Today we’d like to introduce you to Rona Simmons.
Rona, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
After mining the left side of my brain for my thirty-year career in corporate America, I retired to tap the neglected right side.
Years in college, graduate school, and business taught me to write a proper sentence, inch-thick reports, and marketing plans. My mother endowed me with a boatload of creativity. My father determination—pure, obsessive “stickwithitness.” The path forward was clear. I would write.
At the outset, I relied on familiar things, childhood memories for plots, the black sheep in our family tree for characters, and conversations around me for dialog. I was most fortunate to find a publisher for my novels, The Quiet Room (2013), Postcards from Wonderland (2015), and The Martyr’s Brother (2016).
Then, last year when my father, a World War II veteran, passed at ninety-seven, I met Jack Smith, another ninety-plus-year-old veteran and an artist. Together, we compiled and published Images from World War II: The Art of Jack Smith. The hours I spent digging for details to accompany the paintings rekindled my interest in World War II.
So, I set fiction aside and began writing nonfiction about World War II—our country’s veterans and in this case noncombat veterans. My hope is the book will be available well before the seventy-fifth anniversary of the War’s end in 2020.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Becoming an author proved far more difficult than I imagined. Once the writing was done, I had to navigate developmental edits (where your work is torn apart and put back together, even if not as intended at the start), copyediting, and more rounds of edits. I had to seek agents and publishers and negotiate contracts. There were titles to consider, cover designs, ebooks, audiobooks, and bookstores—both those down the street and online.
The experience consumed hour after hour of hard work and much attention to detail. So much for “retirement!”
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Rona Simmons – what should we know?
I’m very proud to have authored three novels, a short story collection, and a dozen published articles. They are rewarding accomplishments that occurred over a relatively short span of time.
Equally if not more rewarding is meeting and listening to World War II veterans tell about their experiences. With obvious joy, their faces light up as they recall events, people, and places from decades ago.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Good listening skills and abundant patience are essential skills in writing any book, but particularly this one. I can’t hear their words if I’m talking. I can’t hurry the process. It takes time to read their letters and diaries, peruse their photo albums, and research the details they may have forgotten. Only then, and only after considerable reflection, can I put pen to paper. The veterans gave so much. They deserve the best I can give them.
Contact Info:
- Website: ronasimmons.com
- Phone: 404-606-8911
- Email: rona_simmons@bellsouth.net
- Instagram: instagram.com/ronasimmonsauth
- Facebook: facebook.com/pages/Rona-Simmons-Author
- Twitter: @rona_simmons
- Other: goneforasoldier.com. (blog)
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