The Yarn That Binds by Rebecca McKinnon

Rebecca McKinnon enjoys playing with her imaginary friends and introducing them to others through her writing. She dreams of living in the middle of nowhere but has been unable to find an acceptable location that wouldn’t require crossing an ocean. The Yarn that Binds is the first Clear Creek Mystery.

A love of cozies triggers a need to write

Rebecca has written in other genres, but had never tried writing a cozy mystery. However, she said she loves the genre and wanted to try her hand at it. “I’ve written in several genres, but working on a cozy was an amazing experience. It was almost the feeling of coming home, and I discovered the world of cozies is where I belong. Hopefully that’s something The Yarn That Binds conveys.”

In preparation for writing her first cozy, Rebecca said she read about 70 of them in a month. “I might be the teensiest bit obsessive. But reading that many in such a short time span made several elements of a cozy blindingly clear. A small town, a shop, a pet. Those were easy. I based my town on one I visited a lot as a child. A shop? My love of yarn made that a no-brainer. A pet was easy, too, because what better animal to live in a yarn shop than a cat? Where things got a little stickier was the murder. Then I thought, What if the character was murdered with yarn? After that, things just unfolded naturally.”

Books, yarn, and a small town

“Books are a necessity for me. My best friends live in them. When I was growing up, my mother would send me outside to play, so I’d sneak a book out of the house under my shirt, climb a tree, and lose myself in whatever paper world I was exploring. I’d read while I was swinging, or even while I was roller skating. (I don’t recommend that last one — be smarter than me!) In case The Yarn That Binds doesn’t make it clear, I’m a yarnie. For the past several years, I’ve preferred to knit, but before that I would have happily given up my knitting needles in favor of my crochet hook.”

By the way, what do you do when you’re a self-described yarnie? You make a murder board with yarn to connect the parts!

Rebecca also said that when she was a child, her family regularly went to a little community named Clear Creek. “Over the years, that tradition fell away. When I chose a setting for The Yarn That Binds, I created my own version of Clear Creek. My version and the real place have a few commonalities, but are very different places. It’s been years since I’ve visited Clear Creek, but creating my version of the town gave me a chance to play there again.”

Tough choices

“Something that I laugh about now, but that was really hard at the time: I wrote the first quarter of the book with a different main character. When I realized that character wasn’t going to work, I think I cried. Cutting her was one of the hardest edits I’ve ever made. The new main character, Jemma, is a much better fit for the story, but I really struggled with her for the first while. I was too annoyed I’d had to cut the other character, mainly because it meant the entire series had to be reimagined. That said, I’ve come to really love Jemma, and the book wouldn’t have been the same without her.”

The craziest thing Rebecca has ever done in the name of research was when she did a deep dive on a Facebook page for a historical group. “I was writing a time travel romance set in Ireland, and I couldn’t find some historical details I really wanted. When scouring their page didn’t turn up what I wanted I reached out to the group begging them to point me in the right direction. I realize this won’t seem crazy to most people, but it’s way outside my comfort zone. Half the time I’m stressed out talking to people I already know. But the nicest woman reached out to me, and told me the reason I was having trouble finding things was that they weren’t available online at the time. That huge stretch for myself paid off — I was able to get all that information, and I gained an amazing friend in the process.”

Learn more about Rebecca McKinnon at www.rebeccamckinnon.com. Did you like this interview? If so, click here to read more Behind the Story interviews from your favorite authors.