RONA SIMMONS

A GATHERING OF MEN

Candor, North Carolina. The town barber brandishes a copy of the May 1927 Charlotte Observer with Charles Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis on its cross-country flight on the front page. At the outskirts of town, best friends Lake, Roger, and Jim take turns in their improvised, wheeled but wingless crate, hurtling downhill, eyes closed, imagining their future alongside Lindy. Pearl Harbor changes everything. The boys will have their chance to fly—not over North Carolina farm fields, but across Germany on bombing runs to Berlin and Merseburg and Schweinfurt facing a determined Luftwaffe. The odds of completing their tours of duty in the US Army Air Forces are slim.

Told from Lake’s perspective, A Gathering of Men is the account of the boys who board their aircraft for the first time and the men they become in the blink of an eye. The terrors they witnessed and the pressure to go up again and again and again bring them to the breaking point. It is a moving tale, based on a true story, about shattered dreams and enduring friendship, duty, and honor.

PRAISE FOR A GATHERING OF MEN

“. . . a vehicle of time travel, taking us back to the senses and places of 1940s North Carolina and the battles of WWII. Vivid, beautiful and heartbreaking . . .”

~ Patti Callahan Henry, author of Surviving
Savannah
, co-creator of Friends & Fiction.

“This compelling story by Rona Simmons is a glorious tribute to the men of the 100th Bomb Group, whose sacrifice and heroism at great personal cost resonates vividly across the decades.”

~ Robert J. Mrazek, award-winning author of
The Indomitable Florence Finch

“Simmons has not only well researched the details of serving in the Mighty Eighth Air Force during WWII but also accurately captured the (so often neglected) human element of serving and flying in combat . . . Job well done.”

~ Col. Brent E. Bracewell, US Army (ret.),
Board of Trustees,
National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force

“. . . a powerhouse of a novel combining the hearts and bonds of men at war with exquisite technical accuracy that reads like lightning from a rifle barrel. A Gathering Of Men is a sweeping epic that will keep you breathless while leaving no heartstring un-pulled.”

~ Brian Panowich, bestselling author of
Bull Mountain
and Hard Cash Valley.

“A Gathering of Men is reality shrouded in fiction, an uncommon perspective (of the unsung ground crews) and rarely discussed effects of flying the seemingly unending missions.”

~ Michael P. Faley, 100th Bomb Group
and Eighth Air Force Historian

“… follows the lives of three best friends and their shared love of aviation–from their first flight as children to their service in WWII and beyond. This is an absorbing read that conveys the horrors of that war and the losses that lingered far beyond the battlefield.”

~ Lauretta Hannon, author of The Cracker Queen
—A Memoir of a Jagged, Joyful Life

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NEWS

7.18.22 MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW
Rona Simmons has demonstrated herself to be one of those singular novelists who seem to have a natural flair for bringing the past back to life and engage their readers with a true ‘theatre of the mind’ experience. While especially and unreservedly recommended for community library Military Fiction collections, … [the book] … is also available in a paperback edition and as a digital book.

2.12.22 BOOK LAUNCH
Simmons was honored to have been invited to speak at the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum in Savannah, GA and talk of the human side of the Bloody 100th. “I cannot think of a better way to have launched A Gathering of Men.”

2.12.22 SBTS INTERVIEW
Stories Behind the Stars, an all volunteer organization with the goal of writing stories for Ameria’s fallen on WWII completed the second part of an interview with Rona Simmons.