MWSA Interview with Rona Simmons

Interview Date: 28 April 2021

Rona Simmons is an Atlanta-area author of historical fiction and nonfiction. After co-authoring Images from World War II in 2016 celebrating the art of WWII veteran and artist Jack Smith, Simmons again turned to the Second World War for The Other Veterans of World War II: Stories from Behind the Front Lines released by Kent State University Press in 2020. Her next book, a work in progress, combines her passion for history and research to tell another story with a unique perspective on the war.

Simmons has written for literary journals, magazines, and newspapers and is active in her local writing community. She is active in her local writing community and local veterans organizations (as a member of the Atlanta World War II Roundtable, the North Georgia Veterans Group, and Stories Behind the Stars, a group that is documenting the stories of all 400,000 fallen of WWII). She is also a contributing author and book reviewer for DODReads.org, an organization dedicated to reading and lifelong learning.

Simmons graduated from Tulane University and received her post-graduate degree from Georgia State University. Prior to launching her writing career, she spent thirty years in business, ending with a period with IBM as a business consultant.

MWSA: How long have you been associated with MWSA?

Rona Simmons: Having embarked on my third book on WWII and contemplating a fourth, I decided it was time to make the commitment to the discipline of writing on military matters and engaging with a community of like-minded writers for mutual benefit.

MWSA: Can you share a bit about why you chose to write about history, the military, and WWII in particular?

Rona Simmons: I come by an interest in the military “honestly,” as they say. My father served in World War II as P-38 fighter pilot, flying bomber escort for B-17s into southern Europe. He remained in the military after the war, so I grew up in a military family, in and out of foreign countries and in dozens of homes and air stations across the country.

My parents were avid readers and believers in education; and we had a wall of books in our home. I chose The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich from those shelves—no Harry Potter or Chronicles of Narnia (well, I’ll admit, maybe there was a Nancy Drew or Agatha Christie tome as well). Regardless, that book stayed with me and spawned a love for seminal events in our history.

Years, make that decades, after the war, I finally encouraged my father to talk about his service during the war. It was not that he did not want to speak about his experiences—it was just that no one had bothered to ask. What I thought would be a two or three hour conversation turned into weeks of delving into his now faded records and talking and taping. At the end I produced a mini memoir for the family. I was hooked.

MWSA: Now, please, tell us a bit about your recent book, The Other Veterans of World War II.

Rona Simmons: In 2016, I met, quite by chance, WWII veteran, Jack Smith. We immediately hit it off and soon were collaborating to bring together his incredibly detailed paintings of iconic scenes of WWII into a book to preserve the story of his and his brother’s service and to help educate readers about the war. In the attending research, I learned the story of another WWII veteran—this time not someone on the deck of a ship under attack by Japanese dive bombers, nor someone slogging through the jungles in the Pacific, but a humble and determined army sergeant who served behind the lines. He was a member of the Quartermaster Corps’ graves registration unit—a unit and a job I had never known of, nor could I imagine the horrific responsibility he shouldered. The encounter made me realize that although the dramatic stories of WWII soldiers have been the stuff of memoirs, novels, documentaries, and feature films, the men and women who served in less visible roles, never engaging in physical combat, had received scant attention.

Convinced their frequent depiction as pencil pushers, grease monkeys, or cowards was far from the truth, I set out to discover their real story. I talked to veterans, read their letters, perused their photos and journals, and touched their mementos. With their stories in hand, I decided to compile them not just into a collection of tales, but into a telling of the history of the war through their eyes.

The book follows the men and women as they report for service, complete their training, and ship out to stations far from home. I tell of their dreams to see combat and their disappointment. Ultimately, however, I found the noncombat veterans had far more in common with front line soldiers than differences. And, I believe the book provides a more complete picture of the war, bringing long-overdue appreciation for the men and women whose everyday tasks, unexpected acts of sacrifice, and faith and humor contributed mightily to the outcome of the war.

MWSA: Can you share what you are working on now?

Rona Simons: 2020, being the seventy-fifth anniversary of the end of the Second World War, was a fortuitous time for the release of my most recent book, The Other Veterans of World War II: Stories from Behind the Lines. Stories of the war rose to the top of our consciousness. My book offered a unique perspective on the war—the untold stories of men and women who worked far from the spotlight yet served their country honorably and with courage. A Gathering of Men, the working title of my new book, takes that same premise, that is, of telling an untold story, this time of soldiers in the air and on the ground during the allied bombing campaign in Europe. It’s fiction this time, but, like my earlier work, the protagonist is not the hero portrayed in numerous books in the genre. It again takes a different perspective on the war. And more than a work of historical fiction, the book interweaves exhaustively researched, little known details of the war into the story. So much so, that I prefer to think of the book as a “nonfiction novel.” I look forward to being able to share more soon.

MWSA: Having written both fiction and nonfiction, how would compare the two and which do you prefer?

Rona Simmons: That’s a hard question to answer. Both offer so much—not just to the reader but to the writer. To me as long as a book is based on a true story or an actual event or perhaps a turning point in a person’s life, it offers a chance for the reader to learn something. I am a big proponent of lifelong learning and devour books with these elements. As a writer I also believe both forms can challenge me—they require me to dig deep into history, artifacts, and stories behind the stories to find the nuggets that make a compelling new read.

MWSA: Finally, what advice can you offer to those starting out on their writing career particularly in military writing?

Rona Simmons: I suppose the age old piece of advice is to read and read widely in your chosen field. To be successful I believe you have to bring something new to the table and the only way to do that is to know what has already been said about your topic. Then, of course, you have to do the research to bring up the little details that make the story come alive. And maybe, too, it is necessary to know when to stop researching, when to stop writing, and when to stop editing and share your work.