SIDNEY — A lifelong dream has finally become reality for former Fairlawn resident Patti Laughlin Fogt with the publication of her first novel “Snowflake on a Spider’s Web,” a love story set during World War II.
“I was out of my mind crazy thrilled when it arrived by UPS. I was jumping up and down like a crazy person. To actually have it in my hand was astounding,” said Laughlin Fogt about receiving her published book in her hand. “That book is actually on Amazon, so it is all over the world -in Australia.”
Laughlin Fogt, who now lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, said the premise of this story came to her in a dream while pregnant with her second baby 26 years ago. Although Laughlin Fogt is a traveling nurse by trade, she has always loved to write and has written several children’s books, including the self-published “Aaron’s Little Sailboat,” and among other stories for her children over the years.
“Snowflake on a Spider’s Web” begins in 1939, on the Eve of WWII, in wine country, Tokaj, Hungary. The reader will follow a young, Jewish girl named Eva through her life and adventures. It is a love story set during a horrific time. She finds herself to be a refugee in a new world that she did not expect to find. Her strength and courage are remarkable and inspiring.
“I had this dream about this story; and I haven’t even published that part of the dream (yet). I had developed the story with a copious amount of notebooks. It’s going to be a little bit of a series,” said Laughlin Fogt. “The story that I dreamed of, in my mind, I had to back it up and get more of an insight as to why the main character got where she was in my dream. … And I backed it up to 1939, when she was 17 years old, and I’m taking her through her whole life. I’ll eventually get to the part that I dreamed of, but that was when she was an old lady.”
She is not certain how many books will make up the series on this story, but wants to encompass Eva’s entire life.
“I gave a neighbor a copy of my book, and she said she stayed up all night reading it, and she told me, ‘That honeymoon chapter, I had to take a cold shower after reading it,’” Laughlin Fogt said with a chuckle. “I wanted it to be such a rich, loving, relationship, but from a Godly point of view … God made love. I wanted people to understand the delicate, loving, compassionate, hot, beautiful sex that God initiated. Don’t be afraid of hot, compassionate, gorgeous love. That’s what keeps life going. And God made it.”
During the last week of May 26, she returned home to hold her first book at River’s Edge Roadhouse, on Riverside Drive in Sidney. And her second book signing was held at Lucky’s Pad, in Piqua.
She first self-published the novel in 2020, while continuing to seek a regular publisher. Upon finding Dorrance Publishers, “Snowflake on a Spider’s Web” was then slightly edited and published in August 2021.
Laughlin Fogt is also very excited to be invited to host some books signings at the Hemingway Festival in Key West, Florida, on July 20-24, with Cristen Hemingway Jaynes. Jaynes is the great-granddaughter of Ernest Hemingway, and wrote “Ernest’s Way,” a travel guide of the places her great-grandfather lived and wrote, etc.
“She (Jaynes) and I are going to be going to down to Hemingway Festival in Key West and I get to do book signings at the same time with her. It’s crazy; like I want to pinch myself,” Laughlin Fogt said in excitement, when she will do other book signings at several other places in the area, including the Hemingway home and museum. “It’s beyond what I ever thought. I just wish my parents would have been alive to see this because my dad has written a lot of books. And my mom was always writing something. She loved the English language.”
Laughlin Fogt is currently working on the sequel to “Snowflake on a Spider’s Web,” which she hopes to have completed by summer 2023.
“Snowflake on a Spider’s Web” is available online retailers such as Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Walmart. For all things “Snowflake on a Spider’s Web,” visit the book’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063763111560
