RONA SIMMONS
about … RONA SIMMONS
Rona Simmons is an award winning author of historical fiction and nonfiction. For the last several years, she has focused on untold and often overlooked stories from World War II, “The sweep of events, from the First World War, to the Great Depression, to World War II, had momentous impact on our lives,” Simmons says. She adds, “the era is a period we can still almost touch with our fingertips,” as she demonstrated successfully in her writing. Her latest work, No Average Day will be released in October 2024, bringing new stories to light.
Simmons has also written for literary journals and online and print magazines and newspapers and is active in her local writing community.
about … NO AVERAGE DAY: THE 24 HOURS OF OCTOBER 24,1944
October 24, 1944, is not a day of national remembrance. Yet, more Americans serving in World War II perished on that day than on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, or on June 6, 1944, when the Allies stormed the beaches of Normandy, or on any other single day of the war. In its telling of the events of October 24, No Average Day proceeds hour by hour and incident by incident. The book begins with Army Private First-Class Paul Miller’s pre-dawn demise in the Sendai #6B Japanese prisoner of war camp. It concludes with the death of Navy Seaman Second Class Wanza E. Matthews, moments before midnight, after the Japanese submarine I-56 attacked his ship off New Guinea. The sinking of the hellship Arisan Maru—a lesser-known tragedy of the war—bookends and weaves through the two-dozen selected other incidents.
No Average Day eschews the conventional discourse of the war’s origins, its great battles, and the maneuvering of generals, admirals, and politicians. Instead, it directs its attention to ordinary individuals—clerks, radio operators, cooks, sailors, machinist mates, riflemen, and pilots and their air crews. These are men, perhaps a reader’s brother, father, or neighbor, who chose to serve their country and soon found themselves in a terrifying and otherworldly place. There, described in relatable terms, the men hunch their shoulders against the cold, wipe grit from their foreheads, or pen a letter home minutes before drawing their last breath. No Average Day reveals the vastness of the war as it reaches past the beaches in France and jungles in the South Pacific, to the villages, placid bays, and forested mountainsides across the globe where the war also raged.
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NEWS
5.5.24 BOOK LAUNCH
Plans are in progress for the launch of No Average Day: The 24 Hours of October 24, 1944. The Veterans Breakfast Club will host Author Rona Simmons in a virtual discussion of the book on October 24 and Barnes and Noble, Wilmington, will host the author for a book signing on October 26. More details are forthcoming.
5.1.24 RELEASE DATE
Rona Simmons’s latest work of nonfiction, No Average Day: The 24 Hours of October 24, 1944 will be released on the 80th anniversary of the events of that date during World War II.
4.28.24 PRESS ANNOUNCEMENT
The University of Missour Press announced today it will publish No Average Day: The 24 Hours of October 24, 1944 by Rona Simmons. Detaila are forthcoming.
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