You may know Alyssa Stewart as your friendly bus operator, but she has now added author and publisher to her list of titles.

Her debut novel, The Messiest Summer Ever, was released yesterday through her newly established publishing company, Backtalk Queen Press.

The book follows five friends through Bermuda Day, Carnival, Cup Match and Labour Day as they navigate “friendship, love, sex, family, ambition and the complicated business of becoming adults”.

“I've been describing the book as a Bermuda soap opera,” Ms Stewart said. “It follows five young women in their early twenties. Each is living a different life, but they have their friendships and their relationships and their experiences kind of overlap.”

According to the synopsis, the story is set “against the backdrop of Bermuda’s beaches, boats [and] parties”.

“Friendships are tested, relationships shift and secrets surface,” it reads. “Everybody discovers that the version of someone you know is not always the whole story. They came into the summer thinking they knew each other. By the end of it, nothing stays simple.”

Although the characters and their experiences are fictional, Ms Stewart drew on her memories as a young adult and the experiences of her three daughters to describe the summer entertainment scene and the preparations that go into attending various events.

“It is very Bermuda focused. It's all the things that girls that age do — the Shein orders, all the parties. I reference all the things that really happened this summer — Machel Montano, Waves [Soca in the Water] at Admiralty House — they go to all these things, and throughout it, they have their girl drama,” she said.

“My youngest is 20 and I'm that mom that will get up at 3.30 and go pick them up from We Love Dancehall and bring them home so they can get dressed to be at Swizzle at Sunrise.”

Ms Stewart has enjoyed writing since childhood, encouraged by her mother who was an English teacher.

She remembers entering The Royal Gazette Christmas story competition and other writing contests as a child.

Still, she was surprised by how quickly The Messiest Summer Ever came together — and by how much she had to learn about publishing and running a business.

The experience prompted her to establish Backtalk Queen Press, with the aim of helping other writers and artists complete their projects and bring their work to a wider audience.

“I have been very fortunate with working with the [Bermuda Economic Development Corporation] — what a great team they are over there. As a new business owner, they have been a tremendous help. They have a shop that they run, and they allow business owners to sell their merchandise on their store online,” she explained.

“So basically, when you go to my website and you see the product that you want, you click and then it directs you to the BEDC online shop, and you purchase it from them. They have just been fantastic.”

The name Backtalk Queen came from a childhood habit. Growing up, her father would frequently remind her that she did not always need to have the last word or respond to everything that was said.

Ms Stewart said she began to understand herself better after receiving an ADHD diagnosis as an adult.

“The way that my brain works, I'm always three steps ahead. I'm always finishing somebody's sentence either out loud or in my head,” she said.

To help the business she is taking an online publishing course and using the experience gained through publishing her book.

She hopes to offer others the same publishing services she has used for her own book, regardless of genre. She has already heard from people writing a cookbook, a children’s book and a memoir, as well as an artist looking for ways to bring her work to a wider audience.

“I am learning as I go along. I have other creative friends, artists, and people that I know that are creatives, and I thought, well, maybe I can really get into it. But it started out as just a healthy hobby,” she said.

“I knew that I wanted to write this series, and I knew I wanted to publish it myself — I'm an impatient person. I didn't feel like shopping it around to publishing houses. So the publishing house kind of came with it.”

Ms Stewart has released The Messiest Summer Ever as an e-book and is accepting pre-orders for the paperback edition.

She is also considering an audiobook and has been speaking with her cousin, Irie radio personality Terri2Kool (Terrisa Stewart), about providing the narration.

“I want a Bermudian accent, a Bermudian voice for my Bermuda book,” she said.

She has been encouraged by the interest in the novel, including from work colleagues who were unaware of her writing ambitions.

“I feel like it's a fun story, and as people do read it and talk about it, it's a fun way to see Bermuda,” she said.

• For more information, visitwww.backtalkqueenpress.net