Local author and comic artist, Kristin Beale has a pretty good sense of humor. While most of us would chalk up a bad or weird date to a night and an overpriced cocktail wasted, and roll our eyes over it with close friends the next morning before it fades into our personal history books of our lives, Beale decided to do one better.
Beale decided to write a book about them, and even go on… more of them?
Date Me by Kristin Beale is a collection of comics based on Beale’s dating adventures, and the awkwardness that inherently comes from the dating scene, to the different reactions and social situations that arise from her being in a wheelchair. From a biker from Arizona who grew marijuana for the government, to a guy who thought that nothing would be more romantic than a showing of Schindler’s List (I’m sorry – what?), Beale met various kinds of people who would ultimately end up in her book.
“About four months after Greater Things [her first novel] came out, the money stopped coming in, and I decided that I either need to get another job again or write another book. If I’m going to write another book, what am I an expert at? What’s something I can talk a lot about? Going on bad dates,” said Beale. “Dating is terrible, dating is hard. And throw in a wheelchair and the guys get really horny, really rude, really inappropriate, all of the stuff that they already are plus with the confusion of a wheelchair.”
Over the span of two and a half months, she went on 32 dates, most of which were first dates and she adds that they were genuinely just organically bad. She would go home that night and draw the comic. I had to ask at what point did these stories just not become worth it? Was there anyone who made her think, “Okay, that’s too much even for a book”. Beale very quickly argued “I wanted them to get worse”.
“I made a rule that I would go on every date that I was asked on,” said Beale. “I’m like, ‘Okay, I’m writing a book.’ I got to thinking at a certain point I wasn’t dating for the story, I was dating for the reason people date. But at a certain point it became like, ‘I hope he says something terrible or I get an explosion so I get a comic out of it’, and I did.”
Date Me might be her first work that has been adapted into a show (the first episode can be watched on YouTube) which was produced by SaltFire Studios, however it is not her first foray into writing or comics. Her first book, Greater Things was released in 2017, and her webcomic is published regularly on Instagram. Greater Things delves into her accident in 2005 that left her paralyzed when she was in a jet-ski accident, and learning to overcome her disability. Greater Things the webcomic taps into every day thoughts, advice, and pet peeves among other things.
Originally working at a bank at the time, Beale decided it was time to take the leap and see what would happen.
“Greater Things came out in April of 2017, and I quit my job a month before,” said Beale. “I was working at a bank. I was like ‘I’ve gotta get out of here’. A month before the book came out I thought, ‘Okay, I’m going to be a full time author. This is the dream.’ Let’s see how long this lasts. Please God let this last a long time although I don’t expect it to.”
Her most recent novel Wide Awake takes a bit of her departure from her other work hoping to answer the question – What is my toothbrush thinking when I’m not around? Told through interviews with various objects, Wide Awake follows 20 year old Madison who lives alone and is battling mental illness for the first time, while being told from the perspective of journal entries and the objects in her day to day life.
“I was trying to think of a story, an idea for a book because I had three nonfictions including Date Me, and my life has slowed down. I’m a mom and I’m married and I don’t really do many crazy things anymore to write a book about,” said Beale. “I’m using a tampon and I’m thinking to myself, ‘If I was a tampon what would my experience be? What would I think I’m doing? What would my personality be?’ So I jumped off of that, so that was the first and favorite chapter that I wrote. Then I was like, ‘Hey and also I’m going to make a cup of tea,’ and it went off from there. Tampon was the first and the thinking was ‘if I was this object what would it feel like?’ And then I added Madison in to tie it all together and then make her life something so that it wasn’t just a book of talking objects.”
Writing from the perspective of the various objects in Madison’s life required Beale to do some channeling in the form of folks in her life, and leaning on previous experiences she had had in her own life. She describes it as “non-fiction fiction” because of this and the fact that she didn’t have to create all of the characters from scratch. Once she got the hang of it, she enjoyed the ride.
“Writing fiction is very very different from writing non-fiction,” said Beale. “It took a lot for me to jump in. It took a lot of rewiring my brain, but once I got the hang of it it was so fun. For non-fiction, I’m limited by how crazy really are, how terrible people really are. With fiction you can be as bad as I want you to be. It’s my story.”
Greater Things, Date Me, and Wide Awake are all available now at Barnes and Noble, Beale’s website and wherever books are sold. For more information visit www.kristinbeale.com
Ash is a writer and improviser from Richmond. She has a BA in English from VCU and an associates in Theater. When she isn’t writing or screaming on a stage, she can usually be found wherever the coffee is. Bill Murray is her favorite person along with her black cat, Bruce.
