ms Palmer lived in New York for ten years.“I was studying to be a doctor. I got through the bachelor’s degree level then I was getting ready to switch to podiatry, when my sister in Bermuda called to say that my mother, Virginia, was dying. She was calling for me.”Soon after her mother died, her sister also became ill and passed away. Ms Palmer never returned to New York, but found a job working for Crystal Caves. She has now been working there for 15 years.“I started off doing guide work, because I wanted to be working with the public,” she said. “I just fell in love with the tourists and the mystery of the caves.“I particularly love working with the children. I became known all over the Island as the cave lady, because I was telling the children stories about the mermaid and the dragon.“It makes the tour better, because children are generally not interested in stalactites and stalagmites. ”The mermaid and the dragon and other figures in her book were inspired by the rock formations in the cave.The book has already been released abroad by Dorrance Publishing Company.Visitors to the cave have already commented on it, Ms Palmer said. And she has had e-mails from people around the world who have read and loved it. She has also had a request to animate the story.“If they animate it, I would request that they do some filming here,” she said. “It would give work for Bermudians. Those talks are going on now.”She said she often wrote parts of the book in the middle of the night, waking from a dead sleep with the words already in her head. “I love to write with a passion,” she said. “I like the way it makes me feel when I am creating. I am [already working on] a sequel.“I walk every day like I am in a dream, because I am acting the characters. When Chelsea fell and held onto the handrail in the caves, that happened to me, so I put that in.”She hopes to use her mother’s life as part inspiration for her next book.“My mother was a very unusual woman,” she said. “She used to do carpentry. She learned it from her father. She wasn’t real rough or anything.“She was a gentle, Christian lady, but we didn’t have a whole lot. If she needed a table and four chairs, she would make it.“If she wanted the floor tiled she would do it herself. One day we came in and found her on her hands and knees tiling the floor. She was a great seamstress and cook. I would like to write a book about her life.”Ms Palmer will sign copies of her book at Brown & Company on Saturday at 11am and 2pm.