The Way of Story

The way of story CATHERINE ANN JONES

While the pandemic has prompted fear and uncertainty across the globe, certain individuals refused to allow this time to determine their destiny. Catherine Ann Jones — a playwright, screenwriter and author — is one of them. The Ojai resident was traveling and teaching all over the world when the pandemic hit, forcing the cancellation of all travel and events. “It gave me time to write,” recalled Jones, who holds a graduate degree in Depth Psychology and Archetypal Mythology from Pacifica Graduate Institute, where she also taught. “I realized I’ve been putting o writing two memoirs for years, and I thought, I have no excuse not to.” During the pandemic, the award-winning playwright and Emmy-nominated screenwriter published True Fables: Stories from Childhood, which is described as “comforting, comfortable, and fun tales to be enjoyed by children and adults everywhere [that] possess a special power that arises from a deep sincerity and truth, combined with soft, inviting lessons for the soul” by Julie Albright in Children’s Services. Jones also published Buddha and the Dancing Girl: A Creative Life, which is based on her story of inner and outer adventures — from acting in New York to writing in Hollywood — and from her girlhood in Texas to her spiritual search in India. Both books are available at Poppies Arts and Gifts in Ojai, and on Amazon. Buddha and the Dancing Girl is a metaphor for her life. “The swing between the spiritual quest or the spiritual life and the compulsion to create and express myself through drama … swinging back and forth with the attempt to merge the two — the spiritual and the creative” said Jones. It’s the same energy behind Touched by an Angel, a popular 1990s television series on CBS that Jones wrote several episodes for, and is now being streamed on Netflix. “We got a letter once … from a man who was going to commit suicide,” Jones remembered. “He had never seen our show, but he happened to have the TV on CBS. Touched by an Angel came on and he watched the hour-long drama. At the end, he was sobbing like a child and decided to give life another chance.” The same goes for her books. In Buddha and the Dancing Girl, for instance, “someone read it and said, ‘You don’t speak negatively about anything or anyone.’ That surprised me because I didn’t set out consciously to do that, but in my philosophy, whatever happens to you is a learning experience and sometimes we learn more from the dificult times in our lives than the happy times … it’s about the evolution of the soul.”

by ALICIA DOYLE

“Luckily, I found Ojai … a small town without small town people.”

Her latest two books add to the others she has written, including The Way of Story: The Craft & Soul of Writing, Heal Your Self with Writing, What Story Are You Living? and Freud’s Oracle, which are used in many schools, including New York University writing programs. Her next book, Tea with Mrs. Gandhi: Stories of India, is scheduled to be published in the U.K. in the summer of 2022. Jones currently leads The Way of Story and Heal Your Self with Writing workshops throughout the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. More than 56,000 people have subscribed to her six online courses, which can be found on her website at www.wayofstory.com. Looking back on her residency in Ojai, Jones believes it was no coincidence she resonated with the area after living in cities like Manhattan and Hollywood. She didn’t adapt to big-city living, “and luckily, I found Ojai…a small town without small-town people.” For more information, visit

www.wayofstory.com or email catherinejones@wayofstory.com.

Ojai Magazine writer, Alicia Doyle