Mary Ellen Jones knows a little bit about culture shock.
A year ago last August, she was immersed in the Hollywood scene as a producer of television pilots and sitcoms. She had spent more than 20 years working in the entertainment industry, including as producer of the well-known sitcoms, "Moesha," "The Wayans Brothers" and "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air."
Today, she finds herself living in a world far away from the pre-requisite Hollywood glitz. Her new home is on a secluded Harrisville farm populated by chickens and other critters like a friendly chipmunk that routinely leaves acorns and sunflower seeds in her boots.
The story of how she got from her hectic West Coast existence to a quieter, much more staid life in Northeast Michigan is one of love discovered later in life. It is also a story she has shared in a newly published book, "Women on Fire: 20 Inspiring Women Share Their Life Secrets (and Save You Years of Struggle)."
Compiled by Women on Fire organization founder and life/executive coach Debbie Phillips, the book includes 20 chapters from 20 different women including Jones who faced real-life challenges and successfully moved through them.
Inspired several years ago by one of Phillips' Women on Fire events, at age 48, Jones decided to make it a personal goal to find fulfillment in love. Though she had numerous past relationships with men, she still hadn't found the one she considered to be her soulmate. She attacked the goal of finding love after 40 with the same dedication and energy that she'd poured into making a success of her career.
"I just knew I was going to meet my partner. I knew because I made it a goal," Jones writes in the book. "My focus and determination were just like going after any other goals, ones I had set and achieved."
In her chapter, appropriately titled "Finding Love After 40," Jones shares the path she took to find the relationship she was seeking a path that resulted in her willingness to put aside her left-of-center independence and ultimately relocate last August from Los Angeles to Harrisville so that she could be with the man she now loves.
Jones, in "Women on Fire," tells of the happiness she has experienced in the time since she and her partner first connected back in 2005. She still is surprised sometimes to find herself living smack in the middle of rural Michigan, but it has been a welcome change and one that she has embraced.
"I love it here, plus it's absolutely beautiful. That lake is gorgeous," Jones said. "The artists community here is inspiring and has exceeded all my expectations."
What Jones has found she misses from her previous life is the diversity of a big city.
"I wish it were more diverse here. That's my only real complaint," she said. "Diversity brings lots of culture and a wealth of new ideas."
Not having high speed Internet or always dependable cell phone service also are other noted changes, but Jones just rolls with both of those. For her, any such minor inconveniences are offset by positives like no longer having to fight L.A. traffic to get from point A to point B.
Since moving to Harrisville, Jones has gotten involved in Art in the Loft. She leads workshops called The Artists Way, based on Julia Cameron's groundbreaking book of the same name. She has been a major force behind the success of Passport to the Arts, a new program highlighting all the arts, history and cultural events taking place this summer in the region. Next spring, she will be directing a show for Alpena Civic Theatre.
Jones also has used the time to focus on writing. She is currently at work on a non-fiction book about her experiences as a Hollywood producer.
"It's going to be an irreverent and funny take on working behind the scenes in Hollywood the good, the bad and the ugly," Jones said. "I worked with very dysfunctional adults. In Hollywood, some of this behavior gets rewarded. A lot of times, the only sane people on my set other than myself were the crew I hired."
Jones will be doing an author event and "Women on Fire" book signing Friday from 7-9 p.m. at Art in the Loft as part of the Passport to the Arts program. Copies of the book, $20 each, will be available at that time. More information and books also are available at her website, www.mejones.org.
