McCall Hoyle, a teacher at Chestatee High School and past teacher at North Forsyth Middle School, released her debut novel The Thing with Feathers Tuesday, Sept. 5. Her launch party took place in Athens at Avid Bookshop where she talked about her book’s story and afterwards met fans whose books she signed. She also had an event Sept. 7 at Chestatee High School.

The Thing with Feathers is about a girl, Emilie Day, who switches from being home-schooled to going to public school and is paired up with the starting point guard, Chatham York, for a research project on Emily Dickinson. However, she has not told other students, or anyone, that she has epilepsy. She fears she will seize at school, and she must choose safety at home or choose to follow the words of a dead poet.

Hoyle also presented her book at Decatur Book Festival  Sunday, Sept. 3, where she was on a panel with Joanne O’ Sullivan (author of Between Two Skies). Although the book was released Tuesday, readers could purchase it a few days early at this event.