Cedar McCloud

Cedar McCloud is an author, artist, and independent publisher whose work combines fantasy storytelling with book arts, divination decks, and other forms of handcraft. They run Numinous Spirit Press and describe storytelling as a means of expression and healing. The Thread That Binds opens the Eternal Library series, a cozy fantasy about magical bookbinders who create illuminated manuscripts containing spirits. Its central group learns the craft of Illumination, forms a found family, and tries to protect the library from those who would misuse its knowledge. McCloud connects the novel's magic directly to material practices such as binding, paper making, and illustration. The companion Threadbound Oracle uses characters and imagery from the story, while the second novel, The Tale That Twines, continues the intergenerational world. The Thread That Binds also establishes the series' queer-normative society, an aromantic and asexual narrator, and a long-term queerplatonic relationship. Those elements sit within an adventure concerned with mentorship, community care, inherited trauma, and the responsibilities that accompany specialized knowledge.