Growing up in Seal Beach, Katie Neipris’ life was pretty standard for the area. She hung out at the beach, played softball with her friends and had a healthy appetite for books. The Los Alamitos High graduate developed a taste for writing through reading of some of her favorite authors.
Though Neipris grew up in the quiet Seal Beach and Los Alamitos area, like many young people, she didn’t truly come of age until she left for college and UCLA and began to make the sometimes arduous transition from childhood to adulthood. Seeing some the life changes that she and other people her age struggled with, led Neipris to take on the task of writing a book that spoke to those people.
The end result was her first novel, entitled, The Inconvenient Process of Falling. The book was launched as an e-book through Creators Publishing. Neipris’ own experiences shaped the story as much as her writing.
“Her honesty, sadness and humor reflect this age of transition, an age that has been largely ignored by the literary world,” Creators said about the book in a release.
Neipris graduated Phi Beta Kappa from UCLA, where she studied English and Film, Television, & Digital Media. She currently lives with some of her college friends and works as an executive assistant at Lighthearted Entertainment.
Katie recently spent time with the News Enterprise to talk about her book and experiences with her home town.
NE: What was the most difficult thing about writing this novel?
Katie: Finding time to write!
NE: How much of your personal experience shaped it?
Katie: I wanted to write something that felt universal and relatable for 19-year-olds. The conflicts endured are things I saw people my age going through.
NE: You studied for a summer at Oxford and traveled Europe at that time, how was that experience?
Katie: It was definitely a life-changing summer. Visiting the favorite haunts of my literary heroes was the most inspiring experience I could ask for. I got to see how books bring people together and decided it was time I did the same.
NE: What are your favorite memories of the Seal Beach/Los Al area growing up?
Katie: Going to the beach as much as possible, playing softball at Rossmoor Park, and eating Nick’s burritos on Main Street with my friends.
NE: Who are some of your favorite authors/books?
Katie: J.K. Rowling, Pat Conroy, the Brontes; The Bell Jar, To Kill a Mockingbird, Pride and Prejudice.
Publisher’s Summary
The Inconvenient Process of Falling
By Katie Neipris
Growing up is a strange process, and no one is exempt.
Seven childhood friends go camping together after their first year of college. Separated for several months and thousands of miles, they expected to have the same relationship as before. They could not have been more wrong.
Each character is an overachiever, driven by a defining characteristic — a love of medicine, a love of books, a love of love — and during that first year of college, they’ve each lost a little bit of whatever that thing is. They’re all experiencing some sort of identity crisis, and they’re relying on their childhood friends to remind them who they used to be.
The Inconvenient Process of Falling describes the real struggle of growing up and accepting that life is not going to turn out exactly as planned. It depicts the coming-of-age experience of returning home and seeing how much you’ve changed. It’s about friends coming together and old feelings colliding in unexpected ways. And it’s about moments of extreme sadness bolstered by dark comedy, because sometimes laughing is the only way to deal with things.
Ultimately, The Inconvenient Process of Falling is a novel about realizing that friends are the family you get to choose.
Creators Publishing
Ebook available at creatorspublishing.com. Also available on Amazon, iTunes, Nook, and Google Play.
ISBN: 978-1-942448-05-1
Price: $5.99
Pages: 222
