Years after starting to write her first novel, Chelsea Banning settled into Pretty Good Books in Ashtabula, Ohio, on a Saturday in early December for her first author signing.
She was waiting with neatly stacked paperback copies of her book “Of Crown and Legends”—what she calls a reimagining of King Arthur that takes place 20 years after his death. She had props, including a crown, a miniature figurine of a knight holding a quill and pen, and photographs of friends dressed as her characters, in medieval garb.